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June 3, 2010 Jane Foote RN, MSN HealthForce Minnesota

June 3, 2010 Jane Foote RN, MSN HealthForce Minnesota. Nursing Program Accreditation: overview, benefits and accreditation status of Minnesota nursing programs. National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission.

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June 3, 2010 Jane Foote RN, MSN HealthForce Minnesota

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  1. June 3, 2010 Jane Foote RN, MSN HealthForce Minnesota Nursing Program Accreditation: overview, benefits and accreditation status of Minnesota nursing programs

  2. National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission • NLNAC Accredits Practical, Associate Degree, Baccalaureate, Masters and Doctoral degree programs. • The only accrediting body option for lower division nursing programs. • Reports to the Department of Education. • Separate from National League for Nursing • www.nlnac.org

  3. Benefits for accredited programs • Graduates can work in any setting, including the military. • Articulation and transfer of nursing education is facilitated nationally. • National standards for program excellence are ensured. • Programs connect to other nationally accredited schools. • Access to Federal grants and programs

  4. A short history in Minnesota: How did the nursing program accreditation issue surface? • Dr. Sharon Tanner from NLNAC came to Minnesota in April of 2008 to speak to the state Health Educators conference in Rochester. • Noted at that meeting that Minnesota was one of three states that had the lowest percentage of accredited programs nationally, and that the other two states were mandating accreditation.

  5. Seriously? How could that be? • HealthForce MN did some informal research on the number and locations of accredited programs in Minnesota and looked at some of the hiring requirements of some major employers. Accreditation appeared to be a two year issue, all of the BSN programs were accredited. • Met with the program directors of the two year programs in September of 2008 to present findings and ask their preferred next steps. • Surveyed the Directors of the two year programs in November regarding barriers and preferred supports to accreditation. • Presented the survey results to the program directors in January 2009.

  6. Minnesota Accredited Nursing Programs April 2009

  7. Barriers identified by the Directors of the two year nursing programs • Master’s prepared faculty • Financial support/ expense of accreditation. • Availability of Masters programs in greater Minnesota. • Unfamiliar with the accreditation process. • Unfamiliar with the self study in particular.

  8. Moving the initiative along… • In April of 2009 HealthForce MN awarded 12 $5,000 grants to campuses in MnSCU to defer the costs of accreditation candidacy. • Offered travel support to 23 faculty and directors to attend the national self study forums. • Hired Diane Gold and Lee Ann Joy as consultants to provide local support and advise to programs. • Conducted monthly accreditation Web Ex meetings to connect programs to one another.

  9. Where are we today? • 4 of 23 MnSCU Practical nursing programs are NLNAC accredited. • 3 more Practical Nursing programs are seeking candidacy. • 9 of 19 MnSCU AD (RN) programs are accredited. • 4 more AD (RN) programs have applied for candidacy. • 8 programs are considering accreditation and are at various points in the process of candidacy. • Met with the MNSCU presidents on June 1, to inform and discuss the status and next steps. • To date a total of $85,000 in support from HealthForce (travel, grants, consultants) for programs seeking accreditation. • Surveying MnSCU two year Nursing faculty regarding a Masters in Nursing Education cohort .

  10. Other Supports • Minnesota now has four programs evaluators from St Paul, Ridgewater, Inver Hills and Rochester who will be visiting other states and participating in the evaluation of other programs. Prior to this year we had no one from Minnesota participating in this level of the accreditation process.

  11. Master’s degree in Nursing Education Progress • Working with Metropolitan State University to deliver a Masters degree in Nursing in an on line format to a cohort of MnSCU faculty.

  12. Additional Challenges • Two year nursing programs have a large number of non accredited programs. Greater Minnesota employers rely on these programs for their nursing workforce. • Employers may not fully realize the programs are not specialty accredited, and this may impact their hiring practices. • Fiscally the costs of accreditation may be prohibitive for small rural programs. • Availability of qualified nursing faculty.

  13. Challenges Continued • Sustainability of the costs associated with Accreditation. • Supporting a culture or paradigm shift in the state towards nursing program accreditation versus board approval as the gold star of excellence. • Allowing programs the time they need to learn about accreditation and begin their process.

  14. Questions? • Jane Foote RN, MSN • Executive Director • HealthForce Minnesota • Jfoote@winona.edu • 507-951-5465 (in Rochester) • www.healthforceminnesota.org

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