Touro University California recently became one of eight nursing schools in California offering a path from an associate’s to a master’s degree in nursing.
This is exciting news for nursing professionals at all levels throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. This new program gives them effective, timely and accessible ways to advance their careers. But from a broader perspective, Touro’s new School of Nursing is helping answer critical demand for clinical nurses throughout the nation.
With the Affordable Care Act bringing 30 million more people into our health care system, its success heavily depends on keeping people out of hospitals, or at least from returning to them. That will require more clinical nurses with higher levels of education, skill and management expertise — and fast.
Meanwhile, retiring baby-boomer nurses are leaving a growing vacuum. Yet, a lack of faculty and resources force nursing schools to turn away thousands of qualified applicants nationally and hundreds in the San Francisco Bay Area. At the same time, hospitals recognize the necessity to employ nurses with baccalaureate or master’s degrees able to adapt to a far more complex health care delivery system, as well as a future patient base requiring more sophisticated treatment. According to the Institute of Medicine, Future of Nursing (2011), it is recommended that at least 80 percent of nurses possess baccalaureate or master’s degrees by 2020.
Students currently studying at Touro’s School of Nursing will play an important role in answering the growing need for more highly educated nurses. To accomplish this, the post-licensure master’s degree program will build on skills gained in entry-level nursing programs.
It’s designed for working registered nurses with an associate (ADN) or baccalaureate degree in nursing (BSN) and leads to a master’s degree in nursing and clinical nurse leader certification. The program will also prepare ADN graduates for public health nursing certification in California.
Associate degree graduates can complete the curriculum with 46 units of coursework taken over an 18-month period. Bachelor degree graduates will enter the curriculum after the first two academic sessions and take a total of 33 units of coursework during a 12-month period. About half the curriculum will be offered online with remaining courses offered one evening per week and one Sunday per month.
More information is available at www.tu.edu.
The School of Nursing expands on Touro University California’s established leadership in health care education. Touro also enrolls students in a College of Osteopathic Medicine, College of Pharmacy and in a Public Health Program with an international presence.
“We’re preparing a new generation of transformational nurses for the next generation of health care,” said Touro University California CEO and Provost Shelley Berkley. “The need for clinical nurse leaders is strong, and so is the passion among the enrollees in our new School of Nursing.”
Located in Vallejo on Mare Island, Touro University California is a Jewish-sponsored institution that offers graduate degrees in osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, physician assistant studies, public health and education. The mission of Touro University California is to educate caring professionals to serve, to lead and to teach. Students from diverse backgrounds are recruited nationally to create a dynamic, robust learning environment. Touro University California is also active within its home community and supports internationally recognized research. For more information, visit tu.edu.