Accreditation Nurse Practitioner Program Standards and Framework

The CASN accreditation program for nurse practitioner programs of nursing is characterized by the following:

• It is guided by core values and fundamental principles.
• Quality dimensions provide overarching quality guidelines for accreditation standards, their descriptors, and key elements.
• The standards are divided into two sets; one set applies to the school of nursing itself, referred to as the educational unit, and the other applies to the program of nursing, referred to as the education program.
• The unit of an accreditation review is a single nurse practitioner nursing education program, assessed using the education program standards, and a single educational unit delivering the program, assessed using the educational unit standards.
• Educational units and their nurse practitioner programs undergoing an accreditation review carry out a self-study against the key elements of the standards and provide evidence to demonstrate how they are meeting the standards.
• Peer reviewers conduct an on-site or virtual visit and collect evidence through interviews, a review of documents, and observations to validate the self-study report.
• The Nurse Practitioner CASN Accreditation Bureau (NP-CAB) is the decision-making body that determines the accreditation status and terms of the educational unit and education program under review. It functions independently and at arms length from the CASN Board of Directors and the CASN Council.

Core Values

Values underpinning CASN’s accreditation programs guide the review process itself and all those involved in the implementation of the accreditation programs, including the CASN Board of Directors, reviewers, members of the CASN accreditation bureaus, the accreditation advisory committees, and accreditation staff.

Download the Accreditation Nurse Practitioner Program Standards and Framework