Law would require nurses to get bachelor's

ALBANY -- New registered nurses would have to earn bachelor's degrees within 10 years to keep working in New York under a bill lawmakers are considering as part of a national push to raise educational standards for nurses, even as the health care industry faces staffing shortages.

The "BSN in 10" initiative backed by nursing associations and major health policy organizations aims to attack the complex problem of too few nurses trained to care for an aging population that includes hundreds of thousands of nurses expected to retire in the coming years. But some in the health care industry worry that increased education requirements could worsen the problem by discouraging entrants into the field.

Currently, most registered nurses have two-year associate's degrees. No state requires a four-year degree for initial licensing or afterward, though New Jersey and Rhode Island have considered proposals similar to New York's over the past several years. New York's legislation died in committee last session, but it has bipartisan support in both chambers this year and could be debated as early as next month.

Federal health officials have recommended upgrading nurse education to BSNs for more than a decade, and the idea got a boost in a 2010 report, "The Future of Nursing," by the National Academy of Sciences nonprofit Institute of Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. As of 2008, about a third of RNs had bachelor's degrees or higher, according to federal statistics.

The New York bill's main sponsors, Assemb. Joseph Morelle (D-Rochester) and Republican Sen. James Alesi of Monroe County, said the bill is needed to further professionalize nursing.

William Van Slyke, spokesman for the Healthcare Association of New York State, said the organization representing health care networks and hospitals supports having a better educated nursing workforce but opposes a four-year-degree mandate.