Palomar College to Decide on New Associate of Science Nursing Degree

This coming Tuesday, officials at San Diego’s Palomar College will be deciding on a measure that will change the face of associates degrees at the college. Up until now, Palomar has offered Associate of Arts degrees in Nursing, which require a rounded mix of history and humanities courses in conjunction with the technical aspects of the subject. Now, however, the school’s nursing education department is asking for approval of an Associate of Science Nursing degree, which would eliminate the six required units of humanities that some consider vital.

Critics describe eliminating the study of U.S. history from an A.A. degree as heresy, but the issue is complicated.

The alternative nursing degree would be an associate of science degree, which is not currently awarded by Palomar. Nursing educators want Palomar officials to offer it along with the existing associate of arts degree in nursing. Except for history, the course work for both degrees would be identical.

What’s driving the proposal is the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission, said Judy Eckhart, chairwoman of Palomar’s nursing department. It has warned Palomar for years that its program exceeds the maximum number of units that can be required for a nursing degree under accreditation standards, Eckhart said, and must reduce them. But the issue has been hard to resolve. The nursing associate of arts degree is 80 units. The alternative degree would be 74 units, which is close to the 72-unit cap that the commission wants, Eckhart said, and it may accept 74 units.

One sticking point seems to be the History course — while reportedly some professors have already come forward saying they would certainly approve the program, others say they simply cannot allow a degree to be granted without an American History course, a required course for every degree program in the Palomar College catalog. Another point is that, unlike the 80-unit Associate of Arts degree, an AS in Nursing is designed more as a terminal degree than a step toward a BSN. Some professors stress the open-endedness of the AA, but the AS may be an extremely desirable (and slightly more affordable) option for Palomar that could turn out to be highly successful in the long-run.

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