Seamless Academic Progression in Nursing Education: A Qualitative Descriptive Study

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-1-2023

Subject Area

Humans; Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate; Education, Nursing, Associate; Education, Nursing; Qualitative Research; Students; Students, Nursing

Abstract

About the Author Candice D. Overholser, EdD, RN, is a visiting assistant professor at Brooks College of Health School of Nursing, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, Florida. This article is a component of her doctoral dissertation at the Tanner Health System School of Nursing, University of West Georgia. The author is the recipient of the National League for Nursing/Southern Nursing Research Society Doctoral Research Award in 2020. She acknowledges with thanks her dissertation chair, Dr. Laura Caramanica, and committee members Drs. Susan Welch and Connie Barbour. AIM: The aim of this study was to investigate programs throughout the United States for seamless academic progression from associate degree nursing (ADN) to baccalaureate degree nursing programs (BSN). BACKGROUND: Seamless academic progression has been shown to have a positive effect on increasing the proportion of BSN nurses. Goals to increase the number of BSN-prepared nurses have not been met. METHOD: A qualitative descriptive study was conducted to assess how nurse administrators of ADN programs move toward seamless academic progression for students. RESULTS: Three themes that described the current state of seamless progression emerged from the data: a) ongoing communication between program leaders, students, and stakeholders; b) development of pathways that enable seamless academic progression; and c) stakeholder influence on academic progression. CONCLUSION: Administrators who participated in this study shared that their progression programs were in the early developmental stages.

Publication Title

Nursing education perspectives

Volume

44

Issue

4

First Page

205

Last Page

209

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000001109

PubMed ID

36877722

ISSN

1536-5026

Language

eng

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