Adults encounter learning through life experiences, not necessarily according to a degree plan. Recognizing the wave of boomers who are about to crash onto the beaches of healthcare, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation partnered to inform the public of the dire need for baccalaureate degree nurses. The IOM (2011) points to nursing as a source of solutions to the future challenges in healthcare. http://www.thefutureofnursing.org/IOM-Report

The AACN, the “national voice of baccalaureate and higher-degree nursing education” challenges nurse educators to prepare flexible curricula in keeping with the fluctuations in the current healthcare environment. Relative to adult learners, the AACN encourages

Educational mobility–a process by which individuals complete formal and/or informal educational offerings to acquire additional knowledge and skills. To the extent possible, educational mobility should build on previous learning without unnecessary duplication of that learning and be focused on outcomes” (AACN, 2015, para. 3-4). http://www.aacn.nche.edu/publications/position/educational-mobility

Assessment of prior learning possesses the potential to impact the anticipated need for increased numbers of professional nurses. Kolb’s (1984) Learning Styles and Experiential Learning Model provide a scaffold for mapping the prior learning of adults. Action verbs developed from Bloom’s Taxonomy (Whittaker, 1989) create flags for identifying learning seen in conversation and writings of adult learners.

Granted, many challenges exist in bringing the recommendations of the IOM to reality. Buy-in of institutions of higher education which grant baccalaureate degrees remains essential to creating a path for nurses who already hold a license to practice but have need of higher education to attain the goal recommended by the IOM. Does the possibility exist to credential adult learners in a valid and attainable manner to practice professional nursing? Will the anticipated shortage of nurses have to touch us personally before a path for educational mobility becomes a consideration?

Tammie J. Coffman RN MSN OCN
Doctoral Student, Doctorate in Leadership Program at Hardin-Simmons University
Instructor, Patty Hanks Shelton School of Nursing, a consortium of Hardin-Simmons University & McMurry University
tammie.j.coffman@phssn.edu