Applause filled a classroom at Doña Ana Community College Wednesday after DACC President Renay Scott and New Mexico State University Chancellor Garrey Carruthers announced that the associate nursing program at DACC has received national accreditation for the next five years by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN).
In 2012, the associate nursing program at Doña Ana Community College lost national accreditation. The following year, students filed a class-action lawsuit against DACC and NMSU over the loss of the accreditation.
DACC President Renay Scott says that thanks to funding from the state legislature and a focused budget, the nursing program will be able to recruit and retain quality nursing teachers and administrators.
“If this is a critical area and it’s important to Doña Ana County, which health care is; then we need to make sure that the resources follow the priority. So that may mean that in essence perhaps we don’t bring a new program online or perhaps we don’t grow a program, because there’s not jobs available and then we take those funds and then we invest them into the programs of our priority. So, we’ve already built this in as a permanent budget.”
Doña Ana Community College President Renay Scott says that 2015 spring graduates of the associate nursing program can now say they have graduated from a nationally accredited program.
The next national accreditation visit for the program by the ACEN is scheduled for spring 2020.
