SUMMARY OF COMMISSION ACTION
Universidad del Sagrado Corazon
Program Type: Baccalaureate
San Juan, PR
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 continuing accreditation to the baccalaureate nursing program. This decision is based on the ACEN policy that continuing accreditation is denied to programs with warning status that are found to be in non-compliance with any Accreditation Standard.
Evidence of Non-Compliance by Accreditation Standard and Criterion
Standard 2 Faculty and Staff, Criteria 2.5 and 2.9
- There is a lack of evidence that the number and utilization of full-time faculty are sufficient to support the achievement of the program and student learning outcomes.
- There is a lack of systematic assessment of (full- and part-time) faculty performance to demonstrate competencies that are consistent with program goals and outcomes.
Standard 4 Curriculum, Criteria 4.1, 4.7, 4.8, and 4.12
- There is a lack of evidence that the curriculum incorporates established professional standards, guidelines, and competencies, and has clearly articulated student learning outcomes and program outcomes consistent with contemporary practice.
- There is a lack of evidence to support that the evaluation methodologies are consistently applied in the face-to-face and online program options.
- There is a lack of evidence to support that evaluation methods reflect established educational practices.
- There is a lack of evidence of consistent use of the identified contact-to-credit-hour ratios.
- There is a lack of evidence of attainment of the identified student learning outcomes and program outcomes consistent with educational best practices.
- Learning activities, instructional materials, and evaluation methods are not consistently used in the online option and not congruent with best practices for online delivery.
Standard 6 Outcomes, Criteria 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, and 6.4
- There is a lack of evidence that the evaluation plan emphasizes the ongoing assessment and evaluation of the student learning outcomes, the program outcomes, role-specific graduate competencies, and the ACEN Standards.
- There is a lack of consistent collection, aggregation, and trending of evaluation findings being utilized for program decision-making.
- There is a lack of documentation of the use of evaluation findings to inform program decision-making for the maintenance or improvement of the student learning outcomes, particularly in the online program option.
- There is a lack of evidence to demonstrate achievement in meeting the expected levels of achievement for the program outcomes.
The baccalaureate 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 baccalaureate nursing program.
This decision is based on the ACEN policy that continuing accreditation is denied to programs with conditions status that are found to be in continued non-compliance with any Accreditation Standard.