SU nursing master’s program gets preliminary accreditation

Happiness and excitement filled the air at the Southern University Nursing School when word spread that the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLNAC) continued the accreditation for the Masters program at the school of nursing.
“The finding of the national commission provided evidence that nursing education at Southern is not only a positive example for the state but it is nationally competitive, the accolades of the Nursing School are the administration, students, faculty, the chancellor of the university, and the board of supervisors,” said Janet Rami, RN., dean of the school of nursing.
The nursing school is the first school in Louisiana and the second historically black institution to offer a Ph.D in nursing.
The School of Nursing is a part of a four-institution program that offers core courses in nursing. McNeese, University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL), Southeastern and Southern all participate in share-distance education, in which several schools take the same classes via television.
Southern’s main focus is on family health nursing, which can be used for education, practicing, or administration purposes.
The accreditation takes place over a three-day period at ULL. It consisted of 22 components that checked the schools’ competence of programs, student reports, established criteria by the state, adequate salaries for the staff and a complete audit of the schools files.
“The board report states that there is no reason to offer a full eight-year accreditation to the school,” stated newly appointed chairperson Constance Smith Hendricks, RN. “The report and the findings of the school were exemplary and to be commended.”
The final decision must go before the national board before it will be ratified in the spring of 2002.
Currently the school has five Ph.D students with fully funded fellowships and this fall they will award fourteen students with Master’s Degrees.