May 2024 | By Katherine Lin

From Concordia University in California to Drake University in Iowa, nursing schools are expanding and adding accelerated bachelors of nursing programs to meet the demand for nursing education and more nurses. Over the past ten years, there has been a 12% increase in the number of fast track programs with nearly one in five bachelors of nursing graduates graduating from an accelerated program. Programs continue to be popular with career transitioners even as some are concerned that schools are turning away too many qualified students. This fall, Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa will have its first cohort of accelerated students and hospitals are eager to have more students for clinical rotations. 

“Accelerated programs are helping to address the nation’s need for nurses since they offer the quickest route to licensure as an RN for individuals with degrees in other fields,” said Robert Rosseter, Chief Communications Officer of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

Accelerated bachelors of nursing programs are typically one to two years long whereas traditional entry level programs take two to four years. They’re designed for students who’ve graduated from college or have completed a significant amount of credits. Students graduate ready to take the national licensure exam and work as registered nurses. But the intensity of the program can also be a deterrent. 

“Given the right type of student and done well, you can do nursing as an accelerated program. It’s not for everybody, but it is a very valid program,” said  Mary Owens, Drake University’s Director of Nursing.

Drake University already had a bachelors of nursing degree program where students took introductory coursework for three years at Drake and then went to a partner university to complete an accelerated program in one year. However, they received feedback from students that they would like to spend all four years at Drake so they hired Owens to help build an accelerated program. The new program will be open to Drake students, transfer students with enough credits and students who have already graduated from college, like Emily Velasquez who graduated from Concordia University in Irvine in December 2023.

Velasquez was a college athlete who majored in English and contemplated becoming a lawyer. But during her senior year her grandparents both got sick so she finished college one semester early to help them. She sat in doctors appointments with her grandmother, whose second language was English, and made sure that she understood exactly what was going on.

Her grandmother died four months later. And soon after signed up to become an EMT.

“I think I just needed to channel my grief somewhere.  And so at the time I just wanted to do something in medicine. I wanted to feel like I was going to channel what I just experienced as something meaningful,” said Velasquez. 

After working as an EMT and then as a medical assistant, she realized that she was passionate about patient care and decided to go into nursing. She wanted to get to work as quickly as possible so the 15 month accelerated program seemed like a great fit for her. 

While she has no regrets about going, the program was very demanding.  Accelerated students have the same number of clinical hours as those in four year programs, and the combination of academic classes, labs and clinical rotations on a tight timeline meant she had to be very efficient with her time. 

“I feel like I never had days off. You’re filling what would be your summers if you went to four year nursing school. And so it’s one of those things that when you’re in it It’s so tough, but then you blink and it’s over,” said Velasquez. 

Velasquez said that she essentially put her life on hold for a year and a half. In some traditional programs students are able to work while attending school but that’s nearly impossible in an accelerated program, another possible deterrent.

Despite its intensity, accelerated nursing programs continue to be popular with a 69% increase in the number of students enrolled over the last 10 years. Owens thinks the demand for nurses plays a large role in the program’s popularity.

“Everybody’s looking for nurses and maybe that’s another reason for the draw is there’s so much job stability and there’s so much flexibility in that,” Owens said.

And graduates are finding jobs. Emily Velasquez was hired as a labor and delivery nurse one week after passing her licensing exam.

“I’ll go to work and I’m sitting there delivering a baby. And I’m like, how did I get here? A couple of years ago, I would have never believed you because I love doing this,” says Velasquez.

However, schools are not able to accommodate all the students who are interested in nursing. In 2022, nursing schools rejected over 90,000 qualified applicants. Nurses take a pay cut when they decide to teach so finding qualified faculty is competitive. In addition, programs are focused on providing quality hands-on experience to students, which often means smaller class sizes.

Drake’s first cohort will be small, only 18-24 students. For Owens, matching students with clinical rotations was an important balancing act and when designing the program. Students work under practicing nurses so the school is careful not to overwhelm the nurses with too many students. But she says that hospitals are eager to partner with Drake to place students, they see it as an opportunity to train and recruit nurses.

““We’re finding that a lot of people want to partner with schools because they desperately need nurses. Their thought is if we can get these nursing students through our doors and they can do clinical here, then hopefully we’re going to be able to hire them,” Owens said.

With the nursing shortage expected to continue until 2035, Drake University will continue to grow their program and train more future nurses.