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To the Editor: Dr Aiken and colleagues¹ studied hospitals, not the educational level of individual RNs or the care delivered by individual nurses. Several nurses may care for a patient during a hospital stay. Because of staffing variability, it is impossible to correlate patient outcomes with any particular nurse(s) in this study. In a hospital categorized as having a high proportion of baccalaureate-prepared nurses, it could well have been the RN with an associate degree who took care of the patients who survived or who were rescued. Another important consideration is that hospitals with low numbers of baccalaureate-prepared nurses were smaller, rural facilities with fewer financial, educational, and technological resources than hospitals with larger numbers of baccalaureate-prepared nurses. These are important variables that undoubtedly affect patient care and outcomes.

In our roles as administrators and faculty in a community college, we continue to see the contributions that our associate degree . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Carol Comeau, RN, MSN; Mary Crook, RN, MSN
Crook_Mary@sac.edu

Rosemarie Hirsch, RN, MSN
Santa Ana College
Santa Ana, Calif

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