| Learning Objective #1: Describe incentives and barriers experienced by ASN or diploma registered nurses in the quest to obtain a BSN degree | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Identify academic, professional, and corporate health care measures that could cultivate incentives and diminish barriers for returning registered nurses to advance to the baccalaureate level |
Design: Qualitative using phenomenological inquiry.
Population, Sample, Setting: RN-BSN students; 6 ASN or diploma RN-BSN students; Southeastern USA; 2004.
Concept studied: Description of incentives and barriers experienced by RNs in obtaining a BSN.
Methods: Purposive sample of RN-BSN students participated in focus group, audio-taped interviews which continued until redundancy in data was achieved. Data transcriptions were analyzed using Colaizzi's (1978) phenomenological method.
Findings: The constitutive pattern, Incentives Encountered by RN-BSN Students, included 6 themes: (a) Looking for a point in time: Being at the right time and place in life, (b) Looking forward: Continuing to work with options, (c) Looking inward: Advancing education is achieving a personal goal, (d) Others looking at me: Believing a BSN provides a credible professional identity, (e) Looking for support: Being encouraged by contemporaries to return to school, and (f) Looking for a place: Finding accepting and user-friendly RN-BSN programs. The constitutive pattern, Barriers Encountered by RN-BSN Students, included 5 themes: a) Not enough: Time, (b) Not enough confidence: Fear, (c) Not enough recognition: Past educational and life accomplishments, (d) Not enough differentiation: Equal treatment of BSN, ASN, and diploma RNs, and (e) Not enough basic academic support: Negative ASN or diploma school experience.
Conclusions and Implications: RN-BSN educational mobility is imperative as: a) approximately 70% of practicing RNs (USA) are educated at the ASN or diploma level (Spratley, et al., 2001); b) nurse academicians and leaders are retiring in large numbers; and c) research links BSN-educated RNs with improved patient outcomes (Aiken, et al., 2003). Measures to foster incentives and inhibit barriers (caring curricula, recognition of different educational levels) should be implemented at all levels of nursing practice, management, and academia.