NLN Accreditation

[janeen.raygor]

I'm sure this has been asked a million times. Since I'm new to the boards...I'm going to ask again.

What exactly does a school having (or not having) NLN accreditation mean to the student? From what I can tell, if a school lacks this accreditation, it could make it harder to get employment and further education in another state, yes? Can you please tell me more about it? How big of a deal is this accreditation? People make it seem like a big deal, and they tell me to make sure without a doubt that the school I choose is NLN accredited, but no one can seem to answer why it needs to be NLN accredited!

The school I have been doing pre-reqs at is not accredited. The school I am thinking of switching to, Denver School of Nursing, presently has candidate status and is going to be getting their on-site review in the spring.

[NewSN13]

I have a friend who works for the state that I live in. We were discussing nursing school and she told me that they (the state) interview different big employers in the area to determine what they are looking for in terms of education levels and programs for potential employees. Based on this, they decide which programs a student can get education benefits for. Since a lot of people look to healthcare when the economy tanks, this was a big focus of theirs and they went to the big hospitals in the area to see what they were looking for in their employees. None of the hospitals here will hire graduates from non-accredited programs.

Our pediatrician is part of a fairly largish medical group and his nurse (an LPN working on her ADN) graduated from a non-accredited program and will receive her RN from the same program. In her case, it obviously wasn't a limiting factor but she did mention that a lot of her classmates are jobless.

Maybe you could ask around and find out what the hiring criteria are for the types of places you'd be interested in working in after nursing school.