Associate Degree Nurses in California Go Directly to Their Master's

Western University of Health Sciences College of Graduate Nursing’s Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) to Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) Program is featured in an article in NurseWeek magazine:

The ADN-to-MSN option is becoming more popular. More than 150 programs are in operation throughout the country, with 28 more in the planning stages, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). The number of programs has more than doubled since 1994, when there were 70.

One of the new programs, slated to accept its first cohort of students in the fall, will be at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif. Jan Boller, RN, PhD, an associate professor at the university and director of its ADN-to-MSN program, says the school has a real commitment to providing nurses with associate degrees a streamlined entrée into graduate education. “They are a really rich resource because 70% of the nurses in California are educated at the associate-degree level,” says Boller, whose earliest degree was a diploma in nursing.

She notes that several other faculty members began with associate degrees. “So we are really committed to making that transition from the workplace into academia with a program that’s really geared toward clinical practice,” Boller says. “It’s practical, as well as based in theory and research and evidence-based practice.” Read the full story >>