EXELSIOR College - Lawsuit

NotMyProblem MSN, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN · Oct 3, 2014

Like JustBeachyNurse said, there are many experiences (mine included...probably about a hundred times:blink:) in the Excelsior College forum. Online education is tailored to the individual learner/student. For you, nytoga, if you're in the assessment stage of your journey and are about to enroll in EC, 'our' experiences are about to become irrelevant (as wonderful as they were) because EC is paving a new path that leads to the same destination. So you will be amongst the pioneers of the new direction while 'we' anxiously await your testimony as you make the journey.

nytoga · Oct 4, 2014

Thank you Ladies for your replies. I'm 54 and looking forward to applying to excelsior. I'm a veteran of online learning so I should be fine. I will post my experiences to keep you updated on my progress. Thanks again!

Back2SchoolRN · Oct 5, 2014

I have direct experience with Excelsior. At that time you had to have a nursing license and considerable experience just to do the program, and the "CPNE" was an actual 3-day performance test at the RN level in real practice situations. You had to be prepared to care for any age, and diagnosis outside critical care. Basically, you did everything--assess, plan care, perform care, evaluate and document, update the plan.

You could be challenged or just casually questioned about your rationale at any time about anything you did, and one distracted mistake, when you were too rattled to mentally juggle multiple tasks at once, would sink you. The performance standard was 100% accuracy.

There was a lab where specific skills were demonstrated, such as sterile technique and IV prep/delivery. Some things were not done to protect patents, but these are the same things no new grad should do unsupervised for the first few times at least, such insert tubes and IVs. Students were routinely failed for forgetting to wash their hands at every appropriate time, including after all care was delivered.

(This last might have been the hardest, because if you had made a mistake, you'd already have been stopped and dismissed at any point...If you were giddy with relief because it was your last patient care episode, and you were walking away from the scene without having been stopped, with nothing left but to finish your documentation and go, you might be distracted and forget that last wash!)

You really do need good anxiety-management techniques. It's no shame to fail, either. Many of us are more nervous in a performance test than a Code Blue! But coaching as to how, and gentle warnings about potential slip-ups such as that last hand wash, go a long way.

As Excelsior was unique at the time, still are in many ways, they had a lot riding on their reputation for extreme demands in that CPNE. They had to find ways to grade as many aspects as possible of real-life performance at the RN level as they could in 3 days, without endangering the patient in any way, and without any SUGGESTION, even, of coaching the student.

That could make the examiners seem cold and mean. Some seemed to show empathy, and could smile between components of the testing; other seemed to feel it was their duty or safer to be deadpan even in between. All were charged with observing every little thing, letting no mistakes get by, while avoiding looking surprised, pleased, or worried/disapproving, so they wouldn't accidentally guide the student's behavior. That can't be easy!

I passed the first try. I had been an LPN for several years, had extra courses in critical care, IV therapy, and psychiatric nursing while on the job, and had functioned at the very limit of my license in hospitals that demanded it. There was a half-step to RN work called "LPN-B" then, which required some of that extra training, and I had that.

I purposely chose per diem staffing, home health and float pool assignments that would allow me to observe and do all that I was allowed to do with my license, and I asked RNs and doctors to explain things I saw them do that didn't fit the books....including things they should not be doing. Every time I had an interesting case, I would take the chance to gain deeper understanding by reading up on the topic. Every time a family remember or pet got sick, same thing. (It really does help when it's personal, because you have emotions, the visuals, etc. to cement the learning.)

In short, I actively sought out learning experiences, and I followed the suggested curriculum, using real nursing textbooks and journals. There were clinical labs, study guides, prep courses, etc. out there, but I couldn't afford them, and I felt that real life would be more memorable. I did use college courses for many of the science and liberal arts credits, vs. "testing out".

I think I came close to being the exactly intended type of student for the program, in terms of who they thought would best succeed and have the right background. I was in a 4-year college FT at the time, for something else, and so I had no time for nursing school. (My electives were taken up with prerequisite nursing requirements, where I could get them!)

I looked into getting my ASN at the local junior college, and found that "bridge to RN" programs made the traditional entry students their main priority and gave them first choice of the classes. Some LPNs were needing 3 YEARS to get an ASN, even if they were eagerly jumping on every available class. So I made the right choice: Excelsior. (That preferential treatment of their traditional on-site students is what I think I am seeing with online advanced-degree schools now--not all, but many.)

What IS perhaps unnecessarily hard about that CPNE is that it is delivered in segments but graded as one event. It seems to m that if a student passed all but one item in the lab simulations, just having to retake the lab portion might be more fair. (The same procedures weren't always tested, so as not to have the students study only those and little else...if I remember right.)

It could even be that if a peds patient-care episode was failed for a peds-specific error, not general nursing requirements, then retaking just the peds part would be fair.

But nursing Boards and other comprehensive exams are not given that way, so it's not abusive that they don't.

I have learned about a lot of abusive behaviors by some online schools--and not just the bad ones--that are a lot more sneaky and subtle, and we do need to be alert and share what we learn without being scared to do so. Many good schools engage in what I consider very questionable behaviors. It IS all about the money and the school's reputation, first and foremost. Colleges are businesses! How far that can ethically go is the question.

But I agree that the Excelsior College's study guide, curriculum, CPNE and other components are okay as they are. I don't think non-medical people such as psych techs should be entering without more clinical courses in actual nursing care. Paramedics, yes; medication admin techs, and CNAs, maybe not; CNA's with medicine cert, too. maybe yes....but psych techs, telemetry techs, EKG techs, no--their duties and training are too narrow by far.

Back2SchoolRN · Oct 5, 2014

To that nurse who criticized the first person for posting what she'd heard about the lawsuit? Do you really need to sound so angry at her? I agree--see my other note----about Excelsior, but being very cautious is not bad.

SweettartRN · Oct 5, 2014

I just read through a half dozen or so articles about the lawsuit.

It sounds like bunk to me.

I am an a proud Excelsior grad, and if it hadn't been for the rigors of the program, I would not be here today. It was intense, and it was challenging. I got more out of the CPNE than I ever did during my LPN clinicals.

meanmaryjean, DNP, RN · Oct 5, 2014

I am also an Excelsior grad- but NOT in nursing. And the current lawsuit is just a bunch of sour grapes. Online learning- esp. this type of program - is not for everyone. Just as WGU's online model is not for everyone. But to sue because it's not for you......foolish!

**emergenceRN17, ASN, BSN, RN** · Oct 5, 2014

I have a friend who just graduated from EC nursing. School is legit in every way. It seems to me that lawsuit is a few upset students who probably weren't prepared for the program. All online isn't for everyone.