This petition should be denied on the basis that clinical hours are one of the few remaining staples in nursing school.  In a time that everyone wants the easy way out, more and more people are looking for the fastest and easiest way to obtain the end result.  I understand that some schedules or lifestyles do not allow for the traditional college schedule, but remember that college is not meant to be easy.  College is as much about finding out about yourself and what you are made of as it is about getting an education.  I had a professor that went to nursing school for an associates degree, did gateway RN-BSN program, did a Master's program at night with a newborn baby, then did a Doctorate program at night with another newborn.  I don't want to hear how it cannot be done.

Nursing is the only profession that dumbs down its requirements in times of need.  How would you feel if your physician received his/her M.D. completely online with "different requirements" than all the other physicians that went to medical school and did clinical hours?  In fact, how would you feel if all of a sudden we made the requirements to be a physician two years less?