Rio Grande — The Holzer School of Nursing at the University of Rio Grande continues to receive full approval status for accreditation from the Ohio Board of Nursing through 2020.

Dean of the College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, Donna Mitchell, said full approval status means a program has met and maintained all requirements of Chapter 4723-5 of the Ohio Administrative Code. The other rankings the board gives programs are provisional, meaning the program has met full approval in the past but has since failed to maintain the requirements, or conditional, which is the initial status for a new program. Mitchell said she was very excited to learn the Holzer School of Nursing earned the highest honors.

“I don’t think my feet touched the ground all the way back to the car,” Mitchell said. “It’s a lot of work to maintain a program in compliance and to have that recognized at the state level is a big relief. It’s very important to the school and it further exemplifies the hard work the faculty and staff put in everyday to make sure the students are learning the information they need to be quality care providers out in the community. It was a bit stressful waiting until we got the answer, but the wait was worthwhile.”

The Ohio Board of Nursing reviews nursing programs every five years to confirm compliances with state laws and rules. The education regulatory surveyor visited the University of Rio Grande’s campus April 21 and 22 to review the program and then submitted a report to the Ohio Board of Nursing. The board reviewed the information from the visit as well as reports from the university at its meeting this past Thursday and unanimously decided to grant the Holzer School of Nursing the highest level of accreditation an institution can receive. The school’s director Amy Swango-Wilson said she and the faculty are glad the school received the accreditation from the board.