NursingThe Catawba College Department of Nursing is celebrating National Nurses Week May 6-12, 2016. Catawba offers the RN-BSN completion degree, which presents RNs an opportunity to enhance their current knowledge, broaden their career options, and prepare for broader levels of responsibility by earning the BSN degree.
Below is a list of nursing-related facts of interest:
- Nursing is the nation's largest health care profession with more than 3.1 million registered nurses practicing nationwide. Despite its large size, many more nurses are needed to meet the growing demand for nursing care.
- The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that employment for registered nurses will grow faster than most other occupations through 2018.
- By 2020, more than 800,000 RN positions are expected to go unfilled nationwide, according to the National Center for Workforce Analysis, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
- Nurses comprise the largest single component of hospital staff, are the primary providers of hospital patient care, and deliver most of the nation's long-term care.
- Although 62.2 percent of all employed RNs work in hospitals, many are employed in a wide range of other settings, including private practices, public health agencies, primary care clinics, home health care, outpatient surgery centers, health maintenance organizations, insurance and managed care companies, nursing homes, schools, mental health agencies, hospices, the military, and colleges and universities.
- With more than four times as many RNs in the United States as physicians, nursing delivers primary and preventive care by advanced, independent nurse practitioners in such clinical areas as pediatrics, family health, women's health, and gerontological care.
- The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE), American Nurses Association (ANA) and other leading nursing organizations recognize the Bachelor of Science degree in nursing (BSN) as the minimum educational requirement for professional nursing practice.
- The BSN degree is essential for nurses seeking to move up the career ladder and provide a higher level of quality care.
- The BSN nurse is preferred.
Reference: American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2016). Your nursing career: A look at the facts. Retrieved from http://www.aacn.nche.edu/students/your-nursing-career/facts
