What Nurse Executives Need to Know About For-Profit Universities

Technological advances in the delivery of nursing education and new models of funding have been part of sweeping change in the early 21st century. It stands to reason that an increasingly sophisticated, complex world would be best served by an array of options for nurses who wish to continue their education. In 2010, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report “The Future of Nursing” challenged the profession of nursing to re-examine how it was educated and regulated.1 One size no longer fits all, if it ever did. Through the years, traditional education reformers such as Charles W. Eliot, Woodrow Wilson, and Robert Gordon Sproul have championed variety over uniformity and celebrated fresh thinking. The brave new world they imagined is here, and the possibilities seem limitless. The profession of nursing must now embrace new ways of thinking about how to educated current and future caregivers. This article will examine the different funding models for nursing education, the external benchmarks that must be met, and how consumers of nursing education should approach decisions when returning to school.