Please help! To attend or not to attend? ACICS accreditation

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Oct 28, 2008

does it sound like she's hiding something?

no.

what should we do?

the dean of nursing told you to research which colleges will transfer the acics [accreditation]. to do that you will probably need to contact the individual schools you are interested in and query them about their willingness to accept a graduate from your school.

would going to a community college to get an adn be better since they already have all the necessary accreditations?

you need a bsn to get into most msn programs. community colleges can only confer associate degrees. like the dean of your school, i would recommend that you research msn program that you are interested in. i have no idea what your specific interests are in advanced nursing subjects. only you know what your interests and needs are. that makes you the best one to be doing that research.

it just seems like we're being bullied by this school.

a matter of one's perception and opinion. i don't see that as being bullied at all. was the nursing school's accreditation even a consideration when you applied and accepted a place in this class? or was getting in and getting an

rn

as fast as possible your priority? every decision has consequences.

. . .they can't even give a helpful, straight answer.

"when we asked her what schools would we be able to transfer to for msn programs, she. . .said that we're college students and its up to us to do our research on which colleges will transfer our acics [accreditation]," seems like a fairly straight forward direction to me. it was similar to the reply we got from my professors of my bsn program when they were asked about getting accepted into msn programs with less than a 3.2 gpa. we were told to research and contact individual schools to find out who was willing to bend their rules--that this rule bending was not always published. there are many factors involved in a graduate school's acceptance of master's candidates. we were told that the admission criteria is not as black and white as it is for undergraduates and they are looking for people who are going to be high performers and independent thinkers.

we don't understand why she can't give us a simple list of which schools we can transfer to.

did high school teachers give you lists of nursing schools? the word for bsns is

responsibility

: the condition of being accountable (able to explain) for one's behavior. rns are in training to be problem solvers and leaders. on the job the buck pretty much stops with us. the responsibility is even greater for msns.

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Oct 28, 2008

looking at this schools website, can see why dean made above response:

the link between the auhs' mission, the son's mission and philosophy and nursing professional standards is demonstrated in the beliefs and values that are jointly held -the professional value of caring, the core competencies of critical thinking with the application of research based knowledge, communication, human diversity, and the technical skills to guide the development of a professional provider of care. ...

...education is the catalyst used to prepare the student as a nurse. it is education that builds a foundation of essential knowledge and skill to become a safe and competent nurse, first and foremost. having acquired foundation, education is also necessary to motivate the learner to search, transmit and interpret knowledge. if the student is to think critically, reason and accept responsibility and accountability for their actions education is the vehicle. it is through education and staying abreast of the evolving science and research that each student gains an appreciation of the discipline of nursing and why life-long learning is not only necessary for practice but a professional responsibility

http://www.auhs.edu/nursingforms/nursing%20standard.doc

looking at school standards and course outline, curriculum design appears to be educating and empowering students to become critical thinkers taking responsibility for ones actions and learning ---including purchasing education. looking closely at the schools website, i see a minimum of information about the bsn program listed, no listing of educators or program directors. ---which is a red flag to me.

checking the ca board of nursing nclex pass rate site, http://www.rn.ca.gov/schools/passrates.shtml there are no students listed as taking/ passing nclex from this program, so i am assuming this is a new program.

as such, they can not apply for nursing nln/aacn accreditation as no track record of it's graduates. transferring credits to a masters program in the area will be difficult if the school does not have a name brand reputation in the community for it's other programs. start up programs usually have good intentions and a leap of faith of students that further accreditation will occur. please call msn programs you are interested in to see if they will accept your degree before sinking any further monies into coursework

school is state accredited http://www.cpec.ca.gov/collegeguide/institution.asp?id=e0852a&bhcp=1

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Oct 28, 2008

Usually, after the first class graduates and takes the NCLEX, doesn't the school apply for its other accreditations? At least that's how I've heard it works. New schools are usually very solicitous of their first group of graduates since they are the hope for the future accreditation of the school. It would be interesting to call the accrediting corporation and question them about this.

Our university profs always told us that the graduate programs printed one thing in their admission requirements, but to not let that discourage any of us from applying somewhere even if we didn't have all the admission requirements. We were down the road from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing (Case Western Reserve University) which had very high standards of admission. We were told to apply anyway. A lot can happen to get one into an admission interview or can change one's fate and entry into a graduate program. It could be who signs a letter of recommendation for you or who knows your name just as much as whether you graduated from an accredited school. If you write a textbook on an important subject or were the president of a national association it might get you into a graduate program more so than if you went to an accredited school. Admission committees do consider these accomplishments.

mpf0life · Feb 26, 2010

DO NOT ATTEND THIS SCHOOL!!! i am currently a nursing student here and its not worth spending all your money. The administration are never considerate about their students. Each unit is $542.19 and each quarter you'll be taking about 15 units for 10 quarters. With the high amount of tuition you would think that they have good loan options, but they dont. The only company we utilize is sallie mae. We are not affiliated with any other loan companies like most other schools are. They don't have CCNE accreditation so basically our credits wont transfer. So if we ever decided to go for a masters program more than likely we wont get accepted. On top of all the tuition that we pay, we have to pay for other stuff like ATI. ATI is a supplemental tool that will supposedly help us with our NCLEX exams, but i dont feel it works. My class paid around $500 for it but i believe now they are charging about $1000. I would rather much spend my money on a kaplan review. Another thing about this school i dont like is that they change their rules all the time. They newly just implemented a policy that we must pass our exit exam with a 90% or we cannot graduate. 90% is a little extreme. There is a high turn over rate of faculty and staff which obviously means that their must be something wrong with administration. Also, a lot of good instructors have left because they are also fed up with the school. Although we may have good instructors now, they dont compare to the good ones that we had before. So after saying all this...let me see it again...DO NOT ATTEND THIS SCHOOL!!!