All Nursing Majors at Penn College Now Fully Accredited

Pennsylvania College of Technology's bachelor-degree Nursing and certificate Practical Nursing majors have received full accreditation from the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission.

By earning the designation, those two majors join the College's associate-degree Nursing major, which has been fully accredited by the NLNAC since 1993. The College chose to pursue accreditation for the Practical Nursing major (which is fully approved by the State Board of Nursing) and the bachelor-degree Nursing major (which is not required to be accredited) to validate the educational quality of all nursing programs offered by its School of Health Sciences.

The NLNAC is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as the national accrediting body for all types of nursing education programs. Accreditation is a voluntary, self-regulatory process recognizing educational institutions or programs that meet or exceed standards and criteria for educational quality.

"These latest accreditations help verify what we at Penn College have known for years that our nursing programs have strong classroom and clinical components that help produce excellent nurses for the community," said Dr. Deborah A. Wilson, dean of health sciences. "The nursing staff worked very hard to develop top-quality programs, and we are very proud of them and their creations."

"I commend the faculty for their commitment to developing a strong nursing program at Penn College and for their hard work in making the accreditation process a success," added Pamela L. Starcher, director of nursing at the College.

The College's bachelor-degree Nursing major is specifically designed for registered nurses who wish to earn degrees on a full- or part-time basis. The curriculum builds on the knowledge and skills possessed by registered nurses who have graduated from diploma and associate-degree nursing programs. The curriculum offers a required core of nursing and general education courses with elective course options based on educational and career goals.

The degree can lead to advanced clinical and administrative positions in the traditional nursing field, as well as opportunities in home-health nursing, public health nursing, nursing education and health-care case management.

The College's three-semester Practical Nursing major prepares graduates to enter the field of nursing or to continue their education at the associate-degree or bachelor-degree level. Graduates who successfully complete the program are eligible to take the Practical Nursing licensing exam and work under the direction of a licensed professional nurse, licensed physician or dentist.

Graduates of this major may find jobs in a variety of health-care settings, such as hospitals, extended-care facilities, home-health-care agencies, state and federal health-related facilities, the armed services, private-duty nursing, and physician- and dentist-office settings.

For more information about the nursing majors at Penn College, call (570) 327-4519, send e-mail or visit on the Web.