Educational Planning: Transition to
Baccalaureate Nursing
Rationale
Essay – Instructions
The Rationale
Essay is a scholarly paper which you write to explain your degree plan. It
describes how previous credits from other colleges and prior knowledge will
blend with current studies to create the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN)
degree at SUNY Empire State College. The Nursing Assessment Committee approves your
degree plan and rationale essay as a step in recommending the student for
graduation. The degree plan must meet
all of the following criteria:
|
Degree |
Total credits |
Maximum advanced standing credits |
Minimum liberal studies credits |
Minimum SUNYgeneral |
Minimum advanced-level credits in |
Minimum advanced-level credits in |
|
B.S. in Nursing |
124 |
93 |
62 |
30 |
40 |
45 |
Compose a 3-5
page paper following theWritten Assignment Rubric
, including all
requirements of APA format. There are eight sections to your Rationale Essay;
the content for each section is outlined below. Unless otherwise stated, each
of these sections should be used as a Level 1 heading in your paper
“Centered, Boldface, Uppercase and Lowercase Heading” (American
Psychological Association, 2010, p. 62).
Sections of
Paper:
1. Introduction: (no heading)
briefly introduce the purpose of this paper to the reader and provide an
overview of the key areas that will be addressed.
2. Goals in Pursuing the Bachelor of Science in Nursing: Drafted in Modules 1 and 2
·
Describe your personal
and professional goals in pursuing the BSN
·
Discuss what new
knowledge, skills, and experiences you wish to develop during the program
3. Expectations of the Nursing Professional:Review and revise your content from the Discussion in Module 2
·
Describe the
professional expectations of the nurse with a baccalaureate degree
·
Discuss the professional
opportunities that are available to the nurse with a baccalaureate degree and
how your role might change
4. Academic Expectations:See Learning Activity in Module 2–Address how your degree
plan will meet all of the following requirements. Indicate the number of
credits being transferred in from other sources and the number of credits to be
completed with SUNY Empire State College:
·
Bachelor of Science
degree requirements at SUNY Empire State College (124 credits total)
·
SUNY General Education
requirements (7 out of 10 knowledge areas; at least 30 credits)
i.
Math – required area
ii.
Basic Communication –
required area
·
Required number of
advanced level credits (at least 45 credits)
·
Required number of
liberal credits (at least 62 credits)
·
Required nursing credits
(at least 40 credits, advanced level)
·
ESC studies – 31 credits
minimum
5. Degree Plan Narrative:
·
Identify that you will
be taking the nine core nursing courses as required by the program. If you are
taking each of these courses, there is no need to list them all by name… OR …
·
Identify modifications
to the nursing core sequence if you are using transcript credit from another
college or are planning to use the Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) process to
meet the any of the nursing courses
·
Explain how your nursing
elective will be met
·
Describe the courses you
will use to meet any outstanding general education requirements.
·
Discuss any additional CBE/PLA
credit that you intend to pursue with this degree
·
Identify the proposed
timeline to degree completion
6. Conclusion: write a brief
paragraph to summarize the key points of the paper
7. References: include any
references as a separate last page of the essay, but before the planning grid
8. Degree Plan Grid: Drafted
in Module 3
·
Identify (by name) the
courses and college term for completion
·
Outline the proposed
sequence and course of study
·
Add a page break after
the reference page (or final narrative if no references are used), and then
include the Planning Grid as your final page.
References
American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual
of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC:
Author.
