Wollford College

Nursing Students SRNA

Published

Anyone thinking of applying to CRNA school in FL might want to do a web search using the terms "Wollford", "Collier anesthesia" and "suit" and see what comes up. FYI, "a word to the wise..."

Specializes in Anesthesia.

Wolford still does not have regional accreditation. Wolford still has pending lawsuit from previous students.

You can become a CRNA attending Wolford, but your Wolford College degree is basically worthless if you ever want to pursue another degree anywhere else.

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You can become a CRNA attending Wolford, but your Wolford College degree is basically worthless if you ever want to pursue another degree anywhere else.

This is absolutely the furthest thing from the truth. Do some research on the topic. And by research, I mean contact other schools with doctorate programs and ask if they are willing to accept a student with a degree. All of them will say yes.

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
This is absolutely the furthest thing from the truth. Do some research on the topic. And by research, I mean contact other schools with doctorate programs and ask if they are willing to accept a student with a degree. All of them will say yes.

Without regionally accreditation most schools will not take that degree. Wolford even has statement warning students about it on their website.

"Accreditation & Licensure

Wolford College's Nurse Anesthesia Program has received institutional accreditation from the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs, a recognized U.S. Department of Education agency, however, credit in this program may or may not be transferable to other universities." Accrediation and Licensure | About

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"May or may not". When you call and speak with doctorate admissions boards they will all tell you they have no problem admitting a student who graduated from Wolford into their program.

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
"May or may not". When you call and speak with doctorate admissions boards they will all tell you they have no problem admitting a student who graduated from Wolford into their program.

You have talked to all of them? Being granted admission does not mean that a University will accept the transfer credit from a non-regionally accredited school. You may well have to take several extra classes just as a BSN would. This is one of the main reasons schools like Wolford are no longer being accredited through COA.

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Once you're accepted into a doctorate program they have accepted your degree and you begin their program. No hoops to jump through. No extra classes. I'm not saying these things to argue. They're facts. Congratulations to those who have been accepted to Wolford. I have friends who say it is an excellent program with excellent clinical experience.

Also, regional accreditation is not specific to any anesthesia program. For example: VCUs anesthesia program is not regionally accredited. VCU as an institution is regionally accredited so by default their CRNA program is regionally accredited. And the same is true of any university program. I'm only using VCU as an example.

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
Once you're accepted into a doctorate program they have accepted your degree and you begin their program. No hoops to jump through. No extra classes. I'm not saying these things to argue. They're facts. Congratulations to those who have been accepted to Wolford. I have friends who say it is an excellent program with excellent clinical experience.

Also, regional accreditation is not specific to any anesthesia program. For example: VCUs anesthesia program is not regionally accredited. VCU as an institution is regionally accredited so by default their CRNA program is regionally accredited. And the same is true of any university program. I'm only using VCU as an example.

So which regionally accredited schools will accept Wolford graduates into their Doctoral programs?

And exactly what is your educational/professional background?

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FIU and UNF definitely doesn't recognize Wolford's degree because they told me so during my interviews.

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Specializes in Anesthesia.

Wolford College will likely not exist after its current accreditation status, and if it does it will be vastly different. The new requirement from COA is that all nurse anesthesia programs must be regionally accredited and currently Wolford does not have regional accreditation.

To get regional accreditation Wolford would have to be associated with regionally accredited university.

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Specializes in ICU.

I'm aware that a lot of practicing CRNAs view this school as a CRNA mill, and want the program gone. However, if this program ceases to exist, others will pop up, which is already evidenced by there being 115 schools. Wherever there is a demand (nurses who want to become CRNAs), a supply will become available as long as it remains profitable. I am going to be applying to multiple schools, including the military route. Being an eager CRNA wannabe, I just want to get into a school, and it seems that with Wolford I actually have a decent shot of getting in. As a potential student, my question towards wtbcrna is why the hostility towards Wolford?

I have spoken with a few students who are currently matriculating at Wolford, and they all say that the program has actually applied for SACS accreditation this time around. All said that while they do have to be somewhat independent in their learning, they all feel that they are being prepared, there just hasn't been anybody there to "hold their hand." I was able to speak with a Wolford grad who is currently practicing on the west coast and he said that he did feel prepared clinically due to all of the exposure he was able to get through their multiple clinical sites.

Just out of curiosity (honestly not trying to be contentious), what makes you think that they won't get SACS accreditation without being affiliated with a university? If you read the SACS accreditation requirements they honestly don't seem all that difficult to meet. I notice that the school's website has been updated and now has more detailed "gainful employment" statistics, which is listed as a requirement on the SACS website. If they're not trying to obtain accreditation, why even update the website? If they didn't plan on becoming accredited, why continue to accept students when the COA states that if a school loses accreditation they will be required to provide a "teach out" plan in order to make all matriculating students meet the requirements to become eligible to sit for boards? If they didn't plan on obtaining SACS accreditation, they would be opening themselves up to major lawsuits if they weren't at least able to provide students with a "teach out plan." I don't know, but continuing to accept students if you don't plan on being around seems pretty risky to me.

I am curious as to how all of this unravel though. Will they get SACS accreditation? If not, why lie about it? Also, if they don't get SACS, will current students be sent to a different school to finish in order to satisfy the "teach-out" requirement? Will the COA let the school's current students finish the program? COA language makes It seems that students won't be sent home packing so to speak, and if they were, Wolford owners would be sued and would lose probably more money than they would gain from students being allowed to matriculate without any real chance to complete the program.

I dunno, if I do go to Wolford, part of me wants to start in October 2016 just to get started, but part of me wants to wait to apply for Feb 2017 so that we can at least know more about their future after the October 2016 review while applying to other schools in the meantime.

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Specializes in Anesthesia.

http://www.sacscoc.org/pdf/2012PrinciplesOfAcreditation.pdf. You can look for yourself and then see how a small stand alone school that is owned and operated by an anesthesiologist is going to meet the requirements for SAC accreditation.

Wolford received COA accreditation for 10 years so it can operate up until that accreditation runs out.

The only reason that I can think of why someone would want to apply to Wolford after its lawsuit, and the way the SRNAs were or are sharing cases is that it is easy to get into.

The accreditation process and the move to doctoral education is probably going to cause a few NA schools to close down. I can't tell you if that void will be filled by other schools, but I can tell you it will be harder process in the future to be accredited.

http://home.coa.us.com/accreditation/Documents/Accreditation%20Policies%20and%20Procedures%20Manual,%20revised%20%20Jan%202015.pdf?Mobile=1&Source=%2Faccreditation%2F%5Flayouts%2Fmobile%2Fview%2Easpx%3FList%3D249a579f%252D404a%252D4877%252Db8a9%252D2ec05eeb08b7%26View%3D308bbb03%252D3ffb%252D4710%252Da562%252D1897c491f287%26CurrentPage%3D1

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Specializes in ICU.

Thanks for the response!

I did look, and it seems like they meet all of the requirements for SACS accreditation. At least when comparing the information on the Wolford website to the SACS criteria. You're correct in that I would apply because it's easy to get into. It's a fall back school. It's not my #1 choice, but I want to practice anesthesia.

Does giving applicants with less than stellar stats the opportunity to become anesthesia providers possibly decrease the overall quality of CRNAs? It could theoretically, but board exams exist in order to set a minimum standard to practice.

Let me ask you this: If you hypothetically weren't able to get into any school other than Wolford, would you attend, or would you stay in bedside nursing/management/etc.?

On a side note, even if I don't attend Wolford, and somehow ended up doing something different altogether, I am curious how this will all play out.

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