I can't work at the VA hospital when I graduate!

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Hey everyone. I was at the VA today trying to get vocational rehab for nursing school. I'm currently attending Carrington College in Albuquerque. I found out today that the school is accredited, but the nursing program is not! As a result of there not being any accreditation, I was also told that I'd be limited as to the hospitals and facilities in which I can work. Is that accurate? If that's the case, I will likely drop out of Carrington after this term is over in January. I'd appreciate any feedback! Thanks!

Specializes in Occ. Hlth, Education, ICU, Med-Surg.
Thanks. The only drawback is that all of the accredited schools have a waiting list and I'll be in school a lot longer just to get my Associates/RN license. If I stay at Carrington, I can work at a couple of local hospitals until I get my BSN. I know that the school where I would be getting my BSN from is accredited. Decisions, decisions...

I'd double-check with those hospitals to ensure they hire graduates from this program and I'd verify with your prospective BSN program(s) that they will allow students from this program to matriculate

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Thanks. The only drawback is that all of the accredited schools have a waiting list and I'll be in school a lot longer just to get my Associates/RN license. If I stay at Carrington, I can work at a couple of local hospitals until I get my BSN. I know that the school where I would be getting my BSN from is accredited. Decisions, decisions...

Make sure the school that you plan on transfering too for your BSN will accept the credits from your current program. It would be a shame to go through all that work to find out later that you'll need to start all over again because the program you attended was not accredited. Good Luck, I hope it works out for you.

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Good luck. I personally have seen some big headaches people went through when their program was not accredited. (and there school was in the process of obtaining it) i personally wouldn't do it. make sure to do your homework to know that you can actually go on to the rn to bsn program.

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Be careful. People have found out that they can not get licensed in a state because the school where they originally attended is not accepted by that state. Made no difference that they went on to obtain a BSN somewhere else.

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I am in a different state and I know nothing about the VA system, but:

1. Please do not confuse board approval with accreditation. Your school is fully approved by the New Mexico BON, which means that you should be able to take the NCLEX exam after graduation. Your school is a candidate for accreditation through ACEN, formerly known as the NLNAC. The candidacy runs until 2015. A new program has to start somewhere and candidacy is the first step towards accreditation. Only programs that meet ACEN's standards for candidacy are even accepted as candidates; not all programs do. Carrington will have a site visit and ACEN will then determine if they meet the standards for accreditation (criteria). This is a process, so it takes a while to go through.

2. Please do not confuse national accreditation with program accreditation. A school can be nationally accredited, but specific programs can have additional accreditation, such as what is found in nursing.

3. Please understand that PN programs and ADN programs can only go through ACEN for accreditation at this time. The National League for Nursing (which is not the same as NLNAC/ACEN) will eventually accredit programs, but the criteria are only now being written. BSN programs have the option to get accredited through ACEN (and eventually the NLN) or get accredited through CCNE.

4. A hospital does not have to hire nurses who graduate from unaccredited programs if it decides only to hire nurses who graduated from ACEN/NLN/CCNE accredited ones. Again, I do not know enough about the VA system to comment on whether or not they hire graduates from unaccredited programs. I am sure that others can guide you on this.

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Specializes in geriatrics.

Start shopping around for other options.

You'll need to be as competitive as possible in this competitive market. New grads are having a rough time as it is.

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Do some digging before investing your money in nursing school before you regret it.

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I graduated from Carrington in Boise and the major hospitals do not hire from there because they don't want to. It was not hard for me to get a job in the area and no one cared where I went to school (as long as it wasn't one of the larger hospitals). I moved out of state to another compact state and I had several job offers, again, I have my license so no one really cared where I went to school. I had my associates of science from a community college as well so I am almost done with my BSN from Boise State University and all my Carrington credits or the ones earned from my RN will be transferred to BSU so I can just put BSU on job applications. Depending on where you live and what you want to do, you'll be fine.

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Specializes in ER.

You're school is accredited by your state board but probably not the NLNAC or whatever they call themselves now. It's listed here: Approved Nursing Programs

What happened to me is that my school lost their NLNAC accreditation but it was backdated to their application date so I was covered when I graduated. However, if it was not I planned to go to a school where they were accredited by the CCNE to get my RN to BSN. My school had an articulation agreement in place with about 8 schools in order to allow us to get our BSNs.

Also, the military will not take associate degree nurses and I think the VA will take either CCNE or NLNAC accredited program graduates. I think the VA prefers CCNE though.

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