INA, Ill (June 13, 2014) - Starting this fall, graduates from Rend Lake College’s Associate Degree Nursing can take advantage of a new inter-district 2+2 agreement to transfer smoothly to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Bachelor of Science Nursing (BSN) program.
Benefits of continuing to the baccalaureate program include additional preparation and training for clinical jobs that could include management, fiscal duties, medical personnel scheduling, administration, leadership, and research roles. Students enrolled in SIUE’s BSN program also have the opportunity to focus on specialized nursing fields and occupations. The BSN program is required for acceptance into a master’s degree program for even further education.
Kim Robert, RLC’s Dean of Allied Health, said the agreement is designed around new curriculum at RLC, although recent graduates are transferring equally as well. The agreement helps clarify transfer policies and articulation between RLC and SIUE.
“Our transfer agreement with Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is a great way for our students to continue their higher education after graduating from Rend Lake College,†said Robert. “The students win because they complete their nursing degree and then have the option to continue on seamlessly. It’s also a benefit to RLC because it’s helping our students succeed and we’re excited to be able to offer this opportunity.â€
Students can enroll now for the fall semester, which starts August 18. The new RLC curriculum is a concept-based method of instruction, in which students focus on critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, clinical reasoning, and nursing judgment.
Graduates will be prepared to practice professional nursing in a variety of health care settings, such as physicians’ offices, hospitals, and more. Upon graduation, they are eligible to apply to take the NCLEX-RN (National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses). The RLC degree requires a total of 64 credit hours.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are currently 2.7 million jobs for RNs across the country, with a 19 percent growth rate in coming years. An additional 526,800 jobs will be created by 2022 due to a demand in health care services as the population grows older.
For more information about the RLC Associate Degree Nursing program, contact the Allied Health Division at 618-437-5321, Ext. 1251. For more information about RLC, visit www.rlc.edu/journey.
SIUE also has a number of different undergraduate programs to help each student continue his or her education, from a full-time program to completely online options. For RLC students, there is the RN to BSN opportunity in a web-based format to accommodate the needs of working RNs. The program is comprised of six nursing courses in eight-week formats, is completely online, and is typically completed in three semesters.
For more information about the SIUE programs, contact Dr. Becky Luebbert in the School of Nursing at 618-650-3956 or nursing@siue.edu.