A few very Novice questions

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hello all. i just found this forum this morning actually. i am a paramedic working in colorado. i have 8 years experience working for a very busy ambulance service performing both 911 calls and long distance critical care transfers of pts between hospitals. for the last year i have been working on an oil research site in a very rural part of nw colorado. i currently work a 2 week on and 2 week off schedule and because of this i recently started thinking of taking classes online.

a natural progression for me seemed to be looking at working towards my rn degree. so i have started looking online for any kind of bridge programs. as you can guess the internet has immediately directed me towards excelsior college as an option. as of 2 days ago i did not even know excelsior college existed. it took me a day of researching it to realize that excelsior college allows you to "test" out of most of its classes. i have never heard of that concept of school before so this is all very new to me.

i hope the above description explains my very novice questions and i apologize in advance if what i am going to ask should be considered knowledge i should already know.

i would love to get clarification on a few things. first are there any previous paramedics out there who have or are going through this process of working towards your rn?

2nd, i have a representative from "the college network" calling me on wed to talk to me about this program. from information i have read here this morning it seems to me that places like "the college network" or "r.u.e" are just companies that help you to study for excelsior. is this impression correct on my part? these companies internet sites try to make you believe that they are schools themselves and are merely affiliated with excelsior college. i have read some posts this morning in this forum that lead me to believe you can actually just go directly through excelsior itself and obtain study aids from other sources without going through these companies. is this correct? when you first start looking on the internet everything out there seems to make a newbie like me think that you have to go through one of these companies if you want to pass excelsior's tests. what is the actual situation? do most people skip these companies and go directly through excelsior? are these companies worth the money? if you dont do these companies is there enough study guides privately available in order to accomplish the same thing? any information on this would be great.

i have a lot more questions but i think this would be a great start for me here especially since i will be talking to a sales guy in a couple of days.

thanks,

daboss20

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Specializes in Psych, LTC, Acute Care.

Lunah a female on this site is a paramedic doing the program. She is actually finished with all her exams and is waiting to take the CPNE.

DON"T sign with TCN or Rue. They are over priced publishing companies. Go to Excelsior.edu and ask to talk to an admission counselor. They will send you a packet explaining the program. Read the threads on this site and ask as many questions as you would like. Also you can find those TCN modules on Ebay for less than 50 dollars each. I bought 3 last week for $118 brand new. The reason why I am against TCN is because they are the middle man wanting to make alots of money on your EC education. If you sign with them, you cannot get out of their contract unless you cancel within 3 days. With EC you pay as you go. Alot of people sign with TCN and find that online studying is not for them. They are still bound to the contract and have to pay 10,000 to them regardless if they finish or not. Thats why they go to Ebay and sell their modules. It takes a lot of disapline to do this program. Get the facts. Call EC.

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I will suggest you go directly through Excelsior. TCN & RUE are over priced publishing companies, you don't have to sign up with them to pass. You can still buy their study guides from ebay or amazon just like the former poster said. Most people do not go through them, and a lot of people that sign up with them regret it.

Good luck.

nursemomof3boys

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

I'm here! :) As NC Girl said, I'm done with the courses and I'm waiting on my CPNE (clinical performance in nursing examination) date -- that's the somewhat-intimidating clinicals exam that comes at the end of all this. :)

As a paramedic, you will be accepted by Excelsior. However, there are stipulations made by the CO Board of Nursing (BON) about additional clinical hours you'd have to complete before you would be able to work as an RN in Colorado. You should contact the CO BON to see if they've put that into place yet -- all I remember seeing a couple of years ago is that they were "working on it." I know this because my husband lived in Colorado Springs for a decade, and it's one place we're considering moving in the next few years (the other is Oregon, my home state). In any case, CO does have some additional hoops you'd have to jump through.

And you absolutely DO NOT need to go through anyone besides Excelsior. Lately I keep getting these "Be an RN in as little as 18 months!" things from The College Network (TCN). Oh, puh-leeeze! LOL!

Feel free to PM me if you want to ask me more questions, or post here -- we're a helpful bunch!

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