Lipscomb University's School of Nursing has launched an RN-to-BSN program, university officials recently announced. The new program, housed in Lipscomb's School of Nursing within the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, is fully online and designed to help equip and empower Registered Nurses with an associate degree who desire to advance their career by completing a bachelor's degree in as few as 18 months.

"Research links improved patient outcomes, decreased medication errors and lower mortality rates to nurses educated at the baccalaureate level," said Chelsia Harris, associate director of nursing for degree development at Lipscomb. While Harris said nurses at the associate degree level are wonderful clinicians, she noted there is gap between those providers and their colleagues with a bachelor's degree. "BSN nurses are trained to be critical thinkers, to lead, design, and manage patient care. They're not just doers. They can think at the bedside and make sound clinical decisions that are best for patients and outcomes," she said.

Lipscomb's RN-to-BSN program holds initial approval status from the Tennessee Board of Nursing and is pending accreditation by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN). The program is accepting applications for its first cohort of students to begin in August 2018.