National initiatives in higher education, health reform, and the nursing curriculum revolution are applied to five curricular patterns for registered nurse (RN) upward mobility baccalaureate education. American Association of Higher Education principles for quality baccalaureate education are applied to the curricular models. The patterns described are: community model, health promotion model, nursing diagnosis model, case management model, and caring model. Three educational strategies for prompting paradigm shifts in RNs who return to school are discussed: collaborative learning, portfolios, and self-assessments. These learning strategies are designed to move the adult student through Perry's phases of cognitive development from duality to relativism. The combination of fresh new curriculum patterns and collaborative learning strategies can empower nurses to discover new paradigms with which to transform the profession.