Nailing down the final few nursing schools you’d seriously consider can be a daunting task at first glance. Here are some tips and considerations when you’re overwhelmed with nursing school catalogs and glossy marketing brochures.
Once you start requesting information from nursing schools, batten down the hatches because the mail is gonna roll in like a tidal wave. You’re now marked as a prospective student. The glossy brochures all look SO appealing-- how in the world will you ever make a final decision?
Get beyond the glossy advertising veneer: remember that most colleges, including schools of nursing, are in business to sell their degree programs and that involves careful marketing, therefore the slick brochures with the great (and staged) photos of happy smiling nursing students. You’ll need to dig much deeper than that.
If you’re advised to generally disregard the glossy brochures then what kinds of information on a school will help you narrow down your options?
Accreditation by a nursing accrediting agency is pretty important. Accreditation is voluntary, not mandatory, and based on sets of standards. A school of nursing that chooses to become accredited is willingly engaging in a process that ultimately and cleanly can vouch for its standard of excellence across multiple criteria.
Accreditation standards usually encompass:
You’ll find out in this guide what 2 leading agencies handle most of the general nursing school accreditations and what specific sets of criteria they hold programs to.
While hot, trendy, and popular annual school ranking lists are not quite as potent as you might believe when it comes down to making the final decision on a nursing school. However, find out how you can actually use these lists as decision-making tools.