California’s Registered Nurse Education Pathways
The percentage of Registered Nurses choosing the Bachelor’s degree (BSN) pathway to licensure has increased substantially over time and is now twice as common as the Associate’s degree (ADN) pathway among Registered Nurses licensed in the last 5 years.
Why are the education pathways of Registered Nurses important?
Education pathways highlight the ease of entry, career opportunities, and potential advancement opportunities for Registered Nurses in the workforce. These visualizations display the initial and highest educational levels of active Registered Nurses by region, Race & Ethnicity group, assigned sex at birth, and time since license issue date. By understanding the differences in the education pathways of our Registered Nurses on these different levels, we can better identify areas of over and under representation, potential barriers to higher education, and improve HCAI’s efforts to build a diverse and effective workforce.
Key Findings
- Over 53 percent of Registered Nurses statewide enter the workforce with a Bachelor’s degree.
- For Registered Nurses entering the field with a Bachelor’s degree, only 15 percent went on to achieve a higher degree. For Registered Nurses entering the field with an Associate’s degree, over 40 percent went on to achieve a higher degree.
- Initial education levels are very similar between sexes assigned at birth but differ significantly across Race & Ethnicity groups.
- The ADN pathway to licensure is most common among American Indian, Black, and Hispanic groups, while the BSN pathway is most common among Asian, Multiracial, Other, Pacific Islander, and White groups.
- The percentage of Registered Nurses choosing the BSN pathway to licensure has increased substantially over time and is now twice as common as the ADN pathway among Registered Nurses licensed in the last five years.
- Highest education levels are unevenly distributed throughout the state. Doctoral degrees are twice as prevalent in southern regions compared to Registered Nurses in the Northern and Sierra region. Conversely, Associate’s degrees make up nearly 42 percent of the highest education levels of Registered Nurses in the Northern and Sierra region, but less than 25 percent of Registered Nurses in southern regions.
Note: Data represents a custom tabulation of healing arts survey responses from licenses in active status on July 1st, 2023.
How HCAI Created This Product
- Licensure data was collected by the Department of Consumer Affairs; all data presented represents a snapshot of the active licensee population on July 1st, 2023.
- This product is based on HCAI Health Workforce License Renewal Survey data; all data presented as of July 1st, 2023. The responses to these surveys were adjusted using cell based weighting to create estimates of the full population. Decline to State answers were excluded from the data for each visualization. Licenses without an Issue Date were excluded from the License Issue Date visualization. Respondents whose Initial Education Level was higher than their Highest Education Level were also excluded from the dataset. Initial Education is defined as the degree/credential that first qualified the licensee for their first U.S. license in this profession. Highest Education is defined as the highest level of education the licensee has achieved in this profession.
- Regions were defined by California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) and are listed below:
| Region | Counties |
|---|---|
| Central Coast | Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Ventura |
| Greater Bay Area | Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma |
| Inland Empire | Riverside, San Bernardino |
| Los Angeles County | Los Angeles |
| Northern and Sierra | Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Inyo, Lake, Lassen, Mariposa, Mendocino, Modoc, Mono, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne, Yuba |
| Orange County | Orange |
| Sacramento Area | El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Yolo |
| San Diego Area | Imperial, San Diego |
| San Joaquin Valley | Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tulare |
Additional Information
Topic: Health Workforce
Source Link: HCAI Health Workforce Education Data
Citation: HCAI – Health Workforce Licensure Data – Education Pathways of California’s Health Workforce, 2023
Temporal Coverage: Current as of July 1, 2023
Spatial/Geographic Coverage: Regional
Frequency: Annually