A descriptive study of nursing articulation practices of baccalaureate nursing programs in the United States

The purposes of this investigation were: (1) to explore the extent to which colleges and universities have adopted articulation procedures for admitting associate degree or diploma nursing graduates into their baccalaureate programs; (2) to determine which methods are being used to validate previous learning for support courses and nursing courses; (3) to identify factors influencing the development of or changes in articulation policies; and (4) to investigate the attitudes of nursing leaders of baccalaureate programs toward future articulation practices;A Nursing Articulation Present and Future Questionnaire was sent to Chief Academic Officers (C.A.O.) of N.L.N. accredited baccalaureate degree programs (B.S.N.). Nursing programs allowed for direct transfer of support course credit in more programs and for more semester hours than they did nursing credit, but 45.9 percent of the baccalaureate programs did transfer nursing credit from A.D.N. programs. The mean number of direct transfer of nursing credit hours\u27 was 27.95. The B.S.N. programs used a variety of methods to validate previous knowledge in nursing and support courses;Articulation policies existed in the majority of baccalaureate programs. Most were developed or changed in response to the needs of R.N. students. The future of articulation between A.D.N. graduates and B.S.N. programs appears positive as nurses will be pursuing advanced education. Nurse educators indicated that more formal agreements will be initiated between A.D.N. and B.S.N. programs. They indicated that a core curriculum in two-year programs will enhance articulation and that more articulation conferences and workshops will be held. Those C.A.O.s that exhibited the most positive attitudes toward the future of articulation were those in R.N. only programs and those who already accepted direct transfer of nursing credit