SALINA– Kansas Wesleyan University’s Nursing program was notified this week that its application for accreditation by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) was not accepted.

Kansas Wesleyan began the application process for this new regional programmatic accreditation through CCNE in May 2015, according to a media release.

A site-visit team from CCNE visited campus on February 1–2, 2016. The visit team submitted a report to the CCNE Board of Commissioners, which met on September 23, 2016, and notified the university last week. Students and faculty were on fall break when the letter was received, and university administrators shared the news with campus on Monday.

“Continuous improvement has been our focus for the past 18 months. Our faculty and administrators in Nursing and across the university have worked diligently to restructure and enhance all aspects of the program,” said Dr. Matt Thompson, university president and CEO. “This was unexpected news, but the fact that we met 25 of the 28 criteria means that they believe in the quality of our new fall curriculum and our faculty.”

The Nursing program has 40 Pre-Nursing students who will be ready to enter the program in 2017 or 2018. Not all health care centers require employees to have a degree from a university that has voluntary programmatic accreditation.

“Nursing has been a signature program at Kansas Wesleyan for many years, and we are committed to continuing to meet the needs of Salina’s healthcare community,” said Dr. Thompson.

In summer 2015, three new faculty members with graduate degrees in Nursing Education were hired to create a core team to re-build the curriculum and the program.