A partnership model to address the nursing shortage. The KSU accelerated BSN Program.

Metropolitan Atlanta and northwest Georgia, like other regions of the United States, face a critical shortage of nurses. To address this shortage, the Kennesaw State University (KSU) School of Nursing (SON) has developed and implemented a partnership model to offer second-degree students an accelerated BSN Program. The KSU model builds on a competitive statewide initiative that targets funds to educational and corporate collaborations as well as a growing number of nursing school non-nurse applicants who hold other baccalaureate degrees. To offer the accelerated BSN Program, the KSU nursing faculty developed an accelerated curriculum model that allows completion in 16 months. Further, a six member, collaborative partnership has been constructed to allow this curriculum to be offered to 40 second-degree students both on the KSU campus and as an outreach program in rural northwest Georgia. This article describes the accelerated BSN curriculum model as well as the partnerships constructed to implement and fund the program.