November 4, 2004

Accelerated Purdue program will help meet national nursing demand

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A new second-degree program at Purdue University could help relieve the country's shortage of nurses, which has become one of the worst in history.

The School of Nursing's Second Degree Accelerated Program, designed for students who already possess bachelor's degrees in other fields but wish to become nurses, is now accepting students to begin in May 2005. Students who enroll in the program could earn a bachelor's degree in nursing in approximately two years.

"Our nursing graduates have had 100 percent employment, and the addition of accelerated students will provide more nurses to help alleviate the acute nursing shortage," said Julie Novak, head of the School of Nursing. "Demand for nurses is projected to increase even faster in coming years, and this program should help to meet that demand."

According to the Joint Commission for Health Care Organizations, more than 126,000 nursing positions were unfilled in 2002, a number that could skyrocket when 78 million baby boomers begin to place greater demands on the health-care system. The Department of Health and Human Services reports that by 2010, the shortage of registered nurses in relation to demand is projected to reach 12 percent, with more than a million nursing positions opening up. At its current rate, by 2020 the nurse deficiency is projected to grow to 29 percent.

Novak said Purdue's program provides an avenue for people who did not originally opt for nursing as a career. However, participants can earn degrees in a shorter time than a new high school graduate entering nursing.

"Second-degree students typically have more life experience," Novak said. "They are academically proven and career-oriented adult learners who can help us meet the growing demand for nurses."

The accelerated program consists of two parts. The prenursing portion includes 28 credit hours in the sciences, mathematics and the humanities, some or all of which may have been completed while students were earning their first college degree. The second part, which must be completed as a full-time Purdue student, consists of 59 credits in nursing theory and clinical practice.

The Second Degree Accelerated Program adds another layer to the Purdue School of Nursing's rapidly expanding program, which also includes a new adult nurse practitioner master's degree program and a proposed doctoral program.

"Our growth is in response to recent landmark studies of several hundred thousand surgical patients that showed patients cared for by baccalaureate nurses had better health outcomes," Novak said.

Applicants will be admitted to the program once each year. Participants will be admitted to the nursing coursework in May, be eligible for graduation from Purdue in August of the following year, and be eligible to take the national licensing test.

Further information on the program can be obtained from Barbra Wall, professor and head of the accelerated degree program, at (765) 494-4023, bwall@nursing.purdue.edu

Writer: Chad Boutin, (765) 494-2081, cboutin@purdue.edu

Sources: Julie Novak, (765) 494-4664, jnovak@nursing.purdue.edu

Barbra Wall, (765) 494-4023, bwall@nursing.purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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