Opinions on Excelsior College?

EricJRN, MSN, RN · Jul 30, 2006

I had a good experience. Are you planning to work as a nurse while you go through the program?

tater.jake · Jul 30, 2006

yes I do plan to work as I finish my RN. I'm just wondering how long it will take realistically. I think that nearly doubling my salary is plenty of motivation to keep my nose in the books. It doesn't look like it will take very long.

EricJRN, MSN, RN · Jul 31, 2006

Sounds like you've got a lot of it knocked out already. Your biggest delay may be the wait time between your CPNE eligibility and actually scheduling it. That can take a while.

I'm glad to hear that you're planning to get some nursing work experience. It will help you when it comes time for the CPNE.

tater.jake · Jul 31, 2006

Yeah, I've established a lot of experience already, just by doing shifts at a hospital for over 2 years as a CNA,Psych tech, and student nurse apprentice. I'm really thinking about just going ahead and starting on nursing concepts 1, just to get my feet wet. As a past student, do you feel it is necessary to use all of the reccomended materials?

EricJRN, MSN, RN · Jul 31, 2006

Hard to say. Everyone approaches the exams a little differently and everyone has their own study tricks. I will say that I didn't think NC1 was rocket science, but I took it a couple of years ago and I did do most of the recommended reading.

tater.jake · Jul 31, 2006

I've looked into it quite a bit, but I still don't feel like I know what I am in for.

EricJRN, MSN, RN · Aug 1, 2006

The practice exams helped me to better know what to expect.

leeae85 · Aug 6, 2006

i was wondering about Excelsior to, I recently just graduated from LPN school, and I am so ready to get my RN. My instructors said that nurses from Excelsior "weren't real nurses, and they were dangerous", but I think if a nurse could go to any school and not really be competent. But, I do think that clinical experience is VERY important, and it seems that you dont get any clinical experience with Excelsior.

EricJRN, MSN, RN · Aug 6, 2006

At the NICU where I work, it's amazing how little anyone's nursing education comes up in conversation. We're all RN's and, outside of that, I couldn't tell you where 90% of my coworkers went to school, or even what degree they earned.

I think that pretty much all new graduates (traditional program or not) can look back at moments early in their careers where they might have been described as dangerous or scary, especially if they work in critical care areas. That's why an orientation program of some sort is so important for any new nurse. If nursing school taught you everything you needed to know to be a 100% safe and effective nurse, it would never end. An experienced preceptor can really save you and keep you from killing people.

That said, Excelsior was never intended for people without clinical experience. For some of us who've done the hospital rotation thing before (I racked up over 250 clinical hours in EMT-Intermediate school alone), it just may not make sense to start all the way at square one.

leeae85 · Aug 8, 2006

how long did it take for you (eric..) to finish excelsior? was it expensive, or do they offer financial aid and stuff?

LA,T-BONE · Aug 8, 2006

I was a lpn for 6 years and did excelsior. I had med/surg, tele, and er experience. I did it in 12 months with no pre-reqs and 6 mos old twins. It can be done. You can get many of the books on e-bay and from nurses that have done the program. Some buy the books and decide that independent study is not for them so you can usually buy them cheap. To my knowledge when I did the program there was not alot of financial aid for people through excelsior but that could have changed. I did my pre-reqs at a small community college and the nursing through excelsior. That way I was able to get a loan while I was getting my pre-reqs and was able to put some of the funds aside to help with the cost. Hope this helps. Good Luck.