what the?? accreditations

The confusion is because there are two entirely different types of accreditation to consider when looking at nursing programs.

NLNAC (which has just announced it's changing its name) and CCNE are both national, nursing-specific accreditations, and both are equally acceptable. "Regional accreditation" refers to the school's general academic accreditation (the entire school, not just the nursing program). "Regular" (for lack of a better term) colleges and universities are accredited by regional academic accrediting organizations like MSACS (Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools), NEASC (New England Association of Schools and Colleges), or SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools), and others (there's one for each region of the US). National accreditation is only a problem when you're talking about general academic accreditation. The proprietary (private-for-profit) "schools" have created their own national organizations which only accredit proprietary schools -- this way, when potential students ask if they are accredited, they are able to truthfully answer "yes" and hope the potential students don't know enough to ask any further questions. However, because those schools are not held to the same academic standards as the "regular" colleges and univerisities and don't meet the accreditation standards to which they are held, credits from the proprietary schools typically don't transfer to "regular" schools when you want to return to school to further your education and career.

So, the bottom line in nursing is that you want a program that has national nursing-specific (NLNAC or CCNE) accreditation and regional general academic accreditation. Hope that is helpful. All of any school's accreditations should be listed somewhere on the school's website. If there's not a specific "accreditation" heading that you see, just try typing "accreditation" into the search or directory window.

Best wishes for your journey!

Any idea how much trouble I'd run in to later when applying for a MSN? I wonder how many MSN programs will accept nationally accredited credits...?

You could easily look at the websites for graduate programs you are interested in (or just a random sampling of schools) and check the eligibility requirements for applicants.