Nursing School Accreditation

Nursing school accreditation is perhaps the most important qualification of an educational institution that you are considering attending for a future career as a registered nurse, licensed vocational nurse or licensed practical nurse. If you do not attend an accredited school, you can’t sit for the RN, LVN or LPN exams. Regardless of whether you’re looking for a diploma, associate’s degree or bachelor’s degree and regardless of whatever kind of nurse you want to become, the first step is making sure that you are attending an accredited school.The Importance of AccreditationAn accreditation board must approve of the school you are attending, but the problem is that almost any group of people can call themselves an accrediting board. So, the accrediting agency must also be approved of by the United States Department of Education. The US Department of Education, as well as some professional nursing organizations, keeps lists of the valid accrediting agencies. Make sure that any nursing school you apply to attend is accredited by an agency that is on this list before spending any time or money.Any school with a physical campus is more than likely accredited by a reputable agency, since it would be a huge waste of resources to build an entire school that is more than likely going to be shut down when students realize the degrees are not really good for anything. However, there are more issues with online schools, since it is much easier to create a fake institution and tell students it is accredited when there is no physical campus building for them to visit. Many online schools are accredited and provide very good educations to future nurses. Unfortunately, though, there are a few bad apples out there, so be extra careful as you are perusing the online education options.A Few Facts on LicensingEvery state requires that nurses are professionally licensed, whether they are LPNs, LVNs or RNs. Students cannot sit for the licensing exams until after they have completed an accredited course of study. If you didn’t graduate from an approved program, you won’t be able to take the licensing exam, so you can see why accreditation is so important. There may also be additional licensing requirements for your state, so make sure to check with the Department of Education on this issue as well. With accurate information, you will be on the right track to the nursing career of your dreams!