The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Institute of Medicine’s report “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health” calls for 80% of nurses to hold baccalaureate degrees by 2020, but is this goal attainable? Across the country, that answer varies, but the push to bring the numbers upward is happening in individual states.
The RWJF and IOM report recommended increasing the proportion of nurses with bachelor’s degrees from the current national average of 50% to 80%. Commonly referred to as Recommendation No. 4, it also calls for accrediting bodies, employers and private and public funding sources to plan to meet this goal.