Guidance in taking classes with Excelsior I am not a LPN, but wrkd in medical.

Sheri257 · Apr 3, 2004

Can you tell me what happened in Cali--with the ma's. I have been a ma since 1976 and have been involved in health care for several years previous to that... I have been an instructor etc. and belive that what you put into something is what you get out of it.

That may be true. But there's no guarantee that MA's have the required experience, and that's the problem. Or, so I was told by the board of nursing. This is the problem when there's no consistent standards. You might be OK, if you've gone out of your way to learn things. But what if other MA's haven't? Especially if it's not required?

Then they get their RN through Excelsior, and a hospital hires them. The former MA who doesn't have the experience can't perform the expected duties and endangers patient safety. The hospital fires them and institutes a policy not to hire any more new Excelsior grads because they can't risk the liability. Then the hospital, and others who've run into the same problem, complain to the board. Before you know it, Excelsior is out of the state all together.

This is pretty much what happened in California. With the way Excelsior is set up, there was no way to tell whether people had the appropriate experience or not. So the state essentially eliminated the whole thing.

:uhoh21:

lmr · Apr 3, 2004

Thanks alot for your honesty! I have to tell you that I have gone back and forth with this for months and I really believe that there is no way that anyone could pass that clep without any experience. I also went onto Excelsior's site and found the info. that states that in September Surgical Tech's will no longer be accepted. I appreciate all the info that everyone has given me and it has helped me to decide that I think that this route for nursing is not the way to go.

I guess the question is would you want a nurse who never performed basic nursing skills to be your nurse??? I think Excelsior is great BUT I think only those with extensive clinical nursing experience should be allowed in the program. The CPNE is designed to apply what you already know and experience gained on the job or through traditional nursing school. I realize that just out of nursing school I had limited skills but I did have basic skills like giving injections, the nursing process, and cathing...my knowledge base has grown with work experience. Just my opinion but I think you may want to try another route since you have limited nursing skills...It will be hard for you to work as an RN if you don't have a little more nursing background. Book knowledge can't replace technical skills--and vice versa for that matter...they combine together to enhance the occupation as a whole.
Kim