The majority of the approximately 40,000 RNs holding an active license in Louisiana in 2010 reported finding full-time work, according to the Louisiana State Board of Nursing. RNs earn an average $62,060 annually compared to a national average of $67,720, reports the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Approximately 27,700 RNs worked in hospitals. Major growth in nursing employment in Louisiana centered on home health and community and long-term care. Louisiana is one of 10 Wave II regional action coalition states named for a national Future of Nursing campaign that will involve coordinating long-term strategies to move forward with best nursing practices and research activities. There were 2,239 graduates from pre-RN licensure programs from Louisiana schools of nursing in 2010, meanwhile those graduating from baccalaureate programs increased by 11 percent.
Louisiana has about a dozen nursing schools that offer an LPN to RN degree. They include:
Dillard University teaches students to advance their profession by working with interdisciplinary teams and delivering care to patients in many different settings and geographic locations. The School of Nursing opened in the Professional Schools and Sciences Building in the fall of 2010 and features six nursing specialty laboratories, including a high-tech simulation lab. The LPN to BSN track gives up to 16 hours credit for introductory courses taken elsewhere and students may be eligible for RN licensure in three years instead of four, as with the BSN.
Baton Rouge Community College Department of Nursing offers a competitive but affordable program in which all students are required to maintain current CPR certification and attend a mandatory orientation. The college is the first public school in the city to provide a degree program at the Associate of Science in nursing degree level. It is a five semester, 72 credit program designed to provide the necessary knowledge, skills, values, and competencies required for safe nursing practice. The school's LPN to RN fast-track program makes it possible for qualified LPNs to use previously earned credits and/ or experience to obtain the associated degree and eventual licensure as an entry level RN. The school reports 100 percent of students found a nursing position within six months of graduation. The ADN program also allows graduates to seamlessly transfer to a four-year college for an advanced BSN degree.
The University of Louisiana Monroe College of Health Sciences School of Nursing provides an opportunity for LPNs and RNs with associate degrees to enter the BSN program for full-time or part-time study. The ULM program requires 120 hours of credit to graduate and LPNs and RNs can challenge about 35 hours of prerequisites. Recent graduates of the school had a 96.74 percent NCLEX passage rate, well above the combined state average of 89.78 percent for graduates of all state private and public BSN programs combined. The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education has granted continued accreditation of the BSN program at ULM through December 31, 2020.
