Worried About Accreditation

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Specializes in Peds PACU & Peds Psych.

The school I'm attending has a very new ADN nursing program. When I started attending the school, they only offered LPN. My plan was to do that, try it out, and then move forward with my degree. I ended up leaving school for a year (had a baby!), and when I came back to continue classes, I discovered they were about to start an ADN program. The first round of ADN students just graduated this past year and had a 100% pass rate on the NCLEX-RN. The program then received approval from the Georgia Board of Nursing (right on schedule to when they said they would). They applied for NLNAC accreditation and received "Candidacy." The official statement on my school website says they anticipate accreditation in the next year.

I was recently accepted to this program -- due to start this fall. 500+ applicants, and only 35 seats! I'm excited but nervous. If all goes according to plan, the program will have NLNAC accreditation before I graduate.

What are everyone's thoughts on this? Does it seem risky? What are the odds they would not receive accreditation? I plan to bridge to BSN and eventually MSN after this.

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Specializes in ICU + Infection Prevention.

Nobody can give you the odds, but if their candidacy period that meets with accreditation started while you were a student, then your will be considered a graduate from an NLNAC accredited program. If they are not accredited and reapply with their candidate status recurring after you graduate, then you won't be a graduate from an accredited program. From what I've seen, most programs either get it on their first or occasionally second try, or they are "perpetual candidates" if you know what I mean.

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Specializes in Peds PACU & Peds Psych.

Makes sense. The school is actually well-regarded and already offers other medical degrees in areas like Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Radiography, etc which are all properly accredited, so I don't foresee them being "perpetual Candidates." I don't believe they would allow that to happen and tarnish their reputation and credibility. But still... Kinda feels like a gamble!

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The school I am applying to sounds exactly the same. They also offer LPN, radiology, etc that are all accredited but their ADN program still has candidacy status. The thing that really concerns me is that they were just assessed for accredidation and they failed. They still have candidacy status but I'm really concerned about what will happen if they fail for a second time.

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Specializes in Peds PACU & Peds Psych.
The school I am applying to sounds exactly the same. They also offer LPN, radiology, etc that are all accredited but their ADN program still has candidacy status. The thing that really concerns me is that they were just assessed for accredidation and they failed. They still have candidacy status but I'm really concerned about what will happen if they fail for a second time.

Yikes, what school is that??

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Augusta Tech

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Specializes in Forensic Psych.

That's a toughie. I'm not a gambler in any way, shape, or form, so with the 8 million nursing schools out there, I wouldn't bother taking a risk a big as accreditation

I would prepare for the worst and hope for the best. How are you going to feel if you get bad news? Do you think it would be worth it?

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

As an educator who has taught in an accredited and a non-accredited school, I give you my humble opinion: if you ahve a choice, go to an accredited school. That seems like a dumb statement, but I realize the reality of having a choice. The majority of the students I taught in the non-accredited school did NOT have a choice. It was their only shot at a nursing degree. Now, I'm going to give you a little 'pre-nursing' lesson in critical thinking and 'connecting the dots': do you see a correlation with the fact that the students who had little to no options being in the non-accredited school?

Your school sounds like it is a for-profit school. A school you are likely going to pay a lot of money to be in, right? It's great that they had a 100% pass rate, but there are going to be a lot of other factors in being granted the accrditation seal of approval. It is a grueling process (that I recently had the 'priveldge' of going through). Every policy, objective and statistic will be scrutinized.

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Specializes in Operating Room.

Not in a million years would I gamble away years of hard work and money to a non-accredited school.

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Specializes in Peds PACU & Peds Psych.
Your school sounds like it is a for-profit school.

To answer this -- no. It is not a private or for-profit school.

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Specializes in Peds PACU & Peds Psych.
Not in a million years would I gamble away years of hard work and money to a non-accredited school.

Pretty much how I'm feeling right now. :/ Unforunately, it was the only school I had applied to. I anticipated them having acheived accreditation by now. I'm waiting until our two orientation classes to discuss it with the advisors and make a final decision, but it looks like I'll probably end up applying to other schools and sitting around to twiddle my thumbs until another class starts.

It's quite a bummer. 500+ applicants to my school and only 35 seats. I had to put in a lot of hard work and was very excited about the acceptance, but now it seems kind of pointless. Sigh.

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The school I applied for is not for-profit, it's the local community college. I also applied for it thinking they would easily get their accredidation because they are a good school and have had an accredited LPN school for years. At this point I'm out of options because DH is army and we move frequently. When a school fails their first go around at accredidation what are the odds of them getting accredited the second go around? Sorry OP I don't mean to hijack your thread.

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