Dive Brief:

• Nurses with college degrees are advancing in Ohio, with a Greater Cincinnati Health Council study declaring that recent nursing school graduates are getting hired at higher levels than in the past, matching similar findings from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• "More new nursing graduates were hired in 2013 and 2014," the report stated. "Record numbers of new graduate nurses were hired in 2012 and 2013 with new graduates representing more than 40% of all nurses being hired. This is an increase compared to 2010 and 2011 in which fewer than 30% of all nurses hired were new graduates... The number of nurses with bachelor's degrees increased to 50% in 2014, up from 43% in 2012 and 33% in 2008. The number of nurses with master's degrees also climbed considerably to 20% in 2014, up from 8% in 2012 and only 3% in 2008."
• The US Bureau of Labor Statistics job outlook for nurses mirrors what's happening in Cincinnati, stating that registered nurses with at least a bachelor's degree in nursing (BSN) will have better job prospects than those without one. With the number of nurses expected to increase 19% from 2012 to 2022—from 2,711,500 to 3,238,400—nurses will enjoy a faster growth rate than any other occupation in the US.

Dive Insight:

Hospitals hiring better-educated nurses is not a trend that necessarily needs explaining, but the study even had good news for LPNs and RNs without a college degree.

"Hospital support of advanced education plus flexible online education will allow nurses additional opportunities to pursue advanced degrees in the coming years," the Council's study reported. "Several regional schools also bring the RN to BSN programs to their hospital campus."

Some large providers have supported tuition reimbursement for some years now, though smaller operations have tended to lag behind that curve. However, supporting education is good business, and with the population getting older, nurses will be in high demand for years to come.

In the near future, getting a degree will no longer be something for a nurse candidate to use as a competitive edge in the job market. Pretty soon, it will practically be a requirement to be considered for the better nursing positions with a track toward management.