Regionally v. Nationally accredited BSN - difference in employment opportunities???

lanoneus · Sep 1, 2015

I don't know about employment, but it will definitely affect any further schooling opportunities. It's counter-intuitive, but national accreditation is not accepted as widely as regional. If you're choosing between two programs, go with the regional accreditation. Also make sure the program is ACEN or CCNE accredited.

llg, PhD, RN · Sep 1, 2015

A lot depends on the particular schools involved and the job market of the region in which you live.

In general, regional accreditation is the higher level of accreditation -- and the type that the most respected schools have. Employers generally prefer to hire nurses from the more respected schools -- but whether or not a particular employer will higher new graduates from a particular school is not a matter of accreditation alone. A lot of other factors come into play.

However, when it comes to furthering your education in years to come, graduating from a school with regional accreditation may make it easier to get your previous credits accepted by a high-quality school.

NurseGirl525, ASN, RN · Sep 1, 2015

Regional is just to transfer your credits at a later time. Like my cc is regionally accredited so if I want to get my BSN down the road, I can transfer to a 4 year college. National accreditation is what you want when looking for a job. Most employers will want you to graduate from a college that is nationally accredited by the ACEN. That is the "gold sticker" so to speak of nursing programs.

The accrediting agencies are completely different. The National League of Nursing is the one that does nursing programs. They generally come in and look at the school, their curriculum, NCLEX pass rates, all of that stuff. It's a pretty rigorous thing. If a school is regionally accredited, the whole school is, not just the nursing program. So that means for any major that you take, your credits are transferable.

So essentially, you are looking at two different things. You want your college to have both accreditations. But for employment you need that national one. And don't listen to those for profit colleges that tell you they are accredited through the national health science association or what ever it is they call it now. That is other for profit colleges saying yes, you can tell people about our meaningless accreditation. You want the one by the actual nursing association.

elkpark · Sep 1, 2015

Part of the ongoing confusion about this question is that there are two different kinds of "national" accreditation. There is general academic accreditation, which is usually held by the proprietary and tech-voc schools, and, in the case of general academic accreditation, that is not as desirable as general academic accreditation by one of the regional accrediting bodies. Those are the organizations that accredit "regular" (for lack of a better term) colleges and universities. Many of the proprietary and tech-voc "career" schools don't meet the academic standards of those accrediting bodies, so they've created their own national accrediting bodies which only accredit proprietary and tech-voc schools, so that, when prospective students ask, "Are you accredited?" they can honestly answer, "Yes" and they hope the prospective students don't know enough about accreditation to ask any further questions. These national accrediting bodies have much lower standards than the regional academic accrediting organizations, and that's why credits from the schools with national academic accreditation typically don't transfer to "regular" colleges and universities that are regionally accredited.

The other kind of accreditation that matters when it comes to nursing schools is nursing-specific accreditation (CCNE or ACEN). These are national organizations. Attending a program without ACEN or CCNE accreditation can significantly impact your nursing career, both in terms of employment and furthering your education later on (if you choose to).

So, the short answer is that, ideally, you want regional (general academic) AND national (nursing-specific; ACEN or CCNE) accreditation.

What you don't want is national general academic accreditation.