Yet the California State University system will allow no more than 70 units to be transferred as credit toward a bachelor s degree, according to Dixie Bullock, MN, RN, director of the nursing program at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo. So prerequisite courses exceeding the 70-unit cutoff fall into a bottomless pit and cannot be applied to the bachelor s degree credit requirement, according to Bullock. And that s not all Some nursing programs are building in additional prerequisites on top of the typical anatomy, physiology, microbiology, and English courses. At Southwestern, entering nursing students must now be certified nursing assistants before school admission. At Santa Ana College, students must take anatomy and physiology, microbiology, speech, and English before they can be placed on the 200-person nursing program waiting list.
Remedial work can also lengthen the time nurses spend in associate-degree programs.
Yet many nursing vice presidents and directors say that the community college system turns out some of the best bedside nurses, no matter how long it may take for them to graduate. In some areas, community college deans say their students are in greater demand than state university graduates with bachelor s degrees. More or less You might think accredited programs would require more units, but that s not so. Programs that don t seek accreditation from the National League for Nursing Accreditation Center often require even more units for an AA degree, up to even 90 units, according to AA program directors. Planning for the future As the difference in time it takes to receive an AA degree and a bachelor s degree narrows, the debate about how to educate California s nurses in the next century could change.