Tusculum College nursing program officials pleased with accreditation visit

Three representatives of the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education visited the Tusculum College campus on Monday, Sept. 11, to conduct an on-site visit of the graduate programs in nursing – the Master of Science in nursing and the post master’s degree certificate in nursing.

The CCNE representatives met with Dr. Lois Ewen, dean of the school of nursing, health sciences and human services; Dr. Nancy B. Moody, president of the college; Steve Gehret, vice president of finance and CFO; Dr. Jason Pierce, vice president of academic affairs; Dr. Linda Garret, assistant dean of nursing, health sciences and human services and chair of the graduate program; the nursing faculty, and the advisory council for the MSN program. The group also met with several students currently in the graduate nursing program and visited clinical teaching sites.

The visit concluded with the reading of the group’s report which stated that Tusculum was found to be in compliance with all four standards upon which the programs were reviewed and the Tusculum program will be recommended for accreditation. Final accreditation will not be conferred until the report is reviewed by the CCNE Board. The college expects to be notified of the final decision in May 2018.

According to Dr. Ewen, the reviewers were extremely impressed with the physical facilities and complimentary of the resources allocated for the nursing program. They were also complimentary of the clinical sites and preceptors available for Tusculum student clinical experiences.

“Their meetings with students in the program went extremely well,” said Dr. Ewen, “including discussions with students in the post masters certification program.”

Dr. Ewen added, “I am also pleased to announce that this fall we have a total of 49 students in the Bachelor of Science in nursing program with a new class to be admitted in January. In the Master of Science in nursing program, we have eight continuing students who, assuming their success in coursework, will be in the first graduating class in December.”

In addition, there were 31 students admitted into the MSN program this fall.