Common use of Purpose and Rationale Clause in Contracts

Purpose and Rationale. This document presents a uniform, statewide academic progression agreement that will promote educational advancement opportunities for registered nurses moving between North Carolina community colleges and the constituent institutions of The University of North Carolina in order to complete BSN degrees. It describes a progression degree plan that includes required general education and nursing prerequisite courses that are acceptable to all state funded RN to BSN programs. Students who follow the progression degree plan will meet the entrance requirements at all of the North Carolina public RN to BSN programs. Nurses may then apply to any of these programs without taking additional and sometimes duplicative courses. This proposal supports the mission of the North Carolina State Board of Community Colleges and Goals 1 and 2 of the University of North Carolina’s strategic document Our Time Our Future, University of North Carolina Strategic Direction. It moves these objectives forward by reducing barriers that currently exist for associate degree prepared nurses who wish to earn baccalaureate degrees and by creating a more seamless and rational transfer process for community college nursing students. This coordinated approach should increase RN to BSN graduation and retention rates for Registered Nurses who enroll in state funded RN to BSN programs. This proposal also serves state workforce needs as described in the 2010 Institute of Medicine report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health and in the 2013 North Carolina Chief Nursing Officer Survey completed by the North Carolina Future of Nursing Action Coalition. According to the coalition, increasing the proportion of nurses with a baccalaureate or higher degree to 80% by 2025 should: • Improve health outcomes for North Carolinians through a higher educated nursing workforce: • Expand consumer access to primary care through an increased number of advanced practice nurses; and • Increase the critical pipeline of faculty to prepare an adequate nursing workforce for the future.

Purpose and Rationale. This document presents a uniform, statewide academic progression agreement that will promote educational advancement opportunities for registered nurses moving between North Carolina community colleges and the constituent institutions of The University of North Carolina in order to complete BSN degrees. It describes a progression degree plan that includes required general education and nursing prerequisite courses that are acceptable to all state funded RN to BSN programs. Students who follow the progression degree plan will meet the entrance requirements at all of the North Carolina public RN to BSN programs. Nurses may then apply to any of these programs without taking additional and sometimes duplicative courses. This proposal supports the mission of the North Carolina State Board of Community Colleges and Goals 1 and 2 of the University of North Carolina’s strategic document Our Time Our Future, University of North Carolina Strategic Direction. It moves these objectives forward by reducing barriers that currently exist for associate degree prepared nurses who wish to earn baccalaureate degrees and by creating a more seamless and rational transfer process for community college nursing students. This coordinated approach should increase RN to BSN graduation and retention rates for Registered Nurses who enroll in state funded RN to BSN programs. This proposal also serves state workforce needs as described in the 2010 Institute of Medicine report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health and in the 2013 North Carolina Chief Nursing Officer Survey completed by the North Carolina Future of Nursing Action Coalition. According to the coalition, increasing the proportion of nurses with a baccalaureate or higher degree to 80% by 2025 should: •  Improve health outcomes for North Carolinians through a higher educated nursing workforce: •  Expand consumer access to primary care through an increased number of advanced practice nurses; and •  Increase the critical pipeline of faculty to prepare an adequate nursing workforce for the future.