| Course | EDN 814 Nursing Accreditation and Advocacy in the Profession |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 1 |
| Paper type | Accreditation position paper |
| Length | About 1,153 words, 7 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | Doctor of Education |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for EDN 814 Module 1
Why Seek an Accreditation No Law Requires? The Purpose of Programmatic Accreditation for a Small College's Nursing Programs
Student Name
Doctor of Education Program, Aspen University
EDN 814: Nursing Accreditation and Advocacy in the Profession
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Why Seek an Accreditation No Law Requires? The Purpose of Programmatic Accreditation for a Small College's Nursing Programs
Wexcombe College, a composite private nonprofit college of about 3,400 students, runs a prelicensure Bachelor of Science in Nursing with 260 students, an online RN-to-BSN completion program and plans for a Master of Science in Nursing with nurse educator and family nurse practitioner tracks. During budget hearings a trustee asked the new dean a fair question: the state board of nursing already approves the prelicensure program and the college is accredited as an institution, so why spend faculty time and money on a separate nursing accreditation that no law requires? This paper answers that question. It explains what programmatic accreditation is, who relies on it, what the evidence says about its value and what it costs, and it recommends that the college keep and extend it.
What Programmatic Accreditation Is
Programmatic accreditation is a voluntary, nongovernmental review of a single academic program against standards set by an agency that specializes in that field. In nursing, the main agencies review a program's mission and governance, its resources, its faculty, its curriculum and its results, including completion, licensure and employment. The review combines a written self-study prepared by the faculty, an on-site visit by trained peer evaluators and a decision by the agency's board. Accreditation is granted for a set term and then renewed, with reports in between. Unlike state approval, which asks whether a program meets the legal minimum for its graduates to sit for licensure, accreditation asks whether it meets the profession's own standards of quality and keeps improving.
Who Relies on It
The strongest case for accreditation lies in who depends on it. Graduate nursing programs generally admit only graduates of accredited baccalaureate programs, so a Wexcombe BSN from an unaccredited program would close doors to the college's own MSN and to others. National certification boards for nurse practitioners require graduation from an accredited graduate program before a candidate may sit for the examination, which makes accreditation a condition of the future family nurse practitioner track's usefulness. The military nurse corps look for a degree from an accredited program. Many hospital employers, particularly those pursuing nursing excellence recognition, prefer or require it. Prospective students increasingly check accreditation before they apply, and the families paying tuition deserve to know that someone outside the college has examined what they are buying.
What the Evidence Says
Accreditation is sometimes dismissed as paperwork with no link to quality. The best available evidence suggests otherwise. Researchers at NCSBN, the national council of state nursing boards, analyzed 11,378 annual reports submitted to 43 state boards over five years, from 2012 to 2017, and found that national nursing accreditation was among the characteristics that distinguished fully approved programs with first-time NCLEX pass rates of 80% or higher, along with stable leadership and a director with a doctorate (Spector et al., 2020). Observational data cannot prove that accreditation causes better results; stronger programs may simply be more likely to seek it. But the association is consistent, and state regulators now treat national accreditation as a quality indicator.
What Each Group Gains
The table summarizes the stakeholders who rely on Wexcombe's accreditation and what each gains.
| Stakeholder | What accreditation gives them | Risk if the program lost it |
|---|---|---|
| Current students | Assurance of quality; eligibility for graduate study and certification | Degree worth less; some doors closed |
| Future MSN and nurse practitioner students | Eligibility to sit for national certification | Track effectively unusable |
| Employers and clinical partners | Evidence that graduates meet national standards | Fewer placements and hires |
| The college | External review that drives improvement; recruitment advantage | Enrollment decline; reputational harm |
| The public and the state board | Independent check on quality beyond the legal minimum | Less assurance of safe practice |
Accreditation as Improvement, Not Only Approval
The value of accreditation does not end with the decision letter. The standards require a written, ongoing plan for evaluating the program and using the results. The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, for example, expects programs to collect completion, licensure, certification and employment data, compare them with expected levels and act on the gaps (Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, 2024). The Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing's 2023 standards likewise place a systematic plan for evaluation at the center of a program's work (Ard et al., 2023). A faculty that works to these standards every year, not only before a visit, builds the habits that produce good programs.
What It Costs
Accreditation is not free. The college pays annual agency fees and the costs of each evaluation visit, and the larger cost is faculty and staff time: a self-study typically consumes many months of committee work, data collection and writing, and the dean estimates about 1,800 hours across the faculty for the next reaffirmation. Leaders should also admit a softer cost. Programs can slip into a compliance mentality, doing what the standards require in the form evaluators expect rather than asking what students need. The answer is to treat the standards as a floor and the self-study as a chance to ask harder questions than the agency does.
What Happens Without It
The college could, in principle, rely on state approval and institutional accreditation alone. Its BSN graduates could still sit for the NCLEX. But they would face barriers to graduate study, the nurse practitioner track could not produce graduates eligible for certification, and recruitment would suffer against competitors that advertise accreditation prominently. The saving in fees and faculty time would be small beside the tuition revenue at risk, and the reputational damage of dropping an accreditation the program already holds would be hard to reverse.
Advocacy for the Profession
The course pairs accreditation with advocacy, and the link is direct. Accreditation standards are written and revised by the profession through its agencies, with comment from programs and the public. Faculty who serve as peer evaluators, comment on draft standards and share their programs' results help shape what nursing education expects of itself. A small college's faculty can advocate most credibly when their own program meets those standards.
Recommendation
Wexcombe should maintain national accreditation of its baccalaureate programs, seek accreditation of the MSN as early as the agency's rules permit, fund one faculty member's time each year as accreditation coordinator, and report the program's outcome data to the board annually alongside the accreditation status. The board should see accreditation as an investment in the value of every degree the nursing school awards.
Conclusion
The trustee's question deserves a direct answer: the college seeks an accreditation no law requires because students, graduate programs, certification boards, employers and the public rely on it, because national accreditation is associated with stronger program outcomes, and because the standards push the faculty to measure and improve its work. Its costs are real but modest beside what it protects. Used well, accreditation is less a burden imposed from outside than a discipline the profession has chosen for itself.
References
Ard, N., Nunn-Ellison, K., Farmer, S., & Beasley, S. F. (2023). The new 2023 ACEN Standards and Criteria. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 18(2), 253-256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2022.12.004
Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. (2024). Standards for accreditation of baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs. American Association of Colleges of Nursing. https://www.aacnnursing.org/Portals/0/PDFs/CCNE/CCNE-Education-Standards-2024.pdf
Spector, N., Silvestre, J., Alexander, M., Martin, B., Hooper, J. I., Squires, A., & Ojemeni, M. (2020). NCSBN regulatory guidelines and evidence-based quality indicators for nursing education programs. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 11(2), S1-S64. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2155-8256(20)30075-2
What the EDN 814 Module 1 instructions ask for
Aspen's catalog introduces EDN 814 with the rationale, processes and importance of programmatic accreditation, and this first sample addresses the rationale directly, since the classroom holds the module's actual directions. Expect to explain what programmatic accreditation is, why a nursing program seeks it and what it gives the people who depend on the program. The strongest papers move past general praise of quality to name specific consequences: which doors close to graduates of an unaccredited program, which certification examinations require an accredited degree, how employers and students use accreditation status. Weigh the evidence honestly, including what observational data cannot show. Count the costs as well as the benefits, especially faculty time. Close with a recommendation a board or dean could act on, stated in terms of your own program.
Inside the EDN 814 Module 1 example
The paper begins with a composite college of about 3,400 students whose nursing school runs a 260-student prelicensure BSN, an online RN-to-BSN and a planned MSN, and with a trustee's budget question. It defines programmatic accreditation by its parts and contrasts it with state approval. A section on who relies on accreditation covers graduate admission, nurse practitioner certification, the military, employers and students, and the evidence section reports the national state board study along with its limits. A three-column table lists five stakeholders, what each gains and what each risks. Later sections describe accreditation as a continuing improvement discipline under current standards, estimate the next review at about 1,800 faculty hours, consider what would happen without it, connect accreditation to advocacy and end with a four-part recommendation to the board.
Where the marks sit in the EDN 814 Module 1 rubric
Graders tend to reward accuracy about what accreditation is, a persuasive and evidence-based rationale, balanced treatment of costs and a clear recommendation. This paper earns its evidence marks with a Journal of Nursing Regulation study that linked national accreditation to programs with first-time pass rates of 80% or higher, stated with the caution that association is not proof. Its other APA sources are the 2024 CCNE standards and an article describing ACEN's 2023 standards, which support the section on improvement. The stakeholder table shows the rationale from each point of view, which a board audience needs. Stating the cost in hours rather than waving it away shows the balance doctoral instructors look for, and the section on compliance mentality admits a real weakness of accreditation instead of pretending it has none.
EDN 814 Module 1 help from the desk
A frequent weakness here is a paper that praises accreditation in abstract terms and never says what happens to a graduate whose program lacks it. Another is citing a claim about better outcomes without noting that stronger programs may be more likely to seek accreditation in the first place. Before you draft, look up which accreditor reviews a program you know and read its public outcome disclosures; the details give your argument substance. Check the eligibility rules of one national certification board for the specialty closest to your interests. Estimate the time a review takes, even roughly. Address your paper to a specific reader, such as a board or provost. If you are unsure how the pieces fit, a tutor can help you outline the argument from question to recommendation.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Aspen University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
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EDN 814 Module 1 questions, answered
What does EDN 814 Module 1 usually ask for?
Aspen's EDN 814 begins with the rationale and importance of programmatic accreditation for nursing, so a paper explaining why a program should seek or keep it is a typical first assignment. Follow your classroom prompt.
Is nursing program accreditation required by law?
Programmatic accreditation is voluntary, but graduate programs, nurse practitioner certification boards, the military and many employers rely on it, so in practice most programs treat it as essential.
Does accreditation improve nursing program outcomes?
A national study of state board reports found national accreditation among the characteristics of programs with first-time NCLEX pass rates of 80% or higher, though the data show association rather than cause.
Where can I find a free EDN 814 Module 1 sample paper?
The full paper sits above this section: a position paper to a college board on why its nursing programs should keep programmatic accreditation, with a stakeholder table and recommendation.
Why do nursing programs seek programmatic accreditation?
Because graduate schools, certification boards, the military, employers and students rely on it, because it drives continuous evaluation and because national accreditation is associated with stronger program outcomes.