non accredited school grad now licensed RN

Published

hi everybody i am new to all nurses and find the site to be very resourcefull my question is really quite simple I had attended a newly established non accredited RN school in philadelphia I passed and graduated from the accelerated program the school had offered I have 10 years experience as an LPN and just took my RN NCLEX and passed only yesterday needless to say i am very excited but at the same time a little skeptical of how my prospective employers might consider my schooling credentials anybody out there that might have had my experience or is knowledgable on this topic have any advice to offer as to where and what to expect as to future employment oppurtunities thanks and God bless you all

Up Vote Up Vote ×

So if you attend a school that is not accredited.. you can take the NCLEX?

This has been my predicament on applying to a school with a new nursing program.. they don't go up for review til this spring. And a $50 application is too much for me as of now :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×

There is no US state that requires national (NLNAC or CCNE) accreditation in order for grads to be eligible for the NCLEX. However, the school has to be approved by the state BON. A lot of people get confused because the term "accreditation" is often used (misused) to refer to both NLNAC/CCNE accreditation and/or state BON approval.

Some state BONs (CA is one I know of) add to the confusion by sometime using the term "accreditation" themselves when what they are talking about is state approval.

As for employment, hard to say. Some employers do have a policy that they will only hire graduates of accredited programs. Most don't, but the ones that do include some of the more desirable healthcare employers in the US (including the VA system and, I believe, the entire US military). The number of employers that require it is growing, but that may be more a function of the current employment situation (employers have so many applicants for each open position that they're looking for a quick, easy way to "thin the herd" -- one way to do that is to increase the minimum general requirements for nursing positions; same as many more employers are now saying they are only interested in BSN-prepared nurses). That may change when the economy and employment situation improves, or it may be here to stay. Can't tell at this point.

NLNAC/CCNE accreditation is definitely an issue if you ever decide to return to school (as so many nurses do) -- most graduate programs in nursing will only accept graduates of accredited programs.

No new school is able to get accreditation right away, because part of the accreditation process is seeing how the graduating classes do on the NCLEX (the accreditation process, for new or existing schools, takes a few years for that reason). If a school has applied for accreditation and is actively in the accreditation process, if it ends up getting accredited the students who graduated during that time will be "grandfathered in" (back to the beginning of the process) and be considered graduates of an accredited school. However, if you attend an unaccredited school that later pursues and gets accreditation (after you've graduated), you will not be grandfathered in and will always be a graduate of an unaccredited program.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

thanks plenty for the feedback. your point made as far as being "grandfathered" in would apply to me since the school has been attempting ,for the past several years, to become accredited. again i thank you for your reply, you have educated me on a few points that i was not aware of.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
thanks plenty for the feedback. your point made as far as being "grandfathered" in would apply to me since the school has been attempting ,for the past several years, to become accredited. again i thank you for your reply, you have educated me on a few points that i was not aware of.

If the school tries for accreditation and doesn't get it, and then tries again and is successful, the accreditation would only be retroactive back to the later (ultimately successful) application -- not all the way back to whenever the school originally started trying. And there are some schools (mostly the for-profit schools) that will tell students and potential students that they're "pursuing" or "working toward" accreditation when what they really mean is they might apply for accreditation some day soon -- that's not the same as having applied and being actively in the accreditation process.

The NLNAC and CCNE both maintain a list on their websites of "candidate schools" -- schools that have formally applied and are in the process. You can check their websites to see if your school is listed.

Best wishes!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

my class started 1/2009 and i was a graduate nurse 8/05/2010 i recently took the NCLEX and as of 01/25/2011 i am an active RN in the state of PA. i looked up the NLNAC as you had suggested and see that they are currently listed as Diploma candidates from JUNE 2010 thru JUNE 2012 if they recieve accredatation then my class would not be grandfathered ...is this correct thanks

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion