SUMMARY OF COMMISSION ACTION
Southwest Florida College
Program Type: Associate
Fort Myers, Florida
This is a summary of the action taken by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN) at its meeting on March 13-14, 2014.
The Board of Commissioners voted to deny initial accreditation to the associate nursing program. This decision is based on the ACEN policy that programs applying for initial accreditation must be in compliance with all Accreditation Standards and Criteria.
Evidence of Non-Compliance by Accreditation Standard and Criterion
Standard 2 Faculty and Staff, Criteria 2.4, 2.5, and 2.6
- There is a lack of evidence that the number and utilization of full-time faculty are sufficient to ensure that program outcomes are achieved.
- There is a lack of evidence that faculty (full-time and part-time) performance reflects scholarship.
- The number, utilization, and credentials of staff are not sufficient to achieve the program goals and outcomes.
Standard 4 Curriculum, Criteria 4.2, 4.3, and 4.5
- There is a lack of evidence that the curriculum was developed by the faculty and is regularly reviewed by the faculty for rigor and currency.
- There is a lack of evidence that evaluation findings are consistently used in the review of the curriculum.
- There is a lack of evidence that the student learning outcomes are used to evaluate student progress.
- There is a lack of progression in clinical evaluation tools to assess student learning and achievement of the learning outcomes and role competencies.
Standard 6 Outcomes, Criteria 6.1 and 6.2
- There is a lack of evidence that the evaluation plan emphasizes the ongoing assessment and evaluation of the student learning outcomes, the program outcomes, and the ACEN Standards.
- The expected levels of achievement are not stated in specific, measurable terms.
- There is a lack of evidence that aggregated evaluation findings inform program decision-making.
- There is a lack of evidence of implementation of the plan of evaluation by the faculty.
The associate program has the right to forward comments regarding the Commission decision to the ACEN by May 7, 2014. The ACEN will forward to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education any comments submitted by the associate nursing program.