The Accreditation Process in Nursing

Name

Institutional Affiliation

The Accreditation Process in Nursing

Accreditation Required

The new facility that is being established will be a nursing school. One major accreditation required for a nursing school is by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN). This accreditation is extended to support the interests of nursing education and practice. The accreditation is however voluntary, done through peer-review, and aims to promote self-regulation to ascertain that the institution either meets or surpasses the set standard and criteria for education quality. ACEN is provided for all types of nursing programs, ranging from doctorate, masters, baccalaureate, associate, and diploma and for practical nursing programs (ACEN, 2013). The accreditation is also offered for hospital-based organization offering nursing programs (this is where the new facility fall under). 

Importance of the ACEN accreditation

The accreditation process involves peer evaluation for education institutions to ensure that the programs offered as within the prescribed level of quality. Accreditation is offered for the institutions and programs that prove to meet the criteria for educational quality (Lowery & Spector, 2014). In the United States, this process has been made voluntary and non-governmental. General accreditation serves two major roles: ensuring quality of education and helping in the improvement process. It falls in two categories of institutional accreditation and programmatic accreditation. The first category seeks to indicate that an institution as a whole facility has met the quality standards. The second accreditation on programs targets the quality of programs in the specific professional disciplines. Being a non-governmental initiative, accreditation serves to complement the federal and state measures of promoting quality education. The process of accreditation aims to offer protection to the students, public, and institutions (CCNE, 2009). For the prospective students, accreditation is a symbol of a school’s commitment to ensuring their success. Prospective students are assured of quality due to the presence of an external oversight body. The level of integrity in these nursing schools is also enhanced. 

The ACEN accreditation will serve the following purpose for the institution and other related stakeholders. It provides a common measure for standards and criteria through which nursing education programs are subjected. The accreditation aims to strengthen educational quality by offering help with regard to nursing education units through evaluating processes, functions, publications, and research. The accreditation is a means of championing for self-regulation in nursing education. It facilitates the process of peer-review in the nursing field. Through the promotion of educational equity, the ACEN accreditation allows equal access, opportunity, mobility, and readiness for employment depending on the nursing education acquired (ACEN, 2013).

Time Required for the ACEN Accreditation

  The accreditation process by ACEN takes about two years or less for the initial stage depending on the level of preparedness of the candidate institution. According to the ACEN website, this period is necessary to ensure that ACEN is able to develop a program preparation of the study report. This is the same as developing all the necessary documentation that will be used along with a checklist to follow. The candidate is then required to ensure that they conduct a self-study report to ensure that they fall within the parameters. The other activity is a site visit to the candidate to ensure that all physical infrastructure are in place. Next, an evaluating panel from ACEN reviews the programs to be offered and gives necessary recommendations. The programs are then reviewed by the Board of Commissioners and an accreditation decision is made. 

Resources Needed

The process of accreditation requires various resources to sail through. First, there is need for physical infrastructure such as labs, classes, and practicum hospital among others. Second, there should be qualified faculty to ensure that there is quality education being passed on. Third, a team that will oversee the accreditation process and finances for carrying out the activity should be available. 

Costs

The following table shows the direct applicable accreditation fees that are paid by the candidate to the agency. 

                             Adopted from ACEN Website (www.acenursing.net/resources/fees1314.pdf)

The table below shows estimated revenues when the new Nursing School is accredited and when it is not and the loss accrued due to failure to get accreditation. For the purpose of this calculation, I have assumed that the nursing school has the capacity of 150 students in each academic year. 

Year of study	Population if Accredited	% loss of students if not accredited	Population remaining	School fees per year ($)	Revenue loss
1	145	15%	123	7500	(145-123)*7500=165,000
2	140	20%	91	7500	(140-91)*7500=367,500
3	138	15%	69	7500	(138-69)*7500=517,500
4	135	5%	61	7500	(135-61)*7500=555000
Total annual revenue loss for not accrediting facility ($)	1,605,000

Conclusion

The establishment of a nursing college by the institution is a noble idea of spreading the nursing knowledge. The practical experience from the already existing healthcare organization will be very helpful for the success of the learning institution. The nursing college will need to ensure quality is achieved and maintained in the entire institution and its programs. Accreditation is one way of ensuring this quality. Accreditation is a voluntary process by which an institution demonstrates its commitment to ensure maintenance of quality and standards. The Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN) will be one relevant accreditation that is beneficial to the new institution. ACEN is provided in two forms targeting the institution at large and the other focused on the specific programs being offered.  This type of accreditation lays a task for the new facility to meet or exceed the set quality standards for nursing education.

References

Accreditation Commision for Education in Nursing(ACEN). (2013). Mission/Purpose/Goals. Retrieved from http://www.acenursing.org/mission-purpose-goals/

ACNE. (2016). Accreditation Manual. Retrieved from http://www.acenursing.org/accreditation-manual/

CCNE. (2009). Achieving Excellence in Accreditation. Retrieved from http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:bdFPKmNZl2EJ:www.aacn.nche.edu/ccne-accreditation/CCNEHistory.pdf+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=firefox-b-ab

Lowery, B., & Spector, N. (2014). Regulatory Implications and Recommendations for DIstance Education in Prelicensure Nursing Education. Journal of Nursing Regulation.