Bachelor of Science in Nursing: Short Form

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History

  • Policy Number: SP.05.014
  • Version: Original
  • Drafted By: Ching-Hua Wang
  • Approved By: Richard R. Rush
  • Approval Date:
  • Effective Date:
  • Supercedes:

Purpose

The general objective of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing is to prepare students to become successful practicing nurses. This will be accomplished by: 

  1. Providing undergraduate educational preparation in theoretical and empirical knowledge from the humanities, the social and natural sciences, and the discipline of nursing to be applied to the practice of professional nursing at the generalist level.   
  2. Providing the students educational preparation about the research    process, its application to the discipline of nursing and its essential relationship to evidence-based nursing practice.
  3.  Preparing the students to be proficient in effective social interaction, therapeutic communication and in the mastery of the clinical skills essential for assessing the health care needs of an individual, family or group to promote and maintain an optimum level of health and well being.
  4. Preparing the students to apply the nursing process through critical thinking and professional nursing judgment to provide and evaluate nursing care related to actual or potential health problems within the scope of nursing practice for which the nurse can intervene.
  5. Preparing the students with the necessary educational background to enable the pursuit of a higher degree in advanced nursing practice. 

Background

Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties currently have no baccalaureate nursing programs at a public institution of higher education.  The closest CSU nursing program is CSU Northridge and this institution only offers a Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN - BSN) degree completion program.  There are no private institutions offering a generic nursing program in the region.  In the surrounding region of Southern California, there are additionally six public CSU higher education institutions, only three of which offer generic BSN programs. There are five private institutions that offer a baccalaureate in nursing but all of these institutions are not within normal commuting distance. 

There are four community colleges in Ventura and Santa Barbara with three nursing programs granting ADN and/or LVN degrees, and an additional twenty-seven community colleges in the Southern California region. Those three institutions that would be a likely source of transfer students for the RN - BSN program are Moorpark, Ventura, and Santa Barbara community colleges.

Policy

Accountability

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Applicability

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Definition(s)

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Professional uses of the proposed degree major program.

  • The Bachelor of Science in Nursing prepares students to take the nursing license examination (NCLEX) and makes them eligible for the California Public Health Certificate.  Career opportunities include but are not limited to practice as a professional nurse in acute care, specialty units, public health, home health, extended care, assisted living, ambulatory emergency, managed care, case management, occupational health and nursing management, staff development and nursing education.
  • The members of the local nursing leadership representing Ventura and Santa Barbara counties health care agencies have long expressed a need for local baccalaureate nursing program.  Recently, the members of the Advisory Committee reinforced the need for both a generic and RN-BSN nursing program at CSUCI . Currently, 70% of California RNs are prepared at the associate degree level; however, there is increasingly a critical shortage of baccalaureate prepared nurses. Professional nursing organizations in California such as the California Association of Colleges of Nursing (CACN) and the Association of California Nurse Executives (ACNL) support the need for preparing the professional nurse at the baccalaureate level. Among the rationales for this position are the following:
    1. Changing nursing roles in the evolving health care delivery system demand greater flexibility in delivery of care with an emphasis on self-direction and leadership skills.  These demands placed on nursing require a greater proportion of nurses prepared beyond the associate degree or diploma level.
    2. Nurses are increasingly called upon to manage care for high-acuity patients in diverse clinical settings. As the practice site for health care delivery shifts progressively from the acute care arena to the community, nurses are functioning more autonomously in less structured clinical settings and are required to make clinical decisions formulated from a broadening knowledge base.
    3. Nursing professionals are being required to assume more responsibility for managing and coordinating personnel, services, resources, and data in addition to providing patient care. 
    4. Nurses prepared at the baccalaureate level are needed to fill the middle management positions in the acute care institutions in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties and to fill the community health positions that require an advanced degree.

Community/Regional/Statewide need for the proposed program.

  • Professional nursing demand exceeds supply now and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future.  The program responds to the local and statewide need for 125,000 new nurses by 2010.  The current nursing education system is anticipated to produce only 40,000 new nurses through its existing programs, thus not alleviating the already compromised staffing ratio of 5.75 nurses to 1000 California residents. Annual job openings requiring a BS level nursing degree are estimated at 227 per year for Ventura County.  Existing unfilled positions estimated by the California Employment Development Department are 420.  Ventura County has 372 nurses per 100,000 population compared to the state average of 622.  Santa Barbara County is somewhat improved at 462 nurses per 100,000 population.  The vacancy rate in Ventura County is 13-15%.  A BS in nursing located at CSUCI will provide a local pipeline to mitigate the current and projected shortage as well as provide local RNs a regionally convenient venue to complete their BSN and make an impact as early as 2010.  An internship in a community-based setting of choice enhances student learning and supports the university’s commitment to the University serving the local community.  An advisory committee composed of representatives of local hospitals, public health, workforce, regional community colleges, University faculty, the Dean of Extended Education, CSUCI foundation, a representative of the nursing community and a local doctor has been formed.  The program prepares a culturally competent nursing workforce appropriate in size and expertise to the growing Ventura County population.  The community-responsive program will contribute to improving health care through building local capacity to prepare nursing professionals.

Exhibit(s)

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