regional vs national accreditation

Nursing Students ADN/BSN

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I am currently looking into RN to BSN programs. American Sentinel University has a very appealing online program which awards an experienced nurse 30 credits for a nursing license and another 30 credits for >2 years of experience. This means I could be done with my Bachelors degree after taking just 30 more credits. Is it too good to be true?

This college is CCNE accredited but is not regionally accredited. Am I correct in my understanding that this does not matter unless I plan to further my education? I have no desire to do so, and simply am seeking a BSN program which will allow me to meet the requirements of any nursing jobs with a BSN requirement. Will this program give me that opportunity or should I seek a regionally accredited program?

Do you think I would have any problems acquiring a BSN position with a degree from a nationally accredited University that is not also regionally accredited? I have done so much research but am finding myself so confused at this point.

Thanks for your help!

Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

They applied for regional accreditation in 2010 but did not meet standards. Rather than taking the corrective actions needed to achieve this, they just withdrew their application. http://www.ncahlc.org/download/_PublicDisclosureNotices/AmericanSentinelUniversityPDN.pdf This does not look good.

Looks like this has changed; they have CCNE status now, in 2013. I'm looking into them.

Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

CCNE is NOT regional accreditation. Regional accreditation is what will get you transferable credits and a gateway to grad school (if you so desire). CCNE will not. Caveat emptor

Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

For those of you who may not know, 'national' accreditation does not trump regional accreditation. In fact, the opposite is true. Read up on it here: What is the difference between regional and national accreditation? | Yahoo! Education Help - this Yahoo article provides a pretty straight up picture of the issue.

The original question was never answered. She stated that she is not looking to go any further than BSN. I would also like to know if the CCNE acceditation is all that is needed in this case.

Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

Magbolt: It depends on the employer. For "people in the know," if a school doesn't have regional accreditation, it's a red flag that they have low standards and are not a high quality program. Some employers don't care about that. But some employers do -- and will be reluctant to hire nurses who haven't graduated from schools known to be of high quality.

So your chances of being hired with a degree from a "lesser" school will depend on how selective the employer is. You may have no trouble at all ... but then again, you might. It becomes a matter of how much risk you are willing to take with your career -- and be willing to deal with the consequences if things don't work out exactly as you had hoped.

Not sure that I agree that just because a school does not have regional accreditation it has low standards and not a qualtiy program. All of the schools I am considerind do have CCNE which is the "gold standard" in nursing accreditation.

Not sure that I agree that just because a school does not have regional accreditation it has low standards and not a qualtiy program. All of the schools I am considerind do have CCNE which is the "gold standard" in nursing accreditation.

Nursing accreditation and general academic accreditation are two entirely different matters. Lots of nursing programs have CCNE or CNEA accreditation but the schools of which they are part are well-known as low quality academic institutions. As llg notes, to some people (employers), that doesn't matter, to some it does. Also, as I noted on the thread you started with this question, it can definitely affect your ability to further your education in the future. Lots of nurses feel they are never going to want to return to school, but change their minds later on. IMO, it's a big mistake to limit future opportunities for yourself in that way.

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