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Biostatistics--the application of statistics to the analysis of biological or medical data--is quickly becoming an integral component for the foundation of nursing practice. Increasing complexity in the provision of health care demands that clinicians understand epidemiological and statistical principles to provide safe, evidence-based, high-quality patient-centered care (West & Ficalora, 2007 ). The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) clearly differentiates the statistical competencies between baccalaureate-prepared and master'sprepared nurses. The baccalaureate-prepared nurse is required to attain a fundamental understanding of basic applied statistics to understand such principles as prevalence, risk factors, and determinants of health (AACN, 2008 ). The master's-prepared nurse is required to further build on that fundamental understanding through the application of biostatistical analysis of outcome data to synthesize and evaluate those data to achieve optimal health outcomes (AACN, 2011 ). Moreover, the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) increases the demand for the provision of preventative and primary care. Meeting this demand will depend on master's-prepared nurse clinicians to lead the implementation of evidence-based practice to improve the access to and the quality of patient care. Competency in improving patient outcomes requires a certain level of sophistication and understanding of biostatistics to make meaningful interpretations of the application of research findings.
The format and delivery of higher education is rapidly changing with advances in educational technologies. In particular, distance learning bypasses geographic boundaries imposed by traditional classroom-based learning, allowing for a wider reaching and a more broadly dispersed dissemination of knowledge and education. Distance learning has been identified as an essential movement in nursing education, namely to alleviate the nursing shortage (AACN, 2000 ; Mancuso-Murphy, 2007 ). The Institute of Medicine's (IOM; 2010 ) landmark Future of Nursing report recommends that nurses achieve higher levels of education, further supporting the need for implementation of diverse technology for distance education. Although a 2002 survey of 162 accredited nursing programs revealed that nearly all programs offered or planned to offer distance learning (Hodson-Carlton, Siktberg, Flowers, & Scheibel, 2003 ), the AACN (2012b ) more recently reported that despite these advances in distance education, more than 75,000 qualified applicants to professional nursing programs were turned away. This lack of access to nursing education,...