Excelsior, too good to be true?

EricJRN, MSN, RN · May 3, 2007

You would need to be an LPN/LVN, paramedic, respiratory therapist, or similarly licensed/certified healthcare provider to qualify for admission to Excelsior. Students who have completed at least 50% of the clinical credits in a traditional program would also be eligible.

CaitRN2be · May 3, 2007

Thanks for the clarification, Eric! I was wondering what could possibly be attracting so many people to that college. Now I know!

anticoagulationurse · May 3, 2007

Hi just wanted to add that I was an LPN prior to Excelsior. As it happens, in LPN school I did not have a single LPN as instructor, preceptor, etc. All my learning for LPN school was through RN's, even in clinicals. That aside, in LPN school I did 650 hours of clinicals. Yes, I was doing LPN functions but RN's as teachers. I truly think this gave me an edge through Excelsior. Of course, not all LPN students have the same experience or amount of clinicals. But, add to the fact that after earning my RN education from EC and working as an LPN I had over 6000 more hours of nursing/clinical experience than any fresh from brick and mortar school traditional RN who's only clinical experience was in school.

cpnegrad07 · May 5, 2007

here is my story. i'll trade you--tell me how i can be a nurse in japan?

about the clinical time, no, there isn't any. the cpne is a test; they expect you to have clinical time from your previous experience.

i finished my paramedic to rn with excelsior. it took me 2 years, 9 months while i worked full-time and cost me $7300 after all expenses for books, fees, testing, travel, and an optional workshop. would i do it again? that is hard to say. you can figure out the benefits for your situation. the drawbacks are that there are no grants or loans, no teacher to ask "how am i doing?", and a very uncertain ending.

the ending is the cpne (clinical performance exam in nursing) and it would serve you well to learn about it. it is the only hands-on, real patients part of the degree. it consists of a 4 part lab friday night, 2 patient care situations on saturday, and 1 pcs on sunday. if you fail one of the parts of the lab, you may try again on saturday. if you fail one of the pcss, you may try again once that weekend. each of these items consists of "critical elements" that are clearly written for you to study in the 4-5 months that you wait to get an opening for this exam. failure is omitting any one of the critical elements. this is not a percent test--failure is missing one item. how many items are there? well, each lab has about 10, so that is 40. each pcs consists of areas of care, which vary with each patient. if a patent is in the hospital with exacerbation of copd, your aoc are going to be mobility, fluid mgt, vital signs, respiratory mgt, comfort mgt, and maybe med adm. you plan their care, perform these aocs, and write it up in no more than 2.5 hours. each aoc has about 10 critical elements, so that is 60. you have 3 patients at the least, if no failures, so that is about 180 ces plus the labs 40 equals 220 specific things you need to cover without missing 1 in order to pass this exam.

it is a little hard for me to explain it adequately, so try to find someone who has done it and ask them. the very first ce of every area is "complies with established guidelines". that is vague. no getting around that. the "guidelines" are not spelled out by ec anywhere. the cdc guideline for infection control is that you wash before putting on gloves and immediately after. so there is a guideline. doesn't make senses to me, haven't been doing it that way, but that is the ec way (and the way i now does it). what other unknown guidelines are there? well, you read your ass off trying to find stuff like that and hope for the best. you read the texts (6) that ec recommends, their web site, the yahoo web sites:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/excelsior_college_cpne/messages

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/lynnscpneworkshop/messages

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/cpne-nclexprep/messages

now, i must say, ec is not trying to trick you, not out to gig you on little stuff, actually wants you to pass. but there is no wink-wink, nod-nod stuff like you may have seen in cpr recert. it is all by the book and stressful as hell.

i think the course work is really set up for lpn to rn. lpns have the hands-on experience to do many of the cpne possible situations. i have worked for years as a paramedic and haven't done some of the stuff that i was "prepared" to do during cpne. you can overcome this if you know about this now and plan to get a job that will expose you to hospital/nursing home care and culture. i tried to do that after i applied for the cpne and received the study material. but that was too late. i didn't get any experience, i passed, but it would have been less stressful if i had been better prepared. one guy wrote that it would be the difference between running a code vs. running a code and trying to learn how to use the defibrillator at the same time. that is about right.

i found this site and it may also help you decide:

http://www.petersons.com/nursing/ug_code/idd.asp?orderlinenum=801552-1&reprjid=32&inunid=128954&typevc=programvc&sponsor=1&tab_type=idd

you will find a wide range of times to complete this degree. i took so long because i way over-studied a&p, microbiology, and psychology. if i wanted to take a chance, i could have tested for those after 6 months instead of 16 months.

hope this helps.