SIC president: Nursing program strong, can handle accreditation
Southeastern Illinois College President Jonah Rice says the college's top-ranked nursing program is doing fine, despite rumors.
"Out of seemingly nowhere, I began fielding phone calls from individuals who said they had been told the nursing program was going away, which is certainly not true," Rice said. "Our program is one of the best two-year nursing programs in the state and there has never even been a suggestion that it will change."
Rice, joined by Dean of Academic Services and nursing instructor Gina Sirach and Director of Allied Health/Nursing Amy Murphy, said they are puzzled why people would think the program was in jeopardy.
Sirach said a recent revision to the Nurse Practice Act, which determines academic criteria for nursing degree programs, will mandate that two-year programs receive approval by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing.
The accreditation process has a cost and SIC - like all state-funded colleges in Illinois - has received few funds from the state for nearly the past two years. Sirach, Rice and Murphy said perhaps people have assumed that the cost of accreditation would be too much of a financial burden for SIC to bear.
"The bottom line is, if we have to seek accreditation for the nursing program, then we'll get accredited," Rice said.
The notion, though, galls him, he said. "There is no correlation between accreditation of a nursing degree program and a success rate," Rice said. "Our program is ranked best in the state. How does accreditation improve upon that? It doesn't."
Organizations PracticalNursing.org and RegisteredNursing.org ranked SIC's Associate Degree Nursing and Practical Nursing programs No. 1 in Illinois in February. In addition, results tracked by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation for the 2016 National Council Licensure Examination revealed a 100 percent pass rate by all SIC students taking the exam.
Only one other two-year program offering an ADN program and two other four-year programs had the same pass rate. "How does accreditation improve upon 100 percent?" Rice asked.
In addition, Sirach and Murphy said another important statistic, finding employment, has been high for the program. "Most of the 2016 program graduates had promise of employment by the time they finished, and by mid-July they all had jobs," Murphy said.
Rice also noted that the college itself is fully accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association, the nursing program is fully recognized by the Illinois Community College Board, and it is fully recognized by IDFPR, which oversees nursing practice in Illinois.
So, while SIC's nursing program is as good as it ever has been, Rice said the Illinois General Assembly is doing no favors to nursing programs.
"SIC lobbied hard against unfunded mandates, but they happen anyway, like this one. I think it's a shame to have to spend taxpayer money on a successful program that's already rated at 100 percent by external standards," he said.