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Digital Degrees: Internet Nursing Courses Offer Variety and Flexibility

Carol Lindsay, Nursing Spectrum
May 4, 2001

Are you a woman between the ages of 25 and 35, of good character, free from physical defect, and either single or widowed? Would you like to spend the next two years sharing the cramped living quarters of a 6-foot by 8-foot high stall with two other women? Would you like to work from 5:30 AM to 9:00 AM every day of the week?

In return for your efforts, you will be housed for free next to the patient wards. That way, when you’re trying to squeeze some studying or precious sleep into your small window of time, a patient who needs assistance can have you readily available. You will be given one half-day off every other week and two weeks off per year.

If any of this description appeals to you, you would have been an ideal candidate for one of the first formal nursing education programs in the US. The situation may sound pretty harsh, but nursing students in the 1870s didn’t pay tuition. Instead, they were provided board, lodging, and laundry, and given a monthly stipend of $7 to cover clothes, textbooks, and incidental expenses.

Virtual Changes

Fast-forward to the year 2001. Florence Nightingale and the first professionally trained American nurse, Linda Richards, would be amazed at the options now available in the field of academics. Of course, nursing students still work all day and study into the wee hours of the morning, but today they can attend class online in the comfort of their own homes. Personal computers provide students with solid learning environments without them having to step foot in a lecture hall, dorm room, or cafeteria. Students can e-mail assignments to professors, perform literature searches, and even participate in discussions with other classmates.

The virtual classroom is not a new concept. In fact, the University of Phoenix www.phoenix.edu has offered online degrees since 1989. However, over the past few years, the programs available have increased dramatically both in the number of degrees offered and credibility those degrees receive. Prestigious universities, such as Duke and Stanford, now embrace the idea of Web-delivered education.

At least 1 million Americans are currently enrolled in virtual college courses, and experts estimate this number will double in the next two years. A great deal of this growth comes from traditional universities partnering with private companies to provide courses online. At least 75% of colleges and universities now offer courses on the Internet. This allows nurses who are pursuing bachelor’s and master’s degrees to choose from a large variety of universities and programs.

Educated Decision

Choosing a college campus is a major decision, but deciding on a virtual campus requires a similar amount of forethought and research. Bob Tucker, president of InterEd Distance Learning, recommends asking the following questions when interviewing program directors:

InterEd’s mission is to provide information for better education. In pursuit of this goal, Tucker speaks daily with employers about their perception of online education. “Employers are varied in their response,” he says. “They tend to be skeptical. They tell me they are not against online degrees, they just don’t know enough about [them] and therefore have reservations.”

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) documents its views on Web-based learning in its white paper, Distance Technology in Nursing Education. The paper describes the technological advances as opportunities to dramatically improve the quality of and access to nursing education.

“While distance programs historically have increased access to education, the need for boosting that access is especially critical now,” says Andrea R. Lindell, RN, DNSc, former president of the AACN. “Many markets report shortages of registered nurses, particularly in acute-care specialty fields, while at the same time, an aging faculty is exacerbating an already limited pool of qualified educators for baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs. Expanding our reach through technology provides us a means to significantly increase access to education for adult working students who are a growing share of the undergraduate nursing population, as well as for RNs returning to school for bachelor’s or higher nursing degrees. Moreover, wider access through technology could also help boost the numbers of faculty-qualified nurses to support education, research and practice,” Lindell says.

Online Offerings

Perhaps the biggest advantage of online education for today’s busy nurse is not so much what kind of curriculum is offered, but how it is provided. “One of the primary benefits of online education is that it offers students more flexibility in scheduling [and provides more] time to complete coursework each week,” says Lynn Holsapple, director of marketing and external relations for the Indiana College Network Student Services Center. “This is especially helpful for people who are trying to balance their work schedules with class work.”

Holsapple says many people find that the online class discussions are actually more in-depth than discussions held in a traditional classroom because students have time to think through their comments when typing them in. Online classes also offer the opportunity to meet a diverse group of students. For example, the students taking a class over the Internet may live in a variety of locations or have different socioeconomic backgrounds so they bring different experiences to the table. Holsapple says there is no differentiation between degrees earned on campus and those completed online.

Ruth Gresley, RN, PhD, program director of the master’s degree nursing program at Concordia University in Mequon, WI, says, “Our students are very positive about the quality of the online strategies and using the technology to increase their access to the learning material. It allows access to the library from home. It allows interaction with their classmates without coming to campus to do group work or making numerous phone calls to get together. It offers some new ways of looking at content with a fresh approach.”Gresley says the online programs have the same faculty and carry the same accreditation as traditional programs.

And just like nursing students in the 1870s, when you learn at home, your room and board are already taken care of.

Editor’s Note: For additional information regarding cost, accreditation, and availability of online universities visit www.distance.gradschools.com or www.InterEd.com.

Carol Lindsay, RN, BSN, has been a nurse at Pioneer Valley Hospital in West Valley City, UT, for nine years. She has spent the past four years as the hospital’s director of marketing and public relations.

Bibliography

Kalish, PA, Kalish, BJ. The Advance of American Nursing. Third edition, Lippincott P. 78, 1995.

Donahue, PM. Nursing: An Illustrated History, Mosby. P. 316, 1985.

Howd, A. Will Cyber-School Pass or Fail? Insightmag.com, June 12, 2000. http://www.insightmag.com/archive/ 200006124.shtml. Accessed March 30, 2001.

American Association of Colleges of Nursing White Paper: Distance Technology in Nursing Education, http://www.aacn. nche.edu/Publications/positions/whitepaper.htm. Accessed March 30, 2001.

Carol Lindsay, © 2001 by the Nursing Spectrum.