How nurse managers rate the clinical competencies of accelerated (second-degree) nursing graduates.

College graduates are entering specially designed accelerated (second-degree) prelicensure nursing programs in record numbers, but research regarding program outcomes is scarce. Nurse managers attending a national nursing conference participated in research comparing the clinical competencies of 93 accelerated graduates with those of 107 traditional baccalaureate nursing degree (BSN) graduates using an adapted version of Dr. Patricia Schwirian's Six-Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance. Two-tailed t tests for independent groups were used to test for differences between the accelerated and traditional groups. The results showed that these two groups were not significantly different. The results of this study provide evidence that accelerated programs produce graduates who are comparable to their traditional BSN peers in clinical competencies.