University of Arkansas Offers R.N. to B.S.N. Program Online

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing at the University of Arkansas will offer an innovative distance education program beginning this fall in which students with a registered nurse license can earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. 

This program will be delivered online through the University of Arkansas Global Campus. The program will substantially expand the number of registered nurses prepared at the baccalaureate level. 

Advising sessions to assist prospective students are planned from 1 to 3 p.m. and 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, July 5, in Room 122 of the Epley Center for Health Professions, 606 N. Razorback Road, Fayetteville. Prospective students are asked to bring a transcript if possible.

Additional advising sessions are scheduled for 7:30 to 9 a.m. and 2:30 to 4 p.m. Friday, July 6, in the Fulbright Room at Washington Regional Medical Center, 3215 N. North Hills Blvd., Fayetteville.

In 2011, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing at the Institute of Medicine completed a report with eight recommendations. The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing's new online R.N. to B.S.N. program has been designed to address the fourth recommendation: Increase the proportion of nurses with a baccalaureate degree to 80 percent by 2020. 

According to the 2011 Arkansas State Board of Nursing Annual Report, Arkansas has 31,874 registered nurses in the state of which 8,805, or 27.6 percent, are prepared at the bachelor's level. 

"We are excited to provide this opportunity to Arkansans and beyond," said Pegge Bell, director of the nursing school. "We will be collaborating with health-care institutions to promote enrollment of staff nurses to create a work force prepared to meet the demands of diverse populations across the lifespan. Having registered nurses prepared at the bachelor's level has been shown in many research studies to result in better patient outcomes in comparison to registered nurses prepared at lower levels. As a result, hospitals across the country are moving toward a larger B.S.N. nursing work force."

For more information, contact Lepaine Sharp-McHenry, assistant director of the nursing school, at 479-575-3904.