How practice effectively addresses a problem or need on your campus
There is increased demand for nurses to be prepared at the baccalaureate level, especially in light of the new “BSN in 10” law signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo in December 2018. Nursing research has demonstrated improved patient outcomes when patients are cared for by nurses with additional education. While completion of an associate degree in nursing continues to qualify nurses to enter the profession, many healthcare organizations are making the earning of the bachelor’s degree in nursing a condition for initial and continuing employment. SUNY Empire State College offers a RN-BSN nursing degree program that is delivered online. A number of SUNY community colleges offer the pre-licensure, associate degree in nursing program. SUNY Empire State College worked with three of these community colleges to develop enhanced partnerships to create a seamless progression pathway from the associate’s to bachelor’s degree.

Description of your effective practice
In concert with SUNY Ulster, SUNY Corning and SUNY Rockland, we developed a transfer pathway agreement that allows up to 79 credits in transfer into the degree completion nursing program at SUNY Empire State College. In addition, senior nursing students and graduates of these community colleges have the opportunity to complete two of the upper division nursing courses prior to enrolling with Empire thus advance placing them into the program with 8 credits completed toward fulfilling degree requirements for the RN-BSN program.

How you did it
The administrators, faculty and staff from all of the colleges met to discuss the potential for enhanced collaboration between the community colleges and SUNY Empire State College. Subsequent to these rich discussions, a memorandum of understanding was developed and the community college nursing curriculum was mapped to the remaining degree requirements for the baccalaureate nursing degree.

What was gained or achieved
The new enhanced partnerships created a baccalaureate nursing degree option in communities that previously did not have local or sufficient educational opportunities for the nursing graduates of the respective community colleges. This plan addressed concerns being raised by local healthcare organizations, local politicians, alumni and currently enrolled students.

Why others should consider it
The practice builds on the strong foundation of the community colleges who offer the pre-licensure nursing degree and allows maximum transfer of credits and completion of upper division coursework prior to enrollment. For some students it is a means to test out if the online learning environment is best suited to their needs and life situation.

With SUNY Ulster we initially had a full-time faculty from Empire State College teach a hybrid (online and face to face components) health assessment course. Seventeen students which included graduates from Ulster and currently enrolled students from Ulster participated and successfully completed the course. There was very positive feedback about this approach and the students felt a deep connection with the faculty member who taught the course. These students later enrolled with Empire State College. At Rockland we hired one of the nursing faculty to teach with us as an adjunct and she taught one section of our online pharmacology course. Students included a blend of Rockland students and graduates, and nurses from other colleges that are currently enrolled at Empire. This has also yielded new enrollments and generated interest at Rockland. We have completed two very successful outreach events on that campus. We have not initiated offering the upper division courses at Corning to date.