The BSN in 10 bill requires newly licensed registered professional nurse to attain baccalaureate degree in Nursing within 10 years of initial licensure as a condition of renewal of the license. It states that, “The bill requires registered professional nurses (RNs) who are initially licensed by the New Jersey Board of Nursing, on or after the effective date of the bill, to attain a baccalaureate degree in nursing within 10 years of their initial licensure. The bill authorizes a licensee who is not able to attain the degree within a 10-year period to request a one-time (up to two-year) extension of the requirement in order to complete the degree. Under the provisions of this bill, RNs will continue to be able to enter the nursing profession …show more content…
It is also stipulated in the IOM report on the Future of Nursing 2010, the need for increasing the number of RNs with BSN degrees to 80% by 2020. This supports the current program "BSN in 10" that aims to create more educated and highly skilled nurses to meet the increasingly complex healthcare environment. Studies have shown that better patient outcomes are linked to higher levels of education in nurses. Hospitals with a higher percentage of RNs with baccalaureate or higher degrees had lower congestive heart failure mortality, decubitus ulcers, failure to rescue, and postoperative deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism and shorter length of stay (ONA, 2013). According to Linda Aiken, director of the Center for Health outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing, with every increase of 10 percent in the number of staff nurses with a BSN, there is a corresponding 5 percent decline in mortality rates. Moreover, U.S. nursing schools turned away 68,938 qualified applicants from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs in 2014 due to an insufficient number of faculty (AACN report, 2014). A call for an increase of BSN prepared nurses may encourage more nurses to teach nursing that will eventually address the faculty