Director’s Message: Oregon Consortium for Nursing Education (OCNE)

“The future is here; it is simply not widely distributed yet.” William Gibson

The number one cause of the bottleneck in nursing education is the faculty shortage. We need more nurses with advanced degrees so that they can become faculty members. And Americans need increased access to nurses with advanced degrees because they are prepared to meet our health care needs. Both faculty and advanced practice nursing roles require at least a master’s degree in nursing. Yet, the majority of practicing nurses (60 percent) enter the profession with an associate’s degree. This level of education, while making an important contribution to the nursing workforce, does not create a strong pipeline for graduate level education.

We must create new collaborations between community college and university nursing programs to produce more Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree (BSN) nurses, who are more likely to go on to receive the additional degrees in nursing. Moreover community college-university collaborations must redefine where nurses receive their clinical education to include learning experiences outside of acute care – in communities, homes and long-term care settings. The Oregon Consortium for Nursing Education (OCNE) has developed a model that accomplishes both objectives.

This month, the Center to Champion Nursing in America sponsored a conference and site visit in Portland, OR, that was designed and implemented by OCNE leaders. Ten other states joined Oregon to share best practices and lessons learned in creating nursing education partnerships between associate degree and baccalaureate programs in order to develop joint admission standards, faculty appointments, shared curricula and other resources with the common goal of increasing the education of the RN workforce. The work is aimed beyond the formal degrees received to the competencies necessary in 21st century health care.

Conferees had rich discussions around the following drivers of change:

• Aspiring nurses need accessibility to all levels of nursing education.
• Consumers need access to nurses at all levels.
• Health care needs of the American people are rapidly changing.
• Building capacity is more than simply increasing the numbers of nurses.
• Better use of scare resources in both nursing education and practice has never been more critical.

In order to ensure that all Americans have a highly skilled nurse when and where they need one, we must reexamine and redesign how nursing education is delivered in this country. Investing in the nursing education infrastructure and in the preparation of more APRNs who are prepared with the advanced skills necessary to provide primary and preventive care, transitional care, chronic care management and other nursing services to meet American’s health care needs are smart solutions. 

Editor's Note:
Nursing Education Redesign: Preparing the New Nurse presentations are posted on the OCNE website:  www.ocne.org   CCNA also commissioned a video of the conference which will soon be available.