BSN-Prepared Nurse Case Study

Strategy to Increase Percentage of BSN- Prepared Nurses by 2020
The ABC Health Care Center is an acute care facility that has been providing healthcare services in the state of Florida for over five decades. This organization functions under the functional structure and practices the participative leadership model with a top-down flow communication model to communicate with their employees. One of the most important recommendations of the institute of medicine (IOM) 2011 to increase the number nurses with a Bachelor Science of Nursing (BSN) degree from 50% to 80% by 2020 (IOM, 2011). However, this recommendation is not fully implemented by this organization. This goal can only be possible if health care employers are willing to do their

A functional structure is a hierarchical type of organization structure wherein people are grouped as per their area of specialization (Borkowski, 2009). For example, this organization has a chief executive officer, a president, and many functional department managers. Each department has its own manager who is responsible for the performance of his or her department (ABC Healthcare Center, 2015).
This organization practices the participative leadership model. This type of leadership seeks a multiple disciplined effort of all stakeholders to lead an organization, but leaders such as managers and upper management are ultimately responsible for the final decision making (Borkowski, 2009). This facility exemplifies this model with the president and department heads having monthly town hall meetings with employees, to communicate openly and candidly in a friendly environment to discuss ideas ways to improve this organization (ABC Healthcare Center,

(2015) states that researchers have shown that nurses have a significant interest in furthering their professional education. However, nurses will need assistance from their nursing leadership and management to be successful. Employers need to provide easily accessible information regarding returning to school and communicating the availability of supportive initiatives. They also need to be advocating for nurses returning to school at the administrative level by allowing for flexible scheduling for those enrolled in school (Sarver, et al., 2015). Strategic Planning Process
Analysis of the Current State
Currently at ABC Healthcare Center (2015), less than 50% of their nurses have a BSN degree which is significantly below the IOM recommendation. This recommendation was selected because according to Pittman et al. (2013), researchers have shown that patients are safer in the care of nurses with BSN degrees. Clearly, the stakeholders are the patients, nurses, and the organization. Thus, it is in the best interest of this organization to support this recommendation because it will improve patient quality of care while supporting their nurses in achieving a higher level of education.
Articulate Future State The specific goal for this organization is to increase their nurses with a BSN degree to 80% from 45%. This obtainable goal time frame is by the year