By Jamil Oakford/ editor-in-chief
Bogdan Sierra Miranda/The Collegian
TR’s nursing program was reaccredited over the summer for the next eight years.
The program’s previous Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing stamp of approval was good for eight years, and the program was approaching the end of it.
“We’re already approved by the Texas Board of Nursing, but we have to make sure we maintain our accreditation,” TR nursing coordinator Deann Mitchell said.
Three years before the program’s accreditation ran out, a group of nursing faculty gathered to begin a self-study.
“We write a 200-page document where we assess our programs and line them up with the six standards that every nursing program would need to meet,” Mitchell said.
ACEN requires six objectives to accredit: the program should reflect the core objectives and values stated in its mission, the faculty and staff must be qualified, have credentials and be well-staffed to support the programs, to name a few.
“The process of writing the self-study begins three years prior to the submission,” nursing associate professor Nancy Kupper said.
Kupper, a faculty member who helped assemble the 200-page document, said the program had to review where the college was and whether it needed to fix anything before applying for reaccreditation.
Once the self-study was submitted for review, ACEN sent visitors to TR’s nursing program to see if everything discussed in the document matched what they were seeing.
ACEN granted TR’s nursing program the reaccreditation this July, just before the fall semester began.
But Mitchell said that the program doesn’t rest on its laurels.
“When we heard we had achieved full accreditation without recommendations, we were all elated, relieved and very proud of the program,” Kupper said. “The accreditation process is ongoing. We’re always reviewing some standards every month.”
Kupper said this evaluation is done by the program’s faculty.
“All faculty have input into the systemic plan and responsibility to ensure each criteria is demonstrated,” she said.
