Commission Members Vote Unanimously for Broward’s Initial Accreditation
Dr. Linda Washington-Brown, associate dean of Broward College’s Bachelor of Science program in nursing, has spent a considerable amount of time as a competitive tennis player, but over the past few years, she’s felt more like a sprinter.Finally she’s reached a finish line with notification that Broward College’s RN to BSN program has received initial accreditation from the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission. The letter informing her of accreditation arrived in the last week of March.
It’s been an exhaustive experience, she says. In December 2009, the program’s curricular outline was assembled and approved by the Florida Department of Education and by the Broward College District Board of Trustees. The program was unique, designed for nurses working in the field and capable of being completed in a year.
When Washington-Brown was hired, she needed to hit the ground running, hiring faculty and staff. The curriculum needed to be fleshed out, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools needed to be notified of the program’s start and the NLNAC needed to be petitioned for candidacy. Washington-Brown and her hard-charging staff got it all done.
“It was a lot of work and it was a tight schedule, but we did it,” Washington-Brown said. The college welcomed its first class early in 2011.
Members of the class came from a variety of backgrounds and were employed in hospitals, emergency rooms, hospices, pediatrics, geriatrics, critical care, and more. Several were recent graduates; others had up to 20 years of experience. What they all shared was a desire to take their education and career to another level and to earn a bachelor’s degree in nursing.
In December of that year, the first class – 22 students – graduated. “Actually 30 successfully completed the program,” Washington-Brown said. “A few had some general education requirements yet to complete.”
The accreditation process, though focused and intense, did result in a few nice surprises, Washington-Brown said. First, the vote for accreditation was unanimous, 18-0.
“Not only did we go unblemished, we got accolades for how well the program was organized and put forward,” she said. “It was even recommended that we publish our conceptual model and curricular framework in a peer-reviewed, academic journal. We plan to do that.”
The accreditation caps off the program’s start and now Washington-Brown gets a little time to kick back, take a deep breath and look at what she and her team created.
“It was totally a team effort,” she says. “My faculty and staff knew what they had to do. They didn’t murmur, mumble or complain; they just did it.”
