In Richardson, Texas the State Attorney General, Greg Abbott shut down an unlicensed and unaccredited nursing school in Texas. The scary thing is that this school has charged their students from $7,500 to $10,000 each yet the graduates are not eligible to sit for the State's nursing exam nor are they permitted to practice nursing in Texas.
In short, a lot of people have been ripped off for a lot of money. So how did they get away with it for so long when it is so simple to look up the accreditation of a school? Simple ignorance of accreditation and licensing, its purpose and where to find out if a school is truly accredited or licensed which isn't always as easy as it would first appear.
In Texas regional or national accreditation of a school is not so much of a concern as far as nursing goes; it is whether or not the school is recognized by the state as being able to prepare students for the nursing certification exam that is in question. In this case state licensure preempts any accreditation. Texas does list their licensing agency's requirements on their Web site at http://www.bon.state.tx.us/ but it took me a minute to find a link listing recognized nursing schools. However the common "accreditation" language is not used, instead words like "certified," "licensed," "authorized" and "recognized" were used. You can find a list of approved schools at http://www.bon.state.tx.us/nursingeducation/info.html under the subtitle menu "Nursing Education" but I honestly hate to see so many hard working and well meaning people bilked out of their time and money by such lowlifes on what should have been a reasonably simple to avoid scam.
The problem is that the world of higher learning, vocational and otherwise is convoluted and difficult to understand and follow for even people who have made understanding these matters a mission in life. I cannot imagine how distorted the picture must be for those on the outside looking in. In this case specific knowledge to the vocation, licensing and state requirements would be necessary to advise anyone on the program. Research skills are needed and quite frankly, not everyone has those skills.
For example I cannot tell you what it takes to be a nurse in Vermont, but after about a half hour of experienced research I probably could. It would be nice if there was one national standard for vocational licenses, especially in healthcare but until then resources like eLearners and specific consultants and advisors will be necessary to clear up the murkiness once in a while. Unfortunately those who do not know enough to ask questions will occasionally be preyed upon by those who would take advantage of ignorance combined with dreams.
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