15 – THANK YOU FOR VOLUNTEERING IN 2021!

THANK YOU FOR VOLUNTEERING IN 2021!

The year 2021 has evoked challenges to our way of life in ways that even in 2020, we never could have imagined. As the COVID-19 pandemic continued to develop, healthcare professionals have faced impossible workloads, political backlash, and the true horrors of the virus face-to-face. Despite innumerable unknowns, the ACEN continued to collaborate with nurse educators, nurse clinicians, nurse practitioners, and public members in order to review all levels of nursing programs internationally (clinical doctorate, master’s/post-master’s certificate, baccalaureate, associate, diploma, and practical). For that reason, the ACEN would like to express our most heartfelt gratitude to every peer evaluator for their role in assisting in the accreditation process.

The Spring 2021, Summer 2021, and Fall 2021 cycles tested most of us in a way we have never experienced. For Spring 2021, after spending much of Spring 2020 and all of Fall 2020 in the completely remote work environment, your ACEN team hoped to be able to return to the office and attain a semblance of regularity, even if it did mean entering a “new normal.” As the ACEN Directors and Staff became informal experts at Zoom, GoToMeeting, accessing the VPN, and so much more in the era of working from home, there was still a desire to finally be able to go outside.

As vaccinations became available and accessible, that meant our verification visits from the Spring 2020, Fall 2020, and Spring 2021 virtual site visits could finally start occurring, giving way for the Summer 2021 cycle to be an entire cycle of verification visits. The Fall 2021 cycle, which was larger than the ACEN has had in years in terms of the number of programs visited and reviewed, had only four virtual visits, leading us to believe that the health crisis (while ongoing!) was at least becoming manageable with the necessary travel obligations. Amid these ever-changing conditions of the pandemic, the ACEN would like to honor these peer evaluators for volunteering even in a time that is so unpredictable. Your hard work and dedication to the pursuit and continuation of nursing education will only enhance the nursing profession, from education to practice.

We look forward to continuing to work with you here in 2022!

Thank you!