Nursing Educational Program and On-Site Visit and Preparation for Accreditation Process
On-Site Visit for Accreditation in Nursing Education, preparing for the on-site visit regarding Accreditation In Nursing Education, Preparing the Resource Room In Nursing Education. Accreditation Process In Nursing Educational
On-Site Visit for Accreditation in Nursing Education
The purpose of the on-site visit is to provide the evaluation team with the opportunity to verify, clarify, and amplify information provided in the self-study document. During the on-site visit, accreditation reviewers assess the compliance of the program with accreditation standards and learn how the nursing program uses assessment data for quality improvement purposes.
The evaluation team accomplishes its purpose by conducting interviews with the communities of interest, including faculty members, students, central administration, clinical agency representatives, alumni, employers, and any other program stakeholders.
The leader of the evaluation team and nursing program administrator jointly determine the agenda for the on-site accreditation visit. The evaluation team will have a designated area called the resource room where a hard copy of the self-study and supporting documents are housed. This area will serve as the “home base” for the evaluation team during the on-site visit.
Preparing for the on-site visit regarding Accreditation in Nursing Education
Careful preparation for the on-site visit helps ensure that the evaluation team has access to necessary documents and to create a positive and pleasant climate for the evaluation team members and the nursing program. The nursing program administrators will develop a draft agenda that will be sent to the team leader or chair of the evaluation team for their final approval.
It is not unusual for this approval process to go through multiple iterations prior to finalization. During the development of the agenda, meeting times need to be designated for the evaluation team members to interview individuals and groups including the president, provost, clinical agencies, and alumni.
It is important to inform the communities of interest for the program about the accreditation visit in a timely manner so that scheduling will be manageable. Typically, letters are sent by the chief nursing administrator to the members of the communities of interest that include the on-site visit dates and agenda, as well as inviting these individuals or groups to submit comments about the nursing program.
Notices are placed on websites and in college publications, are announced in class, and are distributed electronically through learning management systems and e-mail lists. Information about public meetings related to the accreditation visit can be placed in local media, including newspapers and radio.
The on-site visit agenda should reflect meeting times for the following individuals, groups, and sites to be visited: central administration, including the president and provost; key individuals on campus, such as the deans of the graduate school, libraries, and distance education, if applicable, as well as the registrar and chief financial officer; students, faculty, alumni, and clinical agency representatives; and clinical and classroom sites.
Transportation to and from meetings and clinical sites needs to be finalized based on the agenda. Faculty members and clinical site leadership need to be notified if the evaluation team will be visiting their clinical sites. Finally, there needs to be ample blocks of time designated for the evaluation team to spend in the resource room.
Time for breaks between meetings should be included on the agenda for the on-site review. While planning the agenda events may occur several months in advance, it is good practice to confirm the agenda with all stakeholders a week or two before the actual visit.
Preparing the Resource Room In Nursing Education
Because the resource room will be considered the “home base” for the evaluation team, it should be equipped in a manner that will meet the needs of the evaluation team. There should be tables and chairs; computers and a printer; office supplies such as pens, pencils, and sticky notes; and a listing of all exhibits available for review.
It is also good to have water, soft drinks, and snacks available for the team. Everything should be easily accessible to the evaluation team. One approach for effective resource room preparation is assignment of specific faculty members to this area. These faculty members would be responsible for ensuring that all documents are labeled and correctly placed in the resource file.
The resource file should be categorized according to standards and criteria or key elements.
One recommendation is to make multiple copies of short documents such as minutes, highlight the information cited in the self-study, and place a copy in each criterion or key element file where the minutes show support within the self-study.
This allows more than one accreditation team member to simultaneously access the information. The resource file should contain documents including examples of student work, course syllabi, course schedules, faculty teaching assignments, faculty vitae and achievements, evaluation responses from all sources, minutes cited in the self-study that demonstrate utilization of data to close feedback loops, student complaints and grievances, and letters from members of the community of interest for the program.
On-site reviewers may want to review the files of students or faculty members who have submitted complaints or grievances to evaluate the application of due process for these appellants.
Evidence of aggregate data tracking, including NCLEX and certification examination pass rates and employment rates should be available in the resource room for the evaluation team to view. The resource room should also contain documents related to the most recent reviews by other external agencies, including the regional accreditor and the state board of nursing.
Many nursing programs use information technology, including learning management systems, for document management and delivery of course content. Resource rooms may incorporate digital resources. For example, on-site reviewers may be provided with access to internal data sources such as a password-protected shared drive where accreditation documents are housed.
External services such as Dropbox and Google Drive are web-supported file sharing options. Document management systems such as Dokmee and FileHold allow users to centralize documents securely online and ensure that current versions of software are used (Capterra, 2014; Thompson & Bovril, 2011).
Some programs may elect to use a hybrid approach to documents available in the resource room; some documents, such as the self-study and college and university catalogs, may be made available in both hard copy and electronic format, and other files, such as course and instructor evaluations, made available digitally.
Site team evaluators may be provided with flash drives that contain all accreditation-related documents, or temporary access to password-protected shared drives or learning management systems where accreditation-related documents are stored. The self-study narrative can provide direct links to online supporting documentation through the use of hyperlinks.
Use of digital documents in the resource room decreases the amount of hard copy documents
required. This decreases resource use, including copying and binding time and paper consumption, and saves space.
Digital documents, including the self-study and supporting evidence, are advantageous to reviewers because the need to transport weighty hard copy documents is obviated and accreditation-related documents can be viewed from any computer workstation (Thompson & Bovril, 2011).
All nursing accrediting agencies provide information about documents that should be available in the resource room during accreditation visits on their respective websites. See ACEN and NLN CNEA official sites.