Students at Bermuda College will be able to graduate in the future as registered nurses without a bachelor's degree – thanks to a new programme.

Currently nursing students at the College take a core curriculum in liberal arts, science and nursing courses. After two years they can transfer to Hampton University in the United States, to complete a Bachelor of Science. Yesterday, college president Duranda Green explained the new Nursing Education Pathway programme, which will start next year, at a press conference called by the Minister of Health Nelson Bascome.

To enter the programme all students will have to sit the College Placement Test (CPT) and then those who enrol will have to pass a general education core with a "strong emphasis on science".

This will include courses such as anatomy, physiology, biology, microbiology and chemistry and a clinical training component.

Students can then elect to qualify as registered nurses before they finish the entire bachelor's degree, that Dr. Green said the college planned to now offer.

Dr. Green, however, said that after three years of planning, and though the course is slated to start in the fall next year, they are still looking for a University to offer the entire bachelor's degree on Island.

Yesterday she said: "After three years of consultation with the Bermuda Hospitals Board and Dr. Larita Alford, Vice President and Chief Academic Officer, this programme underscores the importance of improving access to local professional and academic training with internationally recognised credentials.

"The Bermuda nursing pathway programme will allow Bermuda College students the opportunity to graduate as Registered Nurses (RNs) thereby meeting a critical local industry need and continue their track for a further two years to earn their bachelor of science in nursing degree.

"This will be required if they plan to pursue a managerial or community track in nursing. Bermuda is also seeking partnerships with other universities to offer the bachelors part of the programme on the Island.

"We are in discussions right now (with organisations to offer affiliation). We do not want to release those names now."

And Kathy-Ann Swan, the Nursing Programme Coordinator said that nurses who do not finish their bachelor's degree will start at the entry level, but will be encouraged to return to school. This would include positions at the hospitals, doctors offices and rest homes.

In the United Kingdom, The Royal College of Nursing states that nurses must take either a three-year diploma or a three to four-year degree course.

While, according to the American Nurses Association to become a registered nurse, they can take a four-year university program, a two-year associate degree programme or a three-year diploma degree and pass the NCLEX. Those who complete an associates degree would be prepared for nursing roles that require nursing theory or technical proficiency.

A group of nurses on the Island, however, worry that allowing Bermuda College students to graduate with less than a bachelor's degree would create two standards of registered nurses.

Yesterday one nurse, who asked not to be named, said if the students graduate as a registered nurse that's how they will be employed.

She said: "If they are a registered nurse they are a registered nurse. You cannot tell them there's a difference. And how are they going to get a four-year degree without a teaching college?"

Currently the Bermuda Hospitals Board, who is also a partner on this programme, employees 400 registered nurses with 50 on-call and casual nurses.

BHB's CEO David Hill said: "Recruitment of nurses is a problem for all international communities and we need to introduce innovative schemes here to ensure we produce locally trained nurses that remain in Bermuda.

"This is important for Bermuda Hospitals Board and for the delivery of health care across Bermuda."

While Mr. Bascome took issue with this paper reporting the views of nurses on Tuesday, while heralding the programme as "historic".

"I am quite disappointed that after being informed on two occasions that I was to hold a press conference on this matter that a reporter would consider it more important to get out a point of view as opposed to waiting to hear the facts and have a face to face dialogue on the matter.

"I am delighted to be here today on this historic occasion. I say historic because it is the first time that nursing education is being added to the curriculum here at the Bermuda College and the first time that the Bermuda College will offer a four-year training programme for registered nurses."