Regional or Nationally Accredited?

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Hi everyone: I have been researching different distance learning programs. I have already posted re: St. Josephs College in Maine. My question is when you are looking at their accreditation, what should I be looking for? St. Josephs is regionally accredited. I have been advised to find one that is nationally accredited. Is this true? What accreditation is Univ. Of Phoenix (seems like a popular school)? Thanks for your help.

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Specializes in Gastroenterology; and Primary Care.

You need to find a "regionally" accredited school.

UOP is such a school.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

If possible look for one with National League of Nursing Certficiation. That's the standard and those degrees are readily accepted in a lot of grad schools. For example here, University of Florida talks only BSNs from NLN certfied colledges/universities.

Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences is an NLN certified online program that I've decided to try in January. :)

Good luck.

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http://www.degreeinfo.com is a site dedicated to all kinds of DL schools, and there you can find more than you ever wanted to know about the details of national and regional accreditation.

Like Melody said above, regional accreditation is preferable to national accreditation. Not that there's anything wrong with nationally accredited schools, but regional accreditation is more widely accepted for purposes of transfer, etc. St Joseph's of Maine, UOP, Excelsior are all regionally accredited.

In addition, like 3rdShiftGuy said, look for a program that has professional accreditation from either (or both) the NLNAC or the CCNE. Lists are available at http://www.aacn.nche.edu/CCNE/reports/accprog.asp and http://www.nlnac.org/Forms/directory_search.htm .

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