72 students at Baptist Health to receive degrees

[cougarnurse]

The Diploma degree is being phased out: 72 Nursing Students To Receive Degrees - Health News Story - KSAT San Antonio

More than 70 students will become a first for the Baptist Health System on Thursday night when they receive an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Nursing.

The students are the first class of the BHS School of Health Professions to earn the degree.

Since the school was founded in 1903, it has only offered a diploma program. Recently, however, Baptist Health System received full approval from all six required regulatory agencies to confer the Associates Degree in Nursing.

One school official said that will make it easier for students to transfer to other institutions to continue their education.

"This has been a big step for us," said Melanie Brady, Director of the Baptist Health Systems Department of Nursing. "We were one of the last two diploma programs in the state of Texas, and it's a journey that we started several years ago, and it was well worth the work and effort it took us to get to this point."

Because of a law passed in the Texas Legislature, all diploma nursing programs will be eliminated by the end of 2014.