Excelsior Nurses

I graduated in 1989 from Regents/Excelsior and have never had a problem getting a job. And back when I was testing, they had MUCH laxer rules about who was allowed in. As long as I had a license when all was said and done, doesn't seem like anyone much cares where you went to school.

I'm in California, btw.

Heather

I'm an LPN student thinking about continuing with Excelsior to go for RN. But a guy in my class said the clinical exam has a 90% fail rate. Is that true? What is the best way to prepare?

Originally posted by Betty_SPN_KS

I'm an LPN student thinking about continuing with Excelsior to go for RN. But a guy in my class said the clinical exam has a 90% fail rate. Is that true? What is the best way to prepare?

The CPNE is one of the most stressful test I took with Excelsior. I did have to take it a second time because I thought my mother-in-laws death would not have had a bearing on my abilities. Wow, was I wrong! My dining room was a mess while I prepared for CPNE. My girlfriend helped me prepare for the CPNE lab. She is a great nurse and one heck of a friend to put up with me during that time. My family would quiz me on the Critical Elements until I could tell them front and back! I wrote care plans and I wrote care plans!

Excelsior has a student message board which is a wonderful resource! The chat room for nursing students is a great way to get ideas. There are listbots for the students which I would suggest you get on. These are students who are either taking the CPNE or preparing. Utilize Excelsior's nursing instructors. They are there to answer ALL questions you have.

No offense taken. I just am not aware of anyone who has had this problem.

CPNE is tough for a reason. 90% failure rate is not an accurate number.

I think the last time I checked it was a 64% FIRST TIME PASS RATE. If it was 10% this school could not keep its NLN accrediation.

They are not out to fail you. However, they have 2 1/2 days to evaluate a perfect stranger and to deem them fully competent and safe as an RN.

In a traditional school You have several years to demonstrate this to your instructors who get to know you well. If you have a bad day they know it is just a bad day.

The examiners at Excelsior have no basis to determin that this was just one off day for you but you are normally very competent.

Performance nerves do play a part. BUT the best way to couquor performance nerves is to be over prepared., and over rehersed.

They tell you up front well ahead exactly what is expected of you. Some students have a problem with following those directions. Either because they don't accept them or they think another way is better. It might be better, but they are testing according to very specific set of guidelines and you either follow them or you fail.

If you over prepare and over reheorifice you will do fine. I hear over and over that those who failed were not prepard.

You have check ( grafts) lists to go by. Some never learn those check lists. They tell you exactly what is critical for you to pass. If you don't learn this thoroughly before you go to test you will fail

Keep in mind the 64% is FIRST time pass rate. and you can test up to 3 times.

I do public speaking. I will tell you EVERY speaker with any degree of skill and success practices no matter what you may believe. We reaheorifice and reherase and then reheorifice some more. No one is born a world class speaker. Yet, people see us perform and think, oh, it is so easy for you. You are a natural. You don't even have to think about it. How lucky you are.

Luck has nothing to do with it. How many hours did you reheorifice? If you put in the hours of rehearsal that really good speakers did you would be as good or better.

People don't like to reheorifice anything because "it will make me more nervious" Bu!!. They are lazy and afraid to look at Their mistakes now while They can be fixed. Fixing them takes work.

Practic past the point of perfection because on the day you have to perform the test you will make mistakes. This prepration is the only way to minimize them and not commit any critical ones.

Drills and practic are boreing for sure. However, no performer of any kind (and you will be performing on this exam. They call it a performance exam for a reason) who is sucessful would dream of skipping the boring drills. It is attention to detail striving for excellence that will get you though it the first time.

It is very doable. But they have only a few hours to declare you aas competent as a new grad from an traditional school. They do nnot know you from adam. So jyou have a lot to proove.

P. S. after writing this I went back and read Wendy's post. Excellent advise. Practice until you "can do it backwards" and consider every contigency (an emoational distraction can spell failure) This is a highly emoational situation for you. If you have additional issues going on you need to post pone until you are clear of the other issue. With this exam you have enough on your plate by itself.

All sound advice above !!! Kudos to all these posters !

From another satisfied, successful, and EMPLOYED RN... no questions asked.

My understanding of the Excelsior situation is as follows:

California proposed revoking Excelsior's accreditation, and, consequently, some hospitals decided not to hire their graduates any more.

That's not to say lots of Excelsior graduates don't get work. Obviously they do. But there were some reports that MA's and others with little clinical experience were getting licensed, and the CA board was upset about it.

Now they've worked out a compromise where starting in December, Excelsior graduates have to prove 360 hours of clinicals or meet other requirements to be licensed in CA.

Here's a link about it: http://www.rn.ca.gov/news/news.htm

This is where much of Excelsior's reputation for little clinical experience comes from. I'm not saying it's right or accurate --- but that's my understanding of the situation.

Personally I would like to see Excelsior's NCLEX pass rate in CA, but unfortunately it's not available on the state board website.

The state of Illinois does not allow Excelsior grads to sit for the boards. Illinois does not recognize a degree from EC because the theory portion and clinical portion of the education is not concurrent. You can sit for the boards in another state but you have to work in another state for a minimum of two years before Illinois will consider allowing you to be licensed in Illinois. This might be feasible for someone that lives on the state line and can work in Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri, etc.

Just an FYI -- there are more Excelsior discussions if you go to the Student's forum then to the Distance Learning subforum. here

I am one of the first grads from Excelsior which at the time was called the University of the State of NY. I have NEVER had a hard time finding a job whether it was agency, travel nursing or a staff position.

I am a 1984 ASN grad and haven't had trouble being hired as

an RN. I also had no trouble acquiring an RN license in CA

Maybe it's some other reason?! Don't know?!

I graduated from EC/Regents in 1999 and have never had a problem. I've never had one person say anything to me in a negative manner regarding my education. I also was an LPN with 3 years in a LTC...no hosp exp..... and passed CPNE the first time. I was anxious and nervous, but I knew those critical elements up one side and down the other. The rest was basic nursing and using common sense. I would tell anyone to not try the CPNE if you are having personal difficulties but to wait until you can devote every waking thought to it. Just being nervous made me second guess myself during the CPNE. I couldn't have passed if I was overly stressed in other areas of my life.

Kelly

Originally posted by NursePerson

I have been told that OR, ILL, CA, And at least 3 hospitals in Ut. won't hire them due to some of the student not having enough or no clinical experence at all. Anyone else know about this?

I'm currently trying to get into an ASN program now and considered going that route and wondered that myself. I decided not to....there just seems like there would be SO much that you could learn from seeing and hands on that you can't learn from reading a book.