I am a proud New York City EMS Paramedic preparing to enter the Excelsior nursing program.
As a professional in an urban EMS system, I've worked side by side with registered nurses under austere conditions for many years. I consider nurses to be my peers, and I have enjoyed a good rapport and a sense of mutual respect in the context of our professional relationship. The vast majority of nurses I have worked with recognize that health professionals -- paramedics and others -- can and do maintain valuable clinical experience and skills.
However, there is always a small minority of divisive individuals in healthcare and academia who are blind elitists. These are the ones who summarily conclude that if you were not a codified student of a particular discipline, you know nothing. Frankly, I think there needs to be a more nuanced and respectful analysis on the part of those few who think that the clinical experience of other health care providers outside of their own scope of practice amounts to nothing.
Excelsior College attempts to address this problem by recognizing that paramedics like myself, as well as LPNs, PAs, MDs and others, tend to acquire clinical skills that are reasonably compatible with nursing. Excelsior provides a bridge for those providers to fill in any gaps and cross over into nursing in the same way that nurses have demanded a bridge to cross into the paramedic's domain (as PHRN) without having to go through the extensive paramedic training programs and EMS internship.
The two states that summarily reject Excelsior grads do so because they believe the program provides insufficient clinical training compared to traditional programs. This ignores the fact that all students are required to be licensed healthcare providers with clinical experience from the outset. The typical paramedic working in the field has patient care experience that, frankly, meets or exceeds that of most nursing students, and it is probably fair to say the same is true of many other experienced clinicians.
I would argue that the minority powers-that-be who do not see this logic have probably failed miserably in their responsibility to be discerning in their judgment. The fact that there are Excelsior nurses practicing in all fifty states in supervisory positions is proof that the paradigm works. The bureaucrats from the two states who have placed restrictions on latter-day graduates and marked them with an unfair stigma will hopefully retire soon and make way for leaders who can think outside of the box.
Paramedics, LPNs, PAs, and MDs who wish to bridge into nursing require respect. Excelsior grads are experienced clinicians that have consistently excelled in national-level clinical and didactic nursing examinations, and they deserve to be universally and unequivocally recognized as registered nurses!
hi everybody. i love the forum. i am a pa and i currently live and practice happily in ga. initially in college i started in the pre-nursing program but early on i got accepted in a pa program and decided to follow through. i always felt a deep connection towards nursing and wanted to finish my nursing degree but my schedule is all over the place(days,nights,weekends) and changes every month. i also have 2 small children. so i think its next to impossible to attend a conventional nursing program. i was wondering if there are any nurses that got their degree from excelsior and currently practice in ga and what were their experiences. thanks:d
welcome to allnurses! i'm confused you're a pa but you didn't have to get a nursing license and take the nclex? how does that work? i went through excelsior to get my rn and i thought it was a wonderful, very doable program. you have to be very self-motivated because there will be no one telling you when to study, when an assignment is due, you're all on your own.
Specializes in ICU, Telemetry, Cardiac/Renal, Ortho,FNP.
Well, I'm a Doctor :bowingpur(not to be confused...a chiropractic doctor so I know about years of education not medicine) and my undergrad degree is in Anatomy. I can say unequivocally that Excelsior is a blessing to many Dr.'s of various backgrounds.
Why? Well, in my case, my profession has a lot to be desired including average income, career advancement, professional opportunities. For FMG's they can't practice in the states except in ED's I believe so going through Excelsior is a logical alternative leading back to working in clinical medicine for many. Yes, it's embarrassing to tell someone that your a "Dr." but you're going to nursing school but only b/c the people asking the question are ignorant in the first place. I am amazed by the knowledge, compassion & professionalism that nurses have to demonstrate. In many ways, Doctors do not have to behave as professionally simply b/c the decision lies with them and that power goes to their head, bypassing the heart altogether.
So even with 350+ credit hours behind me I still find self study of nursing material very challenging. Why? Because it is not the same training as Doctor's get, in general. The thinking is different, the perspective is different, the decision process is different. Yes, the same basic information is taken but what nurses decide to do with it is not the same as how or why a physician decides matters. That being said it is wrong for a doctor to think nursing must be a piece of cake or that nurses think doctors should already know this stuff. It just ain't the same so there is a reason why a 'doctor' would have to learn just as any nursing student. Any 'new' material must still be learned, the only benefit is that doctors have spent many years already learning didactically similar information. Tests aren't over similar information they are over the 'exact' information.
I'm glad someone has warned me about the CPNE being so focused b/c my thoughts were, "Oh, crap...they are going to turn me loose on a pt. in a hospital! Are they nuts!" Now, I am more at ease that there is not the expectation that one must function as a seasoned nurse b/c I have seen you in action, not much different than the PA's/Doc's.
I believe the reason that there is some bias against Excelsior is b/c in the case of the ADN...nothing is taught. It's tested. Of course you must already have the core knowledge to pass the test but I think the BON is not happy about having no influence over the knowledge application process. They don't have the opportunity to inject whatever they desire into your curriculum. State medical boards don't like it either b/c they don't like the idea of distance education in healthcare, although in the case of nursing it's a self defeating arguement. From what I've seen there are multitudes of APN, MSN, BSN bridge programs all over the country that are all distance ed. In fact, because I have my BS degree, I'm considering the Frontier Nurse Practitioner program which is all distance ed. So what reasonable arguement can be made if one is able to become a MSN-NP by distance ed but won't be accepted as an entry level RN by Excelsior.:banghead:
Academia is not about reason and neither is politics. I'm afraid that until an Excelsior grad becomes the head of the State Board of Nursing in California or Georgia nothing will change.:typing
I have a friend that was a RRT and she recentaly completed the Excelsior program. She took the state board for Minnesota and applied for endorsment to the State Board of Georgia. She now works as an RN at Grady in Atlanta in the ICU. The whole process took less than six weeks. Good luck in your future endevaors!!
welcome to allnurses! i'm confused you're a pa but you didn't have to get a nursing license and take the nclex? how does that work? i went through excelsior to get my rn and i thought it was a wonderful, very doable program. you have to be very self-motivated because there will be no one telling you when to study, when an assignment is due, you're all on your own.
i apologize if i caused any confusion. you see a physician assistant(pa) doesn't have to be an rn prior to becoming a pa. in the case of nurse practitioners(nps) you do have to become an rn first prior to becoming an np even though the two professions are 99% identical(pa and np).its just that the np program is a better fit and a wise choice for nurses who want to enter advance practice.
I have a friend that was a RRT and she recentaly completed the Excelsior program. She took the state board for Minnesota and applied for endorsment to the State Board of Georgia. She now works as an RN at Grady in Atlanta in the ICU. The whole process took less than six weeks. Good luck in your future endevaors!!
Thank you so much for your input. Do you know if i can take the nursing boards in any state eventhough i am currently a resident of Georgia?
There are ONLY 2 states that do not accept Excelsior, at this point. California & Maryland.
I realize that there are rules and requirements, but all graduates of Excelsior entered the program with a substantial amount of clinical hours, to begin with.
If you ask me, it's an awful shame. We can hire/sponsor foreign nurses, yet Excelsior College, a nationally/NLNAC accredited educational institute, is actually questioned?
there was no such thing as a cpne workshop when i went through. i think the workshop is great advice.
i went to atlanta both times for my cpne but to different sites. i would not recomment gwinette. the big medical center downtown was awesome.
i cried when i failed cpne, the msn felt really bad for me but told me i was not performing as a fresh grad but rather as an experienced nurse. they "have to" see that we can function as a fresh grad when getting a job as an rn. in other words...you have to function in the same way as a traditional new graduate nursing student from a tradition nursing program. that's their standards and they do stick to it very strictly. the msn told me she admired me for cleaning up the patient, that she would have done the same but that she had to stick to their standards of how a new grad would perform.
what a load of garbage. (and do not take me wrong - i'm completely in the poster's court here, even though the post is almost two years old.)
i cannot believe that someone thought this person should fail because they used their head. dumbest thing i've ever heard. if i ever heard of a new grad not cleaning up an obviously dirty patient and i were the supervisor, i'd go ballistic on them. that's just common sense and common courtesy. stupid!!!! and the apical pulse thing? i was taught how to take an apical pulse in my bsn program, and i had graduated from school by the time this poster made her post. dumb!!!!
sorry, but it sounds to me as though excelsior holds their students to a lower standard and is not willing to take into account that the grads of this program are a different type of nurse - they're not "new grads", they're very experienced medical professionals who bring a different skill set to the table. the testing folks are not taking this into account and are penalizing the students. i think that's awful - not to mention somewhat backwards.
my first bs came from excelsior when i was enlisted in the military the first time (i'm an officer now, an rn with the usaf) and i know how hard their programs can be. so i find it a bit awful that this is the treatment the rn grads get.
There are ONLY 2 states that do not accept Excelsior, at this point. California & Maryland.
I realize that there are rules and requirements, but all graduates of Excelsior entered the program with a substantial amount of clinical hours, to begin with.
If you ask me, it's an awful shame. We can hire/sponsor foreign nurses, yet Excelsior College, a nationally/NLNAC accredited educational institute, is actually questioned?
Not to mention a leader in distance and non-traditional education - they've been doing this sort of stuff since the seventies.
I completely agree carolinapooh. In my eyes, this program can only be passed by those who are exceptionally driven and academically sharp, as you do not have someone holding your hand through the process. I have a lot of respect for Excelsior College and have heard NOTHING but wonderful things about it..from the awesome graduates to the people who have hired them.
Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.
As a Regents grad from the class of 1989, I can contest it is not an easy program to pass, and I had 4 yrs of LPN behind me. The clinicals as they were called then, had a very high failure rate. There were 12 of us during my clinical and only 5 of us passed. The days were 10 hr days of no lunch or breaks. You had your pt's to see and you had to assess, read the chart and crank out a care plan in minutes. The day before was all technique. They stood with clipboard in hand and watched you do a sterile dressing change, injections, pour meds, all while making sure you did the 5 rights. You were timed as well, so no standing there with your finger up your nose. Back in the day, we also had to figure out a drip rate and calibrate the IV to run at that particular rate, while timing it with our watch. You only had 10 minutes max to get the problem, solve and then get the thing spiked and dripping at whatever rate it was suppose to be, all the while with a nurse instructor standing there watching you. I should add they were not warm and fuzzy either.
I told my husband as I got off the plane that the next time I was to advance my nursing degree, I'd go the easy way and head to a brick and mortar college.
I am TERRIFIED about the CPNE. I do not have ANY previous experience. I will literally be a NEW graduate from an LPN program. I'm wondering how in the world I will pass this. I have never worked as an LPN and didn't plan on working throughout this program. I'm so worried. This is way harder than just sitting for the NCLEX. That's the one thing I'm dreading.
All you have to do is know the study guide to a tee! (I know that isn't easy but you can do it!). I mean, every little thing exactly like they say to do it.
Practice, practice, practice! Get friends or family members, throw them in the bed, make up different critical elements to practice, give yourself two hours and do it as if you were doing it at the exam site. Do this over and over and over.
Same thing with the lab. Make yourself a simulated lab of the stuff they are going to test and practice as you were there actually doing it.
It's not easy and takes a lot of study and practice but if you DO NOT vere from the path they want you will pass.
:banghead:
We can hire/sponsor foreign nurses, yet Excelsior College, a nationally/NLNAC accredited educational institute, is actually questioned?.thumb.gif.09f7460d3e1ff8d6732564d77b5465cb.gif){kind=avatar}
DutchgirlRN, ASN, RN
3,932 Posts
welcome to allnurses! i'm confused you're a pa but you didn't have to get a nursing license and take the nclex? how does that work? i went through excelsior to get my rn and i thought it was a wonderful, very doable program. you have to be very self-motivated because there will be no one telling you when to study, when an assignment is due, you're all on your own.