Date:
8/13/2002
Contact: Wendel Sloan at 505.562.2253
PORTALES – The nursing program at Eastern New Mexico University has received a five-year continuing accreditation through the spring of 2007 by the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLNAC).
Eastern's BSN-Completion Program, established in 1992, offers a bachelor's degree in nursing for registered nurses who have already completed two-year programs.
The mission of the BSN degree is to prepare professionally educated nurses for careers in health care, and provide students with a strong foundation for leadership and for graduate study in nursing.
The NLNAC noted that Eastern's nursing program showed a pattern of strength in the University's "support for the nursing program, as evidenced by the administration's commitment to the nursing program."
Another strength was the faculty, "as evidenced by: expertise as teachers and role models in the practice area; commitment of faculty to the nursing program."
A third noted strength was distance education, "as evidenced by: exemplary processes in place to support student-centered access."
Dr. Thurman Elder, dean of ENMU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said that the continuing accreditation was the "result of intense examination of the program by the accrediting agency. This was preceded by an intense self-study of the program by the nursing faculty over many months."
Dr. Elder noted that there is a nursing shortage throughout the country, and that Eastern's program serves a "critical need in eastern New Mexico and west Texas for nurses, especially for those with a bachelor's degree."