— Northeastern State University hopes to get its 2-year old master’s in nursing education program accredited for the first time.

The program gives graduating nurses the ability to teach at any technology center nursing programs or associate or bachelor degree nursing programs.

Dean of NSU Muskogee Dr. Tim McElroy said there’s a need for the program in this area, and the school is exploring other master’s level programs in health sciences as well.

“We need more folks to have the master’s that can teach — more teachers to help make that nursing pipeline bigger,” McElroy said.

Connors State College has the only associate degree nursing program in the area. NSU offers a bachelor’s in nursing and the master’s in nursing education.

“Our goal is to make Muskogee a health care hub for educational programming, which includes NSU, Connors, Indian Capital Technology Center, and Bacone College,” McElroy said.

NSU Professor of Nursing Dr. Joyce Van Nostrand said the master’s program started in Fall 2010.

“And we’ve had our first graduates as of August,” she said. “So, now it’s the time to request the initial accreditation.”

The public is invited to attend a meeting being held from 3 to 4 p.m. Sept. 19 in the boardroom of the Muskogee Campus Administrative Building.

The college will host a site review for its initial accreditation of the master of science in nursing education program.

The public is invited to meet with the accreditation team and share their thoughts about the program.

Van Nostrand said nursing programs aren’t accredited at the beginning. They must have their first graduates before applying for professional accreditation, she said.

To apply for accreditation, the faculty in the program write a self-study and address how each of six standards and criterion under each standard have been met, Van Nostrand said.

Then, a review team will visit the college before making a decision.

Reach Wendy Burton at (918) 684-2926 or wburton@muskogeephoenix.com.

Site review

Nursing at Northeastern State University has announced it will host a site review for initial accreditation of its Master of Science in nursing education program.

The public is invited to meet the visit team and comment about the program at a meeting scheduled for 3 to 4 p.m. Sept. 19 in the boardroom, Muskogee Campus Administrative Building.

Written comments are welcome and should be submitted to: Dr. Sharon Tanner, chief executive officer, 3343 Peachtree Road NE, Suite 850, Atlanta, GA 30326, or sjtanner@nlnac .org.

All written comments should arrive at NLNAC by Sept. 12, 2013.