Contact the NLNAC and begin the accreditation candidacy process. The NLNAC publishes an accreditation manual that contains all of the respective standards and criteria for both nursing school or nursing program accreditation. Once initial contact is made, you will receive an official authorization form from the NLNAC that must be completed and returned to the commission. Thereafter, a member of the NLNAC's professional staff will be assigned to be your mentor. This mentor will also perform an analysis of your nursing school's potential to achieve NLNAC accreditation. Once you become an candidate, the accreditation process must be completed within two years.
Conduct a self review and prepare a self study report detailing the extent to which your school and nursing programs meet the NLNAC's accreditation standards and criteria. Your NLNAC mentor will assist in this process. School administrators, faculty, staff, students, and all other persons associated with the various nursing programs should participate in the self study process, which should address the experience and academic qualifications of your faculty, your curricula or programs and plans of study; the resources you have available to deliver your nursing programs; and any appropriate related catalog. Submit the self study report to the NLNAC.
Prepare for the NLNAC site visit to your nursing school. Once you submit the self study report, the NLNAC will schedule a visit to your school. The purpose of the site visit will be to clarify, verify or amplify the information contained in the self study report, and to confirm that the information contained in the self study report is consistent with the actual practices of your nursing school. The site visitation team will prepare a site visitors' report that will be presented to the NLNAC's evaluation review panel and members of the NLNAC board of commissioners for reference during consideration of your nursing school accreditation application.
Review and correct any "errors of fact" contained in the site visitors' report. Within eight weeks of the site visit, the NLNAC will mail to you a draft copy of the site visitors' report and a response form. The purpose of the response form is to give you an opportunity to correct any errors of fact contained in the site visitors' report. The completed response form must be delivered back to the NLNAC within two weeks of receipt. Substantive comments from the response form will be shared with the site visit team's chairperson who then decides whether to make changes to the site visit report. You will be provided with a copy of the revised site visitors' report. After the site visit report is finalized, your application for accreditation goes to the NLNAC's evaluation review panel for consideration and recommendation to the board of commissioners.
Attend the NLNAC's evaluation review panel meeting in person or by conference call. Note that you will not be permitted to participate in the presentation of your accreditation application to the evaluation review panel or in panel deliberations, and no requests for clarification or other questions will be directed towards you during the panel's deliberations. At the end of deliberations, you will be afforded an opportunity to address the evaluation review panel. The panel then makes a recommendation of approval or denial to the NLNAC's board of commissioners, who have ultimate decision-making authority over your application for accreditation.