Excelsior "Classes"

[NEWRRT]

Hello!

I am just curious if the Excelsior classes or tests have any material on I.V.'s, medications, and medication calculation/dosages. I am interested in the program but as a working respiratory therapist I never learned this type of stuff in school and the nurses I work with at the hospital are too busy to sit and explain stuff to me. I would feel more comfortable knowing I will be learning similar stuff to what other nursing students learn. Thanks for your help :)

[Nalon1 RN/EMT-P, BSN, RN]

No, there is no pharmacology course.

I would bet you could find many websites that could help teach you.

[NotMyProblem MSN, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN]

If I recall correctly, you will need to know some common treatments for the chronic illnesses. But that information should be found within your studies. You may be required to select correct peak times in the treatment used for diabetics, or be able to relate lasix and potassium and identify and apply appropriate nursing interventions. But don't worry because everything that you would need to know for the exams is listed in the content guides. Also, Google is your friend for quick answers. Just make sure those answers are from reliable websites. Another thing you can do, get a copy of an actual lab report, mark out any identifying information, and use that to help become familiar with normal lab ranges. Knowing some of those will help you to identify what medications you can expect the physician to order or hold/discontinue.

Don't worry. EC's nursing program is not catered specifically to the knowledge of nurses. It has always been my opinion that people other than LPNs do better in the program because LPNs have to be 'deprogrammed' from real-world nursing as opposed to what the textbook calls for.