Thought I would start us a thread to keep up with our little group of people that have finished or will be finishing the last exam in the next few weeks.
Me, I am done with exams, scheduled my FCCA and it will be here next week with completion by months end. The only other little obstacle is my PF Info Lit course, waiting on my book now, should be here this week. I plan to knock it out the day it gets here.
Its been a long year. I enrolled in July 2011 and finished my last exam this month. I am so ready to get done with this program and get out of a job I hate and get into a job I love.
I'm in VA so I have a few hoops to jump thru to get licensed, I will apply for and actually work in NC.
I'm hoping to schedule my CPNE for June/July and will probably go with NPAC, I have heard great things about Albany and Syracuse, so it looks like New York will be my best bet. I am scared to death of NY, I'm used to dirt country roads but will deal with it when I get there. I would really love to find someone here that I can possibly meet up with at the test site to go thru this nightmare with me, seems it does work out sometimes where a few of us do manage to have the same dates/sites.
So, where is the rest of CPNE ready folks at? For those of you working tirelessly to get that last exam in and make the deadline for the paper FCCA.......work hard and get it done so you can join in with the madness of the CPNE prep.
I've really loved the independent study Excelsior offers, and the challenging exams that do make you think about the patient more than just answer a standard multiple choice question. I know there's some folks that don't seem to "mesh" well with Excelsior I guess, but woooo-weee! I'm a happy camper with them!
I was really dreading getting the computer version of the FCCA, not because of any difficulty associated with it, but my internet access is periodic (I can be living on my iPhone for a couple of weeks due to poor service out here... unfortunately, this doesn't work well with online "classes" that require a weekly attendance and don't work with the Safari browser). So, I lived, breathed, and studied my butt off for my last nursing course, LS3, and moved the test date two weeks up to March 28 to *try* and make the paper version FCCA. Earned an "A" (happy dance), and then to top it off, my Excelsior nursing advisor was wonderful! I didn't even ask, but she re-evaluated my many transcripts from other colleges (my quarter-system-based university really messed me up, lol!) and I learned I was eligible for the paper FCCA! If I could've done the happy dance any happier, some incontinence would have been present!
The FCCA dates for me are supposed to be April 10 to 19th. I am a bit nervous on this and the CPNE being a field paramedic by occupation, not an LPN or LVN. Had some experience in hospital interventions as a student with my hospital clinicals and also as working as an ED tech for a few years, but if anyone knows of any good DVDs or other highly-visual sources that show proper technique on more of the hospital-based skills, I'd be very grateful! Does Sheri Taylor's online program cover much of the skills beyond the lab stations? For example, enteral feeding?
Specializes in Revenue Integrity, Rehab, RAC Auditor.
Studying every day for CPNE down to just 5 weeks left. I have my Mnemonics for my areas of care all memorized and doing pretty good on careplans thanks to Sheri!! Doing Labs almost daily and practicing my documentation and grids daily. I am taking Excelsior's documentation class in a few weeks along with Sheri's in person workshop then just 3 weeks later I will be off to Utica to conquer the beast. I alternate between I can do this and Holy Crap what did I get myself into.
Well all of my docs were accepted today for the CPNE except for my passport photo, need to rescan and upload again. That was pretty fast since I just sent it all in.
I am making progress on the careplans, finally getting the nitty gritty of it and have the basics down. Sheri's skill videos show you exactly what you should do, technique and all. I'm loving it.
I just need to get my mneumonics down to memory and move forward.
For those working on the FCCA, or getting ready: Good luck, get it done!
I just took Transitions today, last nursing theory exam. Hoping to get registered for FCCA and get that started ASAP. Is it still a packet in the mail?
Specializes in wound care, sub-acute, community nursing.
I'm hopng to get my FCCA today a little early! Nervous, are you on facebook?? they have a good group called Let's conquer the CPNE beast together....great info there and great support. :)
I'm hopng to get my FCCA today a little early! Nervous, are you on facebook?? they have a good group called Let's conquer the CPNE beast together....great info there and great support. :)
Yeah, I read those posts religiously. I see you got your FCCA today in another post. Get that thing done and send it back :) I'm just patiently waiting till next week till I can call SPAC again and see if they have a cancellation for the end of May. I'm doing good on my mneumonics, mastered the Assessments and the Required AOC sections. I will work on the Managements over the next few days. Still doing careplans and working on narrative notes.
I too am preparing to tackle the beast. AS of right now My test date is July 20-22. I have so much ambivalent anxiety.. hey wait could that be a nanda label?? lol,, I want to go test and prove I know what to do, but I dont want to go and forget something so simple and fail. I read the excelsior board faithfully, and I have just started to submit careplans:nono: to the ec board and the advisors. My first one was ok, but too general. I am going to search for a careplan book and skills book simplified on both this Tuesday to see if it will shed any light. I have been an LVN for 20 years and I am so ready for this part of my journey to be complete.:w00t:
I will say that MPAC has been awesome to deal with. My original date was March 9 and as soon as I accepted I had that gut feeling it was the wrong decision, and as life hands us our trials, it was. So I have now rescheduled for July. I have copied and ordered so much information on what to do and what not to do, and I have been to two workshops, that now I am in info overload. I did find on this site an very simpliefied plan, and I have to say so far it has been the best info. I am also using the flash cards from ec and the ec workbook.
So good luck to you guys and hopefully we will fly like the eagles on the wings of success through our cpne!
I have my Mnemonics for my areas of care all memorized and doing pretty good on careplans thanks to Sheri!! Doing Labs almost daily and practicing my documentation and grids daily. I am taking Excelsior's documentation class in a few weeks along with Sheri's in person workshop then just 3 weeks later I will be off to Utica to conquer the beast.
I alternate between I can do this and Holy Crap what did I get myself into. 
hey wait could that be a nanda label?? 
lol,, I want to go test and prove I know what to do, but I dont want to go and forget something so simple and fail. I read the excelsior board faithfully, and I have just started to submit careplans:nono: to the ec board and the advisors. My first one was ok, but too general. I am going to search for a careplan book and skills book simplified on both this Tuesday to see if it will shed any light. 
I have been an LVN for 20 years and I am so ready for this part of my journey to be complete.:w00t:
Aliakey
131 Posts
I've really loved the independent study Excelsior offers, and the challenging exams that do make you think about the patient more than just answer a standard multiple choice question. I know there's some folks that don't seem to "mesh" well with Excelsior I guess, but woooo-weee! I'm a happy camper with them!
I was really dreading getting the computer version of the FCCA, not because of any difficulty associated with it, but my internet access is periodic (I can be living on my iPhone for a couple of weeks due to poor service out here... unfortunately, this doesn't work well with online "classes" that require a weekly attendance and don't work with the Safari browser). So, I lived, breathed, and studied my butt off for my last nursing course, LS3, and moved the test date two weeks up to March 28 to *try* and make the paper version FCCA. Earned an "A" (happy dance), and then to top it off, my Excelsior nursing advisor was wonderful! I didn't even ask, but she re-evaluated my many transcripts from other colleges (my quarter-system-based university really messed me up, lol!) and I learned I was eligible for the paper FCCA! If I could've done the happy dance any happier, some incontinence would have been present!
The FCCA dates for me are supposed to be April 10 to 19th. I am a bit nervous on this and the CPNE being a field paramedic by occupation, not an LPN or LVN. Had some experience in hospital interventions as a student with my hospital clinicals and also as working as an ED tech for a few years, but if anyone knows of any good DVDs or other highly-visual sources that show proper technique on more of the hospital-based skills, I'd be very grateful! Does Sheri Taylor's online program cover much of the skills beyond the lab stations? For example, enteral feeding?
Thank you for any help!
Good luck to all of you!