Why Is Nursing College Accreditation Important?
If you are thinking of getting a nursing degree or enrolling for a nurse practitioner’s program it is very important for you to search for a school that has a college accreditation. You may not be sure on why accreditation is important and what does it exactly mean. The following will explain to you its significance and how you can pay attention to it before enrolling for a nursing degree or practitioner program in the USA.
In the USA nursing schools are generally evaluated via a group of standards that have been determined by the college accreditation agencies. This is very essential to provide students with quality nursing education. The accreditation that is awarded to the college is a kind of a quality marker. In the USA, most of the states lay down the mandatory rule that your nursing degree should be from an accredited school for you to take the NCLEX Examination.
When you attend an accredited school of nursing you is assured that you will get a competitive edge in the nation’s job market. Most employers in the country prefer to hire accredited practitioners. The main reason for this is these candidates are trained under the nation’s established standards that have been laid out for the nursing education.
In the USA there are two organizations that make the actual decision of whether a nursing school should be given accreditation or not? They are the National League Of Nursing Accrediting Commission or the NLNAC and the Commission On Collegiate Nursing Education or the CCNE. Both these organizations accredit the programs of nursing programs that provide Master and Bachelor Nursing Degrees in the nation.
In context to the above it should be noted that there are different levels of accreditation that is applied by accreditation bodies when it comes to issuing accreditation to school programs. Before you enroll for a particular school it is very important for you to understand the length of time for which the school is accredited when you are going in for a nursing program.
Those nursing schools that have been approved by the State Board Of Nursing means that they have received the “approved status” that implies that these schools are allowed to permit its students to appear for the National Council Licensure Examination or the NCLEX Examination. This again does not mean that the nursing school has been accredited by an accreditation agency or organization.