CUNY Master Plan 2012-2016

THE CUNY MASTER PLAN 2012-2016
These and other workforce changes will impact the education of health care professionals across the
University. A major priority from 2012-2016 will be to align the health professions programs with federal
and state health care legislation and with recommended reforms. Nursing provides a good example of
what is being done and what must be done.
Nursing
Registered Nurses (RNs) are the single largest occupation in the health sector, constituting 18 percent
of all jobs in the industry. However, spending cuts resulting from the economic downturn plus recent
hospital closings, mergers, downsizings, and hiring freezes have made the local job market more competitive
for new nurse graduates. It is difficult to anticipate precisely how these patterns may shift by 2016.
However, because of the current circumstances and the new emphasis on community-based services, the
University has become more active in implementing “transition-to-practice” programs that facilitate the
re-deployment of new AAS nurses to expanding health sectors in community-based settings.
Recent national reports and changes in personnel practices reflect a strong preference for a more
highly educated nursing workforce. There is a broad consensus among nursing faculty, nursing professionals,
and many employers that the BS in nursing is preferred over the AAS degree. In 2009, the
Carnegie Foundation recommended the baccalaureate degree as the appropriate credential for RNs
entering the profession. The 2011 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report recommended an increase in the
proportion of nurses with a baccalaureate degree to 80 percent by 2020. CUNY currently has nine AAS
degree programs and six baccalaureate programs. To align CUNY’s nursing programs with current
trends, the University is working to increase its capacity at the baccalaureate level. CUNY is already
experiencing a dramatic surge in enrollment in RN to BS programs. The annual number of graduates
from these completion programs has increased 145 percent in the last four years. For the reasons cited
above, this trend is likely to continue during 2012-2016, and CUNY will continue to encourage students
to pursue more advanced (baccalaureate) study.
There are several models for providing a seamless transition from the AAS to the BS in nursing within
an integrated university such as CUNY. One is the dual-enrollment/dual-degree program that was
approved last year between Queensborough Community College and Hunter College, and which enrolled
its first cohort this year. Hostos, Bronx, and LaGuardia Community Colleges are partnering with Lehman
College to develop similar programs. New York City College of Technology, Staten Island, and Kingsborough
are collaborating on another model, a “1-2-1” dual degree option in which nursing students earn
their AAS in three years and their BS degree at the end of the fourth year. These models that directly link
AAS and BS degrees in nursing will continue to be developed through 2016 and beyond. By 2016 there
will be about 400 nursing students enrolled in these types of collaborative, career-ladder programs.
Another IOM recommendation is to double the number of nurses with a doctorate by 2020. CUNY’s
Doctor of Nursing Science (DNS) program, which is a research-oriented degree, is a critical component in
the effort to increase CUNY’s capacity at the BS level by growing CUNY’s own nurse educators. The DNS
program has essentially reached its capacity (about 55 students enrolled each year) and will maintain
that enrollment. Recently CUNY received approval for a new Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program
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