Barriers to participation in RN-BSN nursing programs

The purpose of this study was to identify the barriers to participation in the RNBSN nursing program at The University of Virginia's College at Wise that are experienced by registered nurses working in the Southwest Virginia Lenowisco Health District.

The advancement of technology and the increasing longevity of patients are rapidly changing the delivery of nursing care and will continue to do so in the future. This evolution in health-care delivery will require registered nurses to obtain advanced degrees that will provide the knowledge necessary for the resulting transition. The University of Virginia's College at Wise offers a Bachelor Science Nursing Degree (BSN). Wise County currently has four acute care hospitals where 77 percent of the nurses who participated in this research hold only associate degrees. The researcher used a modified form of the Deterrents to Participation Scale-General (DSP-G) Likert Scale Survey to determine the nurses' perceptions of the need for further education and of the deterrents to obtaining a BSN degree. The survey identified cost of registration and fees, times of scheduled classes, and location of the classes offered as the three most important barriers, or decision-making factors, to pursuing an advanced degree in nursing. It is suggested that most of these barriers can be ameliorated by institutional support. A collaborative effort between the University of Virginia's College at Wise and the acute care hospitals located in the Lenowisco Health District could play a vital role in increasing enrollment in the BSN degree program.

Note: Abstract extracted from PDF file via OCR.

Digitization of this thesis was made possible by a generous grant from the Jefferson Trust, 2015.

Thesis originally deposited on 2016-02-18 in version 1.28 of Libra. This thesis was migrated to Libra2 on 2017-03-23 16:33:25.