Regulation and accreditation bodies' impact on nursing education

Regulation in Nursing

Regulatory and Accreditation Body Paper

Regulatory and accrediting bodies and how they impact nursing education

What is the difference between regulation and accreditation? Because regulatory and accreditation bodies are often spoken of in the same breath, it is easy to confuse the two. Both are pertinent to the role of nursing faculty, given that a nursing educator must prepare her students to conform to the standards of the nursing profession, including obtaining licensure. The nursing profession is regulated in the sense that there are barriers to entry even after a nurse has completed a course of study, and faculty must keep this in mind when designing instructive materials. Additionally, nursing programs themselves must receive accreditation from an outside source to ensure they meet specific curriculum standards in terms of the education they provide. There is widespread acknowledgement for the need for both regulation and accreditation to ensure patient safety and to pressure individuals and institutions to uphold high standards (Warburton 2009).

Regulatory body

"A regulatory body is an organization that sets the standards and practices of a regulated occupation… Regulated professions [such as nursing] "as a rule, are usually the ones that play an important role in the safety and protection of the public" (FAQ, 2013, AAAC). Technically, nursing licensure is granted by states, not by a national, federal authority. However, "nursing has conveniently gotten around this fact by, among other things, creating the Council of State Boards of Nursing (CSBN). This body has allowed for national uniformity in testing and related criteria (between and among states) while technically skirting the fact that each state is legally free to write its own licensure rules and examinations" (Barnum 1997). However, while depriving the state regulatory agencies of some freedom, this has a great advantage to nurses in some respects, making it easier for nurses to travel from one state to another, given that the regulatory standards for licensure do not vary very much.

The CSBN has considerable indirect influence on nursing curricula across the country because virtually all nurses must meet certain specific standards to become licensed, whether they are LPN or RNS. "On the whole, because of our contrived uniformity from state to state, basic licensure (for RNS and LPNs) is relatively simple" (Barnum 1997). The greatest variation between states is the degree to which RNS are given the ability to operate autonomously from physicians. Regardless, the most important distinction of a regulatory body is its ability to exercise 'rules' over the actions of practitioners, including the ability to practice in the first place.

The difference between regulation and accreditation

At its most basic level, regulation restricts the actions of individuals while accreditation requires institutions to meet certain standards. However, as a practical matter, the need for accreditation, particularly for smaller schools seeking legitimacy can be vital. The pressures of accreditation means that a school is limited in terms of how it structures its syllabus and meets particular standards set by the accrediting agency, just as nurses must meet specific standards to be licensed to practice. Unlike an institution which can still technically remain 'open' even though unaccredited, however, a nurse cannot practice without a license.

Standards for nurses according to current regulations and accreditation requirements have become increasingly uniform in recent decades. However, while the ability for nurses to practice autonomously has grown, the accreditation process, it is argued, has limited many institutions in terms of creativity and scope. It can also be financially draining: "state evaluation for nursing programs, general collegiate evaluation, and NLN evaluation together consume a heavy dose of scarce time of deans and faculties. Cost and time are big factors in an era of down-sizing -- a phenomenon that education has not escaped" (Barnum 1997).