What do you do when...

Nursing Students General Students

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Your school is telling people they have national accreditation and they don't?? I know we don't have it, because SAC is only regional accreditation, not national.

But when confronted by the president of the campus, he tells me we have national... I asked him which accrediting body gave us our national accreditation.... He says SAC.

So frustrated at what I'm hearing around here. This school is desperate. So ready to leave.

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Specializes in ICU.

What school is it? Actually, regional accreditation is better than national in some things. Regional is what gets your credits to transfer. The national accreditation is used by some places for securing a job. You can check on different websites to see where your school stands on its different accreditations. Though you should have researched this on your own before attending. You will have to pay for the classes you took which are probably expensive. But if my school wasn't accredited, I wouldn't go there, simple as that.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Mm-kay. I have no idea what type of program you're in, so I'm just providing generic info... hope it will be helpful.

If you're in an RN program, it must be approved by your state board of nursing as well as accredited by a national nursing organization. There are 2 types of accreditation that are relevant. National accreditation by either CCNE or ACEN. CCNE only accredits BSN & graduate programs but ACEN accredits all types, including diploma and ADN. If you're in an LP/VN program, national accreditation is not required... just approval by the appropriate state board of nursing.

In addition to the nurse-specific accreditation, your school (university, college, community college, etc) needs to be REGIONALLY accredited. This is what ensures that your basic educational credits are transferable. Clinical credits are not usually transferable (due to the diversity of curriculum designs) unless your school has a pre-existing agreement with other nursing programs.

So - your school prez is telling the truth. Southern Association of Colleges (SAC) is one of 6 regional accreditation bodies in the US. National accreditation applies only to specific career/professional programs. Hope that makes sense.

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He's saying SAC is national and that CCNE and ACEN is not needed (which is kinda true I guess?). But marking our school as nationally accredited. Only accreditations are SAC, FL BON, COE.

2-year RN program.

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