Community of Support Issue - October 2024

Our undergraduate nursing program has applied for initial accreditation, with our site visit being scheduled for Spring 2025. We have an exceptional, experienced faculty that knows the curriculum inside and out and spend many hours every year assuring that the program is current, polished, and effective. We have no doubt that their dedication to student success and commitment to excellence will carry us over the finish line to accreditation.

We are, as you can imagine, very busy around the program. But along with the excitement of the prospect of achieving this milestone comes a mountain of angst, uncertainty, and fear of the unknown for those who have not experienced this process in the past. It is likely that everyone who went through this process for the first time remembers the fear of giving the wrong answers, being asked questions that they did not know, and not being knowledgeable about every aspect of the process. To empower faculty, we devised a multi-faceted approach to help them get past the nerves and onto the realization that they are capable, knowledgeable, and equipped to shine during our site visit.

Insight Into the Process

First, several faculty members attended ACEN Self-Study and Program Administrators Workshops. Next, we initiated a series of monthly learning sessions with faculty and staff known as “ACEN Fridays,” where a different standard was the focus of each meeting. We took time to review each criterion in detail, share insights, and address any challenges that became apparent. The third step was a live Standard 4 review during our annual faculty retreat lead by an ACEN Director who gave detailed feedback on our draft narrative and supporting evidence for the standard.

Divide and Conquer

Individual faculty members were chosen to take the lead on each of the standards. It was their responsibility to dig deeply into the nuts and bolts of the criteria then communicate specific needs to other faculty members. These leaders authored rough drafts of the self-study report and consulted other members about contributing clinical evaluation tools, course syllabi, curriculum maps, examples of student work, and simulation and lab data, just to name a few. With each of these exchanges, faculty became more aware of the expectations for the program and more confident that they could meet these needs.

Practice, Practice, Practice

We executed a mock faculty meeting, trying our best to duplicate the type of interactions they would have with peer evaluators during the site visit. An experienced ACEN peer evaluator led the meeting, mimicking the environment, meeting length, and typical questions that might be asked. The faculty noticeably relaxed as the meeting progressed with individual faculty speaking up about topics they were most comfortable with and relying on colleagues with different areas of expertise to provide additional clarification. During the meeting, we felt the change from apprehension to assurance that they would be successful in telling the story of our program.

Onward

Moving forward, we plan to continue with ACEN Fridays to review any muddy points or field new questions. Additional we will discuss a different standard in each monthly faculty meeting. We are encouraging faculty to bring up any concerns that may have emerged during the mock visit in hopes that this will open discussions to strengthen the sense of power and belonging for all faculty. Faculty are now better prepared to guide our clinical adjunct faculty and students, not only in what to expect during the visit but to reinforce topics in our program that are vital for student success. For example, faulty have developed a great plan for introducing and reinforcing program outcomes to students during their beginning of each semester orientation and at the beginning of each course. The program outcomes are posted in classrooms, hallways, and labs within the school. The Dean hosts the monthly “Donuts with the Dean” for students during which she answers accreditation questions. Faculty included accreditation information and expectations to our part-time adjunct clinical faculty during the Fall Clinical Workshop.

What the Faculty Have to Say About the Process:

“The ACEN Fridays were very helpful in keeping us informed about the different ACEN standards and how we as a program are meeting those standards. It also allowed interaction with the faculty that were tasked with collecting information on the ACEN standards.”

“The mock faculty meeting was very helpful in giving faculty a glimpse into the typical questions that are asked when ACEN meets with faculty. This mock meeting helped validate all the great aspects that make up our school of nursing. It also was a time to highlight each faculty member and their great work in their courses and how each faculty/staff member contributes to the School of Nursing. Very insightful!”

“I am a new program coordinator and this approach has been very helpful in my preparation for accreditation. It was great to observe how my nursing faculty colleagues were interested and engaged in the process – I find that this has improved the overall expertise available to me.”