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National University Contributes to the Nursing Education Solution with Competency Based Model

Welcome to the discussion on National curriculum models that provide additional alternatives for nurses pursuing academic progression.

Part 1 of the webinar discusses capacity and access. These have been longstanding challenges for nursing education as we have experienced the shortage cycles over the years. Capacity still seems to be an issue based on AACN’s latest report so new solutions to capacity challenges are an important part of this discussion. Is capacity an issue in your community? Are there nurses who cannot be admitted?

One key element is to use all the capacity available and to ensure that nurses have multiple options to meet their educational goals. Choices, choices, choices… that is how we will ‘move the needle’.

Access and in particular financial access is another significant challenge for working nurses. Online programs can solve the physical access challenges but synchronized online classes may still be a barrier because of limited flexibility. A bigger issue is financial access. Nurses who are responsible for prior college debt and or debt of spouses and/or children may find that academic progression is beyond their reach. What is known in your community about these access barriers? Is you Coalition evaluating the extent of these barriers and can you share knowledge or methods?

Finally how do you measure your graduation outcomes? How many are going back to school, how many are graduating? Suggestions for how to track and evaluate progress toward the IOM goals collectively are welcome and would benefit everyone who participates.

Please share your successes and questions as a part of this discussion. I will be available this coming week to answer questions daily and look forward to learning more from this interesting dialogue.

Looking forward to a robust discussion!

Best regards,

Jan Jones-Schenk
Chief Nursing Officer/ National Director
Western Governors University

by Jan Jones-Schenk | February 10, 2013

Tags: education, capacity-building, alabama, alaska, arizona, arkansas, california, colorado, connecticut, delaware, district-of-columbia, florida, georgia, hawaii, idaho, illinois, indiana, iowa, kansas, kentucky, louisiana, maine, maryland, massachusetts, michigan, minnesota, mississippi, missouri, montana, nebraska, nevada, new-hampshire, new-jersey, new-mexico, new-york, north-carolina, north-dakota, ohio, oklahoma, oregon, pennsylvania, rhode-island, south-carolina, south-dakota, tennessee, texas, utah, vermont, virginia, washington, west-virginia, wisconsin, wyoming

Kathryn Tart

Hi Jan! Thank you for the informative presentation and the work to provide nursing education. I have two questions: 1. From what state do WGU graduates receive their degree? 2. How are students supervised in the clinical experiences throughout the nursing curriculum? Thanks!

Jan Jones-Schenk

Thanks for your questions Kathryn. WGU is a national university but has 3 state recognized WGU entities, WGU Texas, WGU Washington and WGU Indiana. Diplomas for these states list the state entity name however it is important to note that the curricula is national and does not differ state by state. In the prelicensure program which is approved and offered in CA, TX, UT, FL and IN, (again one national curriculum) clinical experiences are supervised by Clinical Instructors who are adjunct faculty for WGU and who have regular contact with the nursing mentors as well as the clinical faculty coordinator who is a PhD prepared nurse with the responsibility for ensuring close alignment with the WGU model and conceptual framework. In the post licensure programs clinical experiences use preceptors much like what traditional schools use. We just completed midyear commencement last Saturday and graduated 185 new MSNs and 776 new BSNs, a class that included graduates nationwide.

Mary Sue Gorski

Jan, Your video gives such wonderful specific suggestions for increasing access while maintaining quality in flexible delivery models. Thank you for sharing. You talk about your Competency Based Model at Western Governor’s University. We also have highlighted a much broader definition of the Competency Based Model as one of our four promising models and have embraced the WGU model as one successful example of this model in action. Since many students choose on line and distance programs, the increased quality options available increases student access. Can you comment on regulations for online programs such as state approval processes? How are new regulations affecting quality and access? I am wondering your thoughts and ideas in this area and I would be interested in others who could share insights. Thank you! Mary Sue

Jan Jones-Schenk

Hi Mary Sue, This is a timely question. As online education has become more ubiquitous, new regulatory issues have emerged. Most probably recall the US DOE regs promulgated (and then pulled back) a year or so ago that required every University providing online education in any state, to be subject to approval by that State's higher education entity. Prior to the publication of those regs, WGU had already proceeded to obtain legal authority or an authorized exemption from every state. Today WGU is legally authorized to provide its program in all 50 states and 3 territories. As a National University this was essential for us to meet our access mission. Additionally WGU has the distinction of being the only University to have been accredited by all six regional accreditors for higher education. From a program level, we assure students of our quality through our CCNE accreditation for both the bachelors and Masters nursing degrees. Finally for each state in which we offer our prelicensure BSN, we have obtained state board approval. From an access (and this means financial access as well as geographic access) I wonder about the actual value of all these levels of approval. Significant cost is added as each layer is added and in reality the standards for state board approvals and national programmatic approval differ very little. As we think about expanding access, is it time for us to consider mutual recognition programs for approval?

Jean Wortock

Hello Jan - thank you so much for your original post and the subsequent answers to questions which have added significantly to my understanding of your 'model' at WGU. I am very impressed with the large number you just graduated from your RN-BSN program - 776 is amazing! Congratulations and well done! :) My question is in relation to all the levels of approval that you have achieved which is to be commended - and the corresponding cost - has that cost been covered by tuition? Or is there another mechanism in place to cover those significant costs? Thank you.

Jan Jones-Schenk

Hi Jean, Thanks so much for your post. Most costs were covered by tuition however for the prelicensure program, some costs were covered by start-up grants by RWJF, the California Department of Labor and a couple of state workforce grants. It pained me to see so much money going to duplicative efforts! Many years ago when I was President of ANCC, I was most fortunate to be mentored by Margretta Madden Styles. If you recall Dr. Styles work was the first international treatise on nurse credentialing and it was in that work that she put forward the ideas of mutual recognition for credentialing. After having the unique perspective in my role of seeing all the state approval regulations for every state as well as the national accreditation standards for nursing programs, I have to ask myself ... why? I think Gretta was very prescient about what our future of approvals, accreditation and credentialing should hold.

Kathryn Tart

Does a national university mean WGU is run by the US Government, like the National Defense University? Because WGU does not meet the 42 semester credit hour Texas Core requirements students often ask me how it is a Texas University because that is how it is portrayed in the TV ads..."for Texans, by Texans.." Or is WGU a private university? Who owns WGU? Thanks for clarifying... :)

Jan Jones-Schenk

Hi again Kathryn,  WGU is a private, non-profit University, non-governmental.  It is recognized as a State University in TX and from my understanding from the Chancellor, does meet the 42 semester credit hour core requirements. I"ll make sure to follow up with him to clarify.  WGU Texas was established as a state entity by Executive proclamation of the Governor so it is considered "for Texans, by Texans".  Despite that designation, WGU Texas receives no state higher education funding, nor do any of the other state designated WGU entities.  It is an unusual structure but because in part of the structure, we have been able to keep our tuition costs to under $6500 per year and have not raised tuition in five years.   I think the real message of this conversation is that WGU offers an innovative structure, model and educational method that can be valuable in advancing our shared goals for education to the nursing workforce.  It takes many options, many methods and a shared focus to achieve what we are all trying to achieve by 2020 and students need choices.  WGU offers yet another choice, another option that is affordable, flexible and accessible. 

Jan Jones-Schenk

Hi again, Just wanted to followup on Kathryn's earlier question. The WGU TX Chancellor confirmed that our programs do meet all requirements of the TX core curriculum as evidenced by a state-wide articulation agreement with all TX community colleges. So, students and others don't need to have that concern! Glad to be able to clarify.

Laura Croft Maw

Nursing jobs are now considered the most sought-after career the world over. People who want to advance in both career and financial terms. http://rockymountaincna.com

 

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National University Contributes to the Nursing Education Solution with Competency Based Model

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