Oct 24, 2013 08:33 AM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

University of Charleston (UC) is introducing a new online nursing program in January that will allow Registered Nurses (RN) to complete their Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) in just 18 months.

"Based on the 2010-12 West Virginia Board of Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses, only 31 percent of West Virginia nurses are educated at the baccalaureate level," Duane Napier, the new UC  RN-BSN Program Coordinator, said in the statement. "No matter where nurses live or work in the state, they can attend our program completely online."

The program is designed to meet the state's growing demand of nurses with Bachelor's degrees.

In October 2010, the Institute of Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released its report called "The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health". The report has called for the increase of baccalaureate nurses to 80 percent and doubling the population of nurses with doctorates by 2020.

 "This new RN-BSN nursing program at the University of Charleston answers an immediate need of West Virginia's health care facilities," President Dr. Ed Welch said in an official statement. "By completing their bachelor's degree at UC in just 18 months, and continuing to work full-time, nurses are able to advance their careers and better serve patients in the field."

The program is scheduled to begin this spring and will offer two tracks: leadership or case management.

Interested students need to have a nursing license and a minimum of 2.5 grade-point average. The program allows RNs to transfer up to 90 credit hours into the program, which means that they will have to just complete an additional 30 hours in order to earn their BSN.

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