Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / National calls for a better-educated nursing workforce are proliferating. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) challenged the nursing profession by setting the goal of having 80% of the nation's nurses prepared at the baccalaureate level (BSN) or higher by 2020. This is an ambitious goal given that, nationally, only 50% of nurses have a BSN. In fact, only 40% of nurses in Michigan have a BSN, and in the rural North-Central Region of this state, only 29% (the lowest in the state) of the nurses have a BSN. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to understand and interpret the meaning of being an associate degree (AD) nurse, the meaning attaining a BSN has for rural registered nurses who currently have an AD, and the barriers they experience that inform their decisions to return to school (or not). The investigator interviewed 11 AD nurses from rural North-Central Michigan and analyzed interview transcripts to identify common experiences and shared meanings using methods identified by Diekelmann, Allen, and Tanner (1989). Two themes were explicated in this study: "Getting in and Getting out" and "What Difference Does it Make?" The findings in this study challenge many of the common assumptions about academic progression in nursing and provide educators, administrators, and legislators with insight about the strategies that may be most helpful for achieving the IOM goal in rural Michigan.

The U.S. shortage of qualified nursing teachers and researchers is affecting national health care outcomes. Methods such as fast-tracking Baccalaureate nurses into graduate programs and embedding leadership development early into nursing curricula have been proposed to address faculty and research shortages. Early interest in nursing research careers increases likelihood of enrollment in graduate education. One way undergraduate nursing students may develop an interest in research careers is through a mentored apprenticeship with research-active faculty. In this thesis, the author uses an autoethnography methodology to examine the benefits that a mentored research apprenticeship model brought to her undergraduate experience. Her experience incorporated a variety of roles in an adolescent intervention program with Dr. Anne Norris (PI) at the University of Central Florida College of Nursing. Several themes about the experience were defined in the results. Early research exposure that socializes a student to the nursing research world may provide a means for addressing the nursing faculty shortage. This socialization can generate interest in a research career and promote undergraduate students with the essential tools and insights needed to pursue this career pathway. However, findings from this study suggest a student-mentor relationship early in the undergraduate education experience is essential.