MAYHEW — After years spent meeting every requirement of the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission, East Mississippi Community College made the grade last week.
The Associate Degree in Nursing program, which prepares students for careers as registered nurses, March 30 was accredited by NLNAC. The mandatory designation allows EMCC to continue its ADN program and opens the door for a planned expansion aimed at helping licensed practical nurses become registered nurses, giving them credit for their LPN education and experience, without forcing them to start from the beginning of the RN curriculum.
Pat Clowers, director of Nursing and Allied Health at EMCC, said the nursing faculty at the Golden Triangle campus worked tirelessly to meet the detailed NLNAC requirements. After beginning the process four years ago, the faculty was confident the school would achieve accreditation, but Clowers was careful not to take it for granted.
“I’m very relieved and happy and pleased,” she said of earning accreditation. “If we had not achieved accreditation, the students, who graduated in December, would have been unaccredited. If they wanted to upgrade to a bachelor’s degree, they would have had to start over.”
EMCC graduated its first ADN class, since 1981, in December. The school had an ADN program briefly in 1980-81 and graduated one class in 1981.
Of 13 graduates in the 2011 class, twelve went on to pass state board examinations. When the NLNAC reviews EMCC’s accreditation in 2016, the graduates’ pass rate on those examinations and evaluations from students and their employers will all be taken into account. The graduates’ first evaluation will take place in September.
EMCC was allowed to admit students to the program in 2009 and received candidacy status from the NLNAC in December 2010. The faculty and staff submitted reports and analyses of their curriculum, faculty and resources to the accrediting body. The NLNAC then performed an exhaustive review of the school’s curriculum and student success, factoring the length of time it took students to complete the program and the job placement rate of graduates.
The school will have to maintain the stringent requirements put forth by the NLNAC, but Clowers said the program will have some breathing room in 2016, as opposed to the immediate nature of the initial accreditation.
“When they come back, if there’s anything they question, we’ll have the opportunity to make improvements,” she said.
EMCC currently has two ADN classes in progress at the Golden Triangle campus. Up to 29 sophomores could be eligible to graduate this December and 20 freshmen are aiming for graduation in 2013.
Although accreditation is required to proceed with the ADN program, Clowers said it simultaneously speaks to the program’s value.
“When you get national accreditation, that’s the icing on the cake,” Clowers noted. “It says you have a quality program.”
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