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As Floridians celebrate Nurses Week, May 6-12, it is an opportune time to consider BSN-in-10 Law for the state of Florida. It took 14 years of lobbying for New York to pass this law on December 20, 2017. The BSN-in-10 New York statute requires all nurses to obtain a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree within 10 years of receiving their initial RN license. Although New York may be the first state to pass the law, many other states have plans to enact similar legislation.
In 2010, the Institute of Medicine reported on the future of nursing, making a strong recommendation that 80 percent of the nursing workforce have a BSN by 2020. Currently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that nursing is among the top occupations in terms of job growth. The nursing workforce is expected to grow from 2.71 million in 2014 to 3.24 million in 2024, an increase of 439,000 or 16%. Approximately 60% of U.S. nurses have BSN degrees.
Florida has the educational infrastructure to support a BSN-in-10 legislative initiative. Many Florida schools offering ASN programs also offer BSN programs. These schools are re-designing their ASN to BSN programs in order to facilitate the academic progression of ASN students who wish to earn a BSN degree. Florida schools offer RN to BSN programs specially designed for working nurses through online programs. Most of these online programs can be completed in about a year of full-time study to two years of part-time study. Employers offer tuition reimbursement as an incentive for ASN nurses to pursue their BSN degree. A BSN degree opens the door to better salaries, marketability, professional advancement, and greater job satisfaction.
Professional nursing organizations such as the American Nurses Association (ANA) and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), are pushing for the BSN degree. They view nurses as the heart of professional collaborative practice, maintaining 24/7 continuity in the day-to-day care of patients. Nurses are not only direct care givers but are managers and coordinators of care. In these roles, nurses work with physicians, pharmacists, social workers, physical therapists, diet therapists, spiritual advisers, and other members of the health care team, most of whom are required to have educational credentials that go beyond the bachelor’s degree. Thus, the call for nurses to have a minimum of a BSN degree for nursing licensure in Florida, is a fitting salute not only to Florida nurses but to the 3.6 million nurses in the U.S.
