NP curriculum isn't standardized?

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I keep hearing in the MD vs. NP threads and elsewhere that NP curriculum isn't standardized. I thought all accredited programs had a standard curriculum. Maybe they are talking about unaccredited programs? How common are unaccredited programs?

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Specializes in Emergency.

All programs have to be accredited for the graduate to be able to sit for the boards. The programs have a minimum, core set of components they must meet. As long as they meet that standard they are allowed to adjust the program as they wish to meet the needs of a certain population of students.

I've seen the complaints as well, and it seems they are often complaining about entrance criteria, or costs, or length of time it takes to complete the program, aspects of the program that allow one program to differentiate itself from another.

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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

There are minimum standards for what the NP curriculum must offer such as the 3 Advanced P's (Pathophysiology, Pharmacology, and Physical Assessment) and the succession of didactic and clinical courses for each corresponding NP specialty focus.

There is variation, however, in the amount of academic credits designated in each of those required courses between schools because some programs go beyond the minimum standards (i.e., the 3 credit minimum for Pharmacology is sometimes extended to 4-6 credits or the 500 hours of clinical preceptorship are increased to 750 in some schools).

Just as in any field of study, quality is going to be variable between programs because of many factors. Depth and breadth of didactic content will be better at some schools than others. The clinical preceptorship experience will be highly variable as well even between students of the same program because not everyone has the same preceptor or clinical site. These are hard to pin down on curricular deficiencies alone and is an issue not exclusive to NP programs.

There are non-accredited NP programs in terms of the national accreditation bodies. CCNE and ACEN are the only two national agencies that accredit graduate nursing programs. The national certification boards (ANCC, AANP, AACN, PNCB, NCC) require examinees to have graduated from schools accredited by either of those two.

However, some state BON's also have their own list of approved programs and in my state there is one FNP program not accredited by CCNE or ACEN but yet is state nursing board approved. What does that mean to their graduates? they can get a California NP license but can't endorse to states that require national NP certification nor work under employers that require national NP certification.

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Specializes in Internal medicine/critical care/FP.

It seems nursing accreditation is a giant cluster F-word in comparison to many of accreditation bodies such as the AMA and other health professional degrees. No i am not comparing doctors to nurses, just nursing to other accrediting bodies. I have nothing against the fnp degree but the way our stuff is accredited could be better organized by 5 year olds.

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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

Well, there isn't really a specific NP program accreditation. CCNE and ACEN are large entities that accredit nursing programs in general (CCNE accredits BSN, MS/MSN, DNP; ACEN accredits AAS/ASN through DNP). I can cite a situation where a particular institution got CCNE accreditation to offer an online MSN programs (non-NP focused) at one point in time, then later decided they wanted to offer FNP and ANP programs as well and never got a visit from CCNE. The institution's FNP and ANP programs were automatically grandfathered as CCNE accredited programs. So yes, it's a joke.

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Specializes in Internal medicine/critical care/FP.

thats pretty crazy, since the school i went to also has a medical school and they had to go through hoops, bounds, rings, and rounds to increase their seat size by 50 students. And this was a DO school, which seem to have a bit less trouble with increasing class size than MD schools.

The lax behind all of this is fairly disheartening.

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Thanks for the replies, I'm really only vaguely familiar with the accreditation process. However, you seem to make it sound as if the whole school/department of nursing is accredited. I was pretty sure each program was accredited separately. Or is it that all masters programs are accredited, and all bachelors programs are accredited together?

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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

If you look at both ACEN and CCNE websites, accreditation is awarded to the degrees granted. X University for instance will receive accreditation to its BSN, MSN, and DNP programs individually. No mention of whether specific NP programs are accredited.

My example is based on this university which I will not name but this info is directly taken from CCNE:

"National Online University"

Minneapolis, MN

Master's degree

initial accreditation: April 8, 2006

most recent accreditation: April 19, 2010

accreditation term expires: December 31, 2020

last on-site evaluation: April 2010

next on-site evaluation: Spring 2020

"National Online University" announces the addition of AGNP and FNP program May 16, 2012.

From their website:

"To help meet these growing needs, XXX University has introduced the Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner and Family Nurse Practitioner specializations in its CCNE accredited online Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program".

Clearly, the school was able to start 2 new NP tracks without a site visit from CCNE and the accreditation claim is based off of the fact that they had a pre-existing accreditation to their previous non-NP master's degree. I could be wrong but I'm all about transparency and want answers.

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Thanks for the clarification Juan. Knowing that, I would think the nursing profession would benefit from a separate accreditation for APN roles. Do CRNA and CNM programs received extra scrutiny for accreditation?

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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

All CRNA programs are accredited by COA an arm of AANA.

CNM programs are accredited by ACME an arm of ACNM.

CRNA and CNM programs based in schools of nursing (not all are if you don't know that) are also CCNE or ACEN accredited. It's a double accreditation if you will.

I'm not knocking down NP's, I've been an NP long enough to recognize the contributions the NP role has shown in providing high quality healthcare. I'm just recognizing the fact that there's room for improvement and until we recognize these areas of improvement, we won't get there.

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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

There is some glimmer of hope and perhaps a separate accreditation process happening in its infancy in some NP tracks.

AC-PNP recognized programs - PNCB

PC-PNP recognized programs - PNCB

AGACNP recognized programs - AACN

Notice that these organizations are using the "approved" designation vs the "accredited" designation. I hope that in time, these do grow to become the standard for accreditation of these NP tracks.

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Specializes in Internal medicine/critical care/FP.

We aren't at all knocking NPs. I mean considering we are NPs we provide a less biased approach to knocking. Its not like we are PAs on here trying to ridicule our education. I have heard they upped the difficulty of the aanp and ancc exams this year though, not sure if it is true or not. They really need to.

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