The Colorado Nursing Articulation Model: 2001-2005
Publication of the Colorado Trust
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Table of Contents:
- Executive Summary
- Assumptions
- Colorado Nursing Articulation Model
- Practical Nurse
- Registered Nurse
- Articulation Pathway
- Competency Statements for Nursing Roles
- Provider Role
- Teacher Role
- Manager Role
- Member of the Profession Role
- Advocate Role
- Glossary
- Testing for Graduates Who Fall Under the Guidelines Requiring Testing Refresher Course Guidelines for Those Without Work Experience in the Last Three Years
- Evaluation Components
- Content Validation
- Participants
- Bibliography
Acknowledgment
The Colorado Nursing Articulation Model is the first voluntary statewide model of its kind in the nation. Through it, all public, private and proprietary nursing programs in the state of Colorado are enabling nurses to advance their education more easily. Under the model, initiated and developed by the Colorado Council on Nursing Education (CCNE), nurses are able to progress in the following ways:
- Licensed practical nurse to the registered nurse, associate degree, and
- Associate degree or diploma registered nurse to the baccalaureate nurse level.
This advance is accomplished for most nurses without testing in nursing content areas. Historically, testing has been required to validate prior learning. The Colorado Model is necessary because students who graduate from associate degree programs earn nursing credits at the lower division (100-200 level courses); the baccalaureate nursing programs in Colorado offer most course work at the upper division (300-400 level courses). Educators do not assume that lower division course work is comparable to upper-division work and have commonly used challenge testing to verify that specified learning has occurred. Such testing was expensive and time-consuming and had the effect of discouraging many nurses from seeking advanced educational degrees.
Articulation without testing is possible for two reasons. The first is that faculty members from all nursing programs in the state have validated the content of all curricula. The second is that individual validation of prior nursing knowledge occurs by placing nursing credits in escrow at the higher level institution until the nurse successfully completes one semester of full-time nursing course work at the receiving institution. Nurses articulating from either the practical nurse to associate degree level or the associate degree or diploma to the baccalaureate level receive approximately one year of full-time nursing credit for previous nursing course work. All articulating students must meet program admission requirements and non-nursing course requirements.
If a practical or registered nurse graduated more than three years previously, work experience or an approved refresher course is required. Licensed practical nurses currently have a 10-year time limit from graduation for articulation without testing. This Colorado Nursing Articulation Model was implemented between January 1, 1991, and January 1, 1992, by all Colorado nursing programs. An evaluation plan overseen by the CCNE has been in effect since January, 1992.
Completed with assistance from:
CHARTER COLORADO COUNCIL ON NURSING EDUCATION (CCNE)
Steering Committee Members 1989-1990
Patricia Ladewig, RNC, PhD
Director, Program in Nursing
Regis University
President, CCNE
Alma Mueller, RN, MEd
Chair, Nursing Program
Front Range Community College/
Westminster Campus
President-Elect, CCNE
Sue Wood, RN, MSN
Coordinator, Nursing Program
Arapahoe Community College
Treasurer, CCNE
Linda Fleming, RN, MS
Education Consultant
Colorado Board of Nursing
Susan Ihlenfeldt, RN, MSN
Nursing Faculty
Front Range Community College/
Larimer County Center
Kay King, RN, MS
Chair, School of Nursing
University of Southern Colorado
Marie Miller, RN, PhD
Program Director/SEARCH Associate
Director
Colorado Nursing Task Force
University of Colorado Health
Sciences Center
Sally Phillips, RN, PhD
Director, the Nursing Doctorate Program
Director, Baccalaureate Nursing Programs
University of Colorado Health
Sciences Center
Joyce Falco, RN, MSN
Project Coordinator
The Colorado Nursing Articulation Model
SUB-COMMITTEE REVISION
MEMBERS, 2000
Vicki Earnest, RN, MS
Director of Nursing Programs
Community College of Denver
Alma Mueller, RN, MEd
Chair, Nursing Program
Front Range Community College/
Westminster Campus
Elizabeth Pade, RN, CNS, EdD
Nurse Educator
Emily Griffith Opportunities School
Gayle Preheim, RN, EdD, CNAA
Associate Professor
Director, Baccalaureate Nursing Program
University of Colorado Health
Sciences Center
Candace Pritchard, RN, BSN
Instructor, Practical Nursing
T.H. Pickens Technical Center
Carol Roehrs, RN, PhD
Assistant Professor
University of Northern Colorado
Carol Sharkey, RN, PhD
Associate Professor
Regis University
Joyce Falco, RN, MSN
Project Coordinator
Colleagues in Caring Project
Typist: Joni Dammex
Production Designer: Debra K. Yearn
Copyright 8 2000, by the
Colorado Council on Nursing Education.
Permission to copy material from this model is granted
with the stipulation that the Colorado Council on Nursing
Education be cited as the author.