Non-Accredited school moving out of state

tyvin, BSN, RN · Jan 3, 2015

You should call and talk to the BON at the state you plan on moving or look up their website. In my state the board requires national accredited schools. I also know that if you want to go to get your BSN at an accredited school you may have problems. I don't see an accredited school letting you bridge with non-accredited courses as your qualifications. I would definitely look that up online and make sure you can enter an accredited program. It will limit your choices of schools.

Attending a non-accredited program doesn't mean your education wasn't any less good or bad; it just means you're more than likely going to have trouble furthering your education outside in an accredited school. I know the traditional university route you'll have concerns, but maybe online bridging programs are less strict.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Jan 3, 2015

Will this be a problem when transferring my license? TIA :)

No, it shouldn't be a problem to obtain a license by endorsement in the state where you plan to move.

Contrary to popular notions, there is no state in the union that requires nursing programs to be accredited. Accreditation is a voluntary step taken by nursing programs to ensure a certain degree of quality and standardization. However, the accreditation process is purely voluntary.

Furthermore, I'm a graduate of a non-accredited school of nursing and have been able to endorse my license into several states. As long as the nursing program had state approval at the time of graduation, obtaining licensure by endorsement in other states should not be a problem.

elkpark · Jan 3, 2015

You should call and talk to the BON at the state you plan on moving or look up their website. In my state the board requires national accredited schools.

Please share what state you are in and post a link to the documentation that the BON requires one to be a graduate of an accredited program to be eligible for licensure. People post this once in a while, but never come back with any real documentation (or, they come back later and say, oops, my mistake, turns out it's not a requirement). AFAIK, there is no US state that requires ACEN/CCNE accreditation for licensure. They do require that the schools be approved by the state BON, but that is an entirely different matter. There are a few state BONs that use the term "accreditation" to refer to what most BONs refer to as "approval," which does confuse the issue somewhat, but doesn't change the bottom line.

I do try to keep up with these things, and to avoid posting bad information, so if there is really a state that is now requiring ACEN/CCNE accreditation for licensure, I would really like to know about that. Thanks!