Nursing program not accredited

By MICHELLE REITER

STAFF WRITER

Nursing students at Owens Community College may find themselves graduating from a school that is not nationally accredited.

Owens' associate degree registered nursing program was denied its continuing accreditation this year from the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission's board of commissioners.

How this will affect nursing students depends on the students' future plans, but it could make it harder to get out-of-state jobs or transfer to four-year colleges, said Dr. Sharon Tanner, the executive director and CEO of the accrediting agency, based in Atlanta. (NLNAC)

"There could be graduates in the meantime who would not graduate from an accredited program," Tanner said. "That is why we give two full years to (come into compliance). Because accreditation is so very important." (Owens had 2 years to fix this and didnt!!!!)

Dr. Matthew McIntosh, a dean of Owens' school of health and sciences, said the school remains accredited in Ohio and students should be able to transfer their credits to area universities. (We can take our boards, the NCLEX-RN tests, but to work out of state, we need to pay a fee and take an exam to get a provisional license to work there.)

"If you wanted to put icing on a cake, you would get this accreditation," he said Thursday. "It's not essential. It just makes it easier for the students." (Then why did you, Dr. McIntosh, wait until it was taken away to do anything about it? Why did you not work on getting the conditions figured out when the school was on 'probation' so that the program would be accredited and no one would have had to worry about it? McIntosh, Unger, Hall, Scott, Williams, all let this slip through their fingers when Dr. Unger should have taken responsibility and told the others "hey, this is the issue, Dr. A--you need to do this, Dr. B--you need to do this, etc. and get back to me asap. But apparently that is too difficult for a man who ONLY makes $200,000 year.)

He said students can still take licensing exams and graduate from a state-accredited college. (unfortunately, those students need to remain RN's who don't want to move on to get their Bachelors, and who want to live in Ohio where there are no jobs opening up. Good advice for those people, what about those who want to get their BSN and plan on moving to an area of higher demand for nurses who have to fight 2354356 other people for the same postition??)

National accreditation is not required in Ohio, as it is in some states, but graduating from an accredited school is a plus for nursing students. (yes, the school is accredited, but the program is not. Meaning, we can graduate from this school and do what we wish but when employers look at our resume, they will see that the program is not accredited by the NLNAC. They say that its a voluntary accreditaion and that we don't need it but just 2 paragraphs before, McIntosh says that its better to have it. HYPOCRITICAL S.O.B!! I'm sorry but I don't know anyone who will settle for less in this day and age. I don't know anyone who is fine with the fact that they can get their Associates in Nusing and then not get employed because they didn't get an education from an accredited program)

Tanner said not all nursing programs in Ohio are nationally accredited, but it is encouraged. Because it is not required, she said lack of accreditation is not as big an issue in Ohio. (not a big issue in Ohio. but what about those other 49 states?! what about all the schools that require transfer students to be from an accredited school with an accredited program!? BG, Lordes, UT, Mercy, Rhodes, Findlay, do not except students with out this specific accreditation. greeeeaaat!)

"Being accredited is something of great value to the students," Tanner said Thursday. "It's unusual for a program to be denied because of noncompliance."

Tanner said Owens was approved for accreditation "with conditions" two years ago.

This year, the college was required to submit a report detailing the changes they made in order to continue to receive accreditation. However, the accrediting board found the college in noncompliance with several of the agency's standards.

According to a letter written July 27 to Owens by the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission Inc., all of the nursing school faculty members do not hold a degree with a major in nursing, and only six of 77 part-time faculty members hold a graduate degree with a major in nursing.

The letter also stated that the nursing program is not compliant with several of the agency's educational effectiveness standards. Specifically, the program lacked evidence of "specific and measurable expected levels of achievement," along with a lack of evidence of job placement rates, among others.

McIntosh did not want to discuss the specific standards with which the school was found in noncompliance, but said they had nothing to do with the program's curriculum content or with the performance of the faculty. (sure, the teachers are teaching us but since they don't have degrees or atleast a BSN and are being paid, any of us could walk in and teach the classes...)

He said Owens faculty is now fielding questions from students and doing everything they can to regain the national accreditation. (its a "process" that they have to go through. A long "process". Thats all he kept saying to us whether our questions had anything to do with the "process" or not. no new information was taken from the meeting. Shame on them for not being ready. We all were, why weren't they?)

Ranay Scott, the college's vice provost of academic affairs, said Owens has been calling several universities that normally take Owens' nursing students to complete their four-year degrees and, so far, all of them have agreed to continue to take Owens' students. (FALSE!! she even said today that they do and the whole conference room SCREAMED at her and called her a liar. We all made our own calls and wrote our own emails and BG, Mercy, Rhodes, Lordes, UT do not accept. They are trying to grandfather students in but we won't get the documentation of it for some time since they haven't even started talking to those schools until it was mentioned at our meeting today.)

However, she said the college does not know how long it will take to regain their national accreditation. (its a long process....grrr.)

Tanner said to regain accreditation, the college will have to "start from scratch." (They could have fixed the conditions when they were given the documents 2 years ago. They would not have to start from scratch, but only fight an appeal. Since they didn't take it seriously, its going to take them longer to regain it...)

That means, in part, applying for candidacy and making sure that the college meets national standards. Tanner said how long it will take Owens to regain its national accreditation is up to the college. (process....)

Student reaction

The pressure on the Owens' administration has been mounting, however, as word that the program is not nationally accredited has leaked to the students.

The college will hold two public meetings, one today at noon at Owens' Perrysburg campus, and one at 9 a.m. Monday at the Findlay campus in Room 111.

"Everybody has been trying to meet with advisors to see if they need to transfer to a different school," said Lubna Bazzy, an Owens student. "But they can't make appointments. They're all booked."

She said four students(I was apart of that!! he he) banded together and demanded the college provide information about what losing accreditation will mean for them.

McIntosh and other college representatives will speak at today's and Monday's forums.

Bazzy is a pre-dental hygiene student in Findlay who is not sure whether the accreditation loss will affect her. She said if Owens' nursing program did not continue, it would be a great loss for Findlay because of what all the people the nursing program bring to the area.

Scott said the college is doing everything it can to reinstate its accreditation.

"We deeply value and respect the (National League for Nursing Accrediting)," she said. "And we are aggressively trying to get (the accreditation) back."

Reiter: 419-427-8497,

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We had a student body open forum with the the chairs and vice chairs of the program and department along with the big guy in charge and none of our questions were answered. There were sooo many people asking what it means that this accreditation is gone and why everyone keeps calling it voluntary and the staff could not even answer them. I understand if they could not answer the financial questions about refunds and what not because they don't have that control but seriously. If the Toledo's meeting went so bad, then why didn't they take the weekend to prepare for Findlay's meeting? Why wouldn't they bring the schools attorney with them or the schools financial officer or president of the student account to answer the questions concerning refunds or tuition, etc?
Did they not think that they were going to be verbally attacked at Findlay? There is a guy that was speaking who does have anger management issues and blood pressure issues and while he was asking questions and he would have to stop and take a few breaths or else he would have gone crazy.
Supposedly, 500 letters went out to all nursing major students and with the 150 people at the forum, not one person received it.
I'm just rambling now because I'm so irate about the issue so comment if you would like. Just keep your ears and eyes open to the news or newspaper web sites. We're planning on another meeting but we're going to have some documentation first. We asked for all public records from the NLNAC and the school. Just from the NLNAC we have them caught in 3 big lies that they kept giving at the meeting. The article I pasted on here is full of lies. Why can't people be straight forward anymore? Why does everyone have to beat around the bush? Is it too offensive to tell someone how it is? Is it that wrong to correct the path of a ship to avoid an iceburg?! I want real answers or insight or advice.