I tend to go on and on about my love/hate relationship with Excelsior, but today something happened that made me stop and realize just what EC has done for me.
This is purely anectdotal, but then so is most all the information on this board. I do want to say my situation is the gospel truth.
For anyone who thinks being an Excelsior graduate makes you unemployable, or makes people doubt your abilities, I want you to know that within two weeks after I graduated I had three job offers. One agency has called me every week wanting to give me a job.
I was able to get a job in a field I was really ineterested in: home health. I am making (conservatively) about $54,000 a year after taxes. In Tennessee that is a good salary and I have found out today that just to be "on call" over a week I will get $150 extra. Big whoopie, you may say, but there aren't many fields where you can do this with an associates degree from a distance learning school.
At the risk of sounding like a corny tv commercial...thanks Excelsior.
I enrolled before the the deadline set by the CA board of registered nursing way back in 2003. Anyone enrolled in the program by December 6, 2003 are able to obtain licensure in CA. I enrolled in October 2003 and completed the program in March 2005. I had no problem getting licensed here.
Trauma--I owe you no personal information. I realize you are a die hard EC fan. I have serious reservations about EC's extremely basic clinical for non-nursing backgrounds. The clinical was entirely nursing 101.
heh. perhaps you could be the poster child for the california bon :). both of you are at odd with the nln's judgement.
other than the fact that you "just know", do you have any evidence that ec is putting unsafe nurses in practice? how did ec pull the wool over the phd's at the nln?
in my view, traditional schools do graduate quite a few who are dumber than rocks. a good percentage are spoon fed and brownnose their way thru, otherwise, they'd never have made it. what do you do about those nurses?
answer: the bon should find a way to assess candidate skills, and test everyone who applies for licensure, no matter which school they attended. ec does have a higher pass rate than traditional schools on the nclex, so i don't see why they wouldn't have a similar rate on clinical skills.
We can argue about this until we're blue in the face but, the bottom line is: At least traditional grads don't have any trouble getting licensed. I mean ... seriously ... you can say some of the state boards and traditional schools are bad, etc. but, is it really worth the worry over licensing? Look at the thread about Maryland. That came outta nowhere.
For all practical purposes, none of these arguments matter if you can't get licensed where you want to be licensed. Who wants to be in a position where you can't practice in certain states or, you have to fight the state boards or, where you never know if a state board is going to pull the rug out from under you without any notice.
The practical reality is: the state boards can pretty much do whatever they want and, EC would better serve all of their students by following BON rules.
if you denature excelsior, then it wouldn't be excelsior. it is an assessment based college.
the point is whether nurses are competent and safe. i have met many excelsior students face to face. i've seen many fail. the idea that "nonclinical people" are graduating excelsior to become unsafe nurses is simply not true. where are these nonclinical people? i've met may excelsior students. how come i've never met a single "nonclinical person"?
when i was going through paramedic school, there was another student who wanted to do excelsior. no question, this wasn't going to be a safe person. she didn't have the cognitive ability to do the job safely. she still hasn't passed the paramedic exam. she never made it to excelsior.
i saw with my own eyes that the medics and rts and yes, my good friend the midwife.... that made it through excelsior were absolutely qualified people i'd want taking care of me and my family. the idea that they are unsafe clinicians is ridiculous. compare someone who has delivered hundreds of babies as opposed to someone who has just finished a traditional nursing school, and you've got a mismatch. my friend the midwife (and now nurse) could nurse circles around a new grad. to think otherwise is delusional.
i'll even bet pedinurse would agree that when he/she finished excelsior, he/she was a better registered nurse than a new graduate from a traditional program. that's the cornerstone of this nln's vision for this type of education. i have yet to meet an excelsior student who finished the program that isn't vastly better qualified than a grad from a traditional school. i can't think of one!
i believe the state boards need to protect the public from ALL incompetent practitioners, regardless of which school they attended. the board should include an assessment test for both clinical and theory. graduation from a traditional school is no guarantee of competence and safety.
that some on state boards blindy focus on eliminating the excelsior program simply shows that they don't know how to do their job. pitiful, really, and it isn't serving the public. it is counterproductive to society.
someone alluded to the fact that many who are enrolled in excelsior never get through the program. that's true. none of them has a registered nursing license, and none of them will get it until they pass the assessments. if they never pass, they never get a license. i don't have a problem with that.
We can argue about this until we're blue in the face but, the bottom line is: At least traditional grads don't have any trouble getting licensed. I mean ... seriously ... you can say some of the state boards and traditional schools are bad, etc. but, is it really worth the worry over licensing? Look at the thread about Maryland. That came outta nowhere.
For all practical purposes, none of these arguments matter if you can't get licensed where you want to be licensed. Who wants to be in a position where you can't practice in certain states or, you have to fight the state boards or, where you never know if a state board is going to pull the rug out from under you without any notice.
The practical reality is: the state boards can pretty much do whatever they want and, EC would better serve all of their students by following BON rules.
:typing
they can't change the rule overnight. they'd have to give a cutoff date. like california did. california also has 6,000 ec grad nurses. they can't take your license back. i'm positive that during my nursing career, i can work in 49 states. that's good enough for me.
and we don't yet know the full story in maryland. i'm sure it will be discussed thoroughly here.
Im so glad it worked out for you, Motorcycle Mama. I remember you passed your boards first try, too! It's nice that there are programs available like this for those that are motivated enough to self study. It isn't for me, since I am not self motivated. I needed to go through the traditional schooling. Its so good you are making good $ now!
Trauma--I owe you no personal information. I realize you are a die hard EC fan. I have serious reservations about EC's extremely basic clinical for non-nursing backgrounds. The clinical was entirely nursing 101.
It may have been nursing 101 but I don't know what that says about traditional schools because I work with an RN in home health who didn't know the slightest thing about what should be included in a neuro assessment. I know because she asked for my help in doing one.
just beat the nclex about the head and ears in one hour and 10 minutes, 75 questions. what a piece of cake! the licensing exam is a joke compared to the cpne. perhaps that's where they need to tighten standards.
It may have been nursing 101 but I don't know what that says about traditional schools because I work with an RN in home health who didn't know the slightest thing about what should be included in a neuro assessment. I know because she asked for my help in doing one.
No, she didn't know I was an Excelsior grad.
Uh ... I thought we weren't supposed to be debating the EC issue here.
Or, has this now become a traditional grads are incompetent thread. Because if it is, I'm mighty tempted to respond. But ... I would also like to comply with the moderators wishes ...
traumahawk99
596 Posts
wonderful :)