heard of Excelsior College? need advice

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Specializes in CCU, MICU, Tele, L&D.

hi all,

i am going into my last semester of nursing school ... thus grad in May. problem is the instructor does not want me to grad ... I know this because she is ugly to me. Plus, another instructor (that i am friends with) told me that she is going to TRY to fail me. well if an instructor wants you to fail then, of course, you WILL fail. This is so unprofessional and frankly, I cannot take any more of the 'o my God am I going to fail' . So I need advice on: SHOULD I TRANSFER? STAY AND TRANSFER IF I FAIL? Does any one go to Excelsior College or know any thing about this school? Thanks to all that reply. It is nice to know I have my on-line family here at allnurses.com

I would stick it out because it is the last semester. Just do everything by the book and pass. Unless you actually gave them concrete proof to fail you-they really can't (at least not without a good fight).

When you get into nursing (or any job) there are going to be those yucky :devil: type of people that thrive on making lives miserable. Learn to stick up for yourself and tough it out now.

Good luck! :D

Unfortunately, nursing instructors can fail you if they want to. It happens. They failed a few in my class for as they said "not making consistant progress" in the clinical setting. That can mean anything. However, you might as well stick it out for the last semester and give it a try. You have nothing to lose. Excelsior doesn't accept you based on GPA, so you should try to finish your program, and then if for some reason you don't pass, you can then move on to Excelsior. Just my 2 cents worth.

~Kristy

Hi,

I'm actually in the Excelsior program right now, but I'm thinking about getting out and transferring. A friend of mine said that some states are dropping them. Excelsior is a good program, but I think their clinicals need to be longer. Thankfully for me, I've been in the military for 10+ years and have been exposed to many different situations in the field w/the Marines and at the Naval hospitals. I'm about to take my NCLEX-PN in Jan and decide then if I want to transfer to another school or stick it out with Excelsior. Another thing with Excelsior, I think you can get a License by endorsement to another state if your particular state doesn't accept them. The only way to know that is to check with your state board of nursing. Good luck!!

Billy

STAY WHERE YOU ARE!!!

I am an Excelsior grad (May 2004), and while I am glad to have my RN, I would NEVER recommend this program to ANYONE, esp. if you have just one more semester.

Between me and my best friend and paramedic co-worker (who also has a bachelors in biology) we had to do that damn clinical, in two different states, FIVE TIMES!!!:angryfire We are far from stupid; between us we have about 20 years of healthcare under our collective belt. The THOUSANDS of dollars (no grants) I spent on trying to finish this ludicrious system sent me into bankruptcy:eek: . (No joke, real bankruptcy.)

I will tell you this too...ALOT of the Excelsior instructors WANT to fail you as well. They see you as someone trying to "sneak" in through the back door of their sacred profession "the easy way." Hey, they get paid the same amount at the end of the clinical, whereas YOU have spent $3000-$5000 on a two day gamble.

And when you do get that RN, ALOT of other nurses that you work with will want to watch you fail too, unfortunately. I have been VERY disappointed with nursing, because the other nurses can be SO nasty to each other. Everyone wants to look good; the simplest way to do it is to make others look bad. So political and pathetic. The patients and the pay, the only way I stay.:mad:

My daughter is an Excelsior grad and doing fine. I think a lot of the program. But it isn't cheap and I have no idea how many of your credits they would accept.

Stick it out where you are this semester. As long as your test scores are good, they are going to have a hard time booting you out. What is the worst that could happen to you? Repeat the clinical part of your semester with another instructor, perhaps?

What sort of due process is available in your program? Can they dismiss a student on a whim (or rather, on the undocumented word of a clinical instructor?) Is this the only part of the program with which you've had difficulties? What do they do with students they fail clinically? They must have some proceedure for dealing fairly with them.

Specializes in Trauma,ER,CCU/OHU/Nsg Ed/Nsg Research.
STAY WHERE YOU ARE!!!

I am an Excelsior grad (May 2004), and while I am glad to have my RN, I would NEVER recommend this program to ANYONE, esp. if you have just one more semester.

Between me and my best friend and paramedic co-worker (who also has a bachelors in biology) we had to do that damn clinical, in two different states, FIVE TIMES!!!:angryfire We are far from stupid; between us we have about 20 years of healthcare under our collective belt. The THOUSANDS of dollars (no grants) I spent on trying to finish this ludicrious system sent me into bankruptcy:eek: . (No joke, real bankruptcy.)

I will tell you this too...ALOT of the Excelsior instructors WANT to fail you as well. They see you as someone trying to "sneak" in through the back door of their sacred profession "the easy way." Hey, they get paid the same amount at the end of the clinical, whereas YOU have spent $3000-$5000 on a two day gamble.

And when you do get that RN, ALOT of other nurses that you work with will want to watch you fail too, unfortunately. I have been VERY disappointed with nursing, because the other nurses can be SO nasty to each other. Everyone wants to look good; the simplest way to do it is to make others look bad. So political and pathetic. The patients and the pay, the only way I stay.:mad:

Ladybug- how the heck are ya? Sorry to hear about your postgrad problems- especially since I know what a smart nurse you are. (Ladybug and I were the only 2 people to pass the CPNE in our group at SRMC- she kicked butt).

To the OP- I agree...if you only have 1 semester left, you should stick it out. Don't let this instructor bully you. You've worked hard to get where you are. I had a similar experience with an instructor when I was in LPN school. It got so bad that we finally ended up in her office yelling at each other. (She started the yelling, but I don't take that kind of treatment too well...lol.) At any rate, after that she backed off of me completely. I passed her class with an A, and never had to look at her again.

(She started the yelling, but I don't take that kind of treatment too well...lol.) At any rate, after that she backed off of me completely. I passed her class with an A, and never had to look at her again.

This is a good point. I had major problems with one of my clinical instructors, and I just confronted her. She tried to shrug it off, saying she was only "joking" but I made it clear that I didn't appreciate it. After that, she backed off completely. I never had a problem with her again.

:coollook:

I suggest that you become very proactive for your success. This means being thoroughly familiar with the grading criteria for the area in which you are being evaluated. Clinical evaluations are according to defined objectives, so you need to know what is expected of you to achieve a passing grade. Then you must communicate openly and consistently with your instructor. Find out what the instructor expects (it is not supposed to be different from the written objectives, but their intrepretation may be different) and exceed those expectations. As a last semester nursing course you are expected to be most proficient in the knowledge and skills acquired in all your prior courses. If you have weak skill areas, brush up on them in advance.

Avoid hostility and confrontation, be professional at all times. Also be prepared for both the expected and unexpected. This means thoroughly researching your assigned patients and familiarizing yourself with every care possibility. Use your instructor as a resource from a position of confidence. Let the instructor see that you are prepared and confident, but also seek their advice on care matters. It boosts their ego and sometimes your grade.

Should you detect that this isn't going to work and you aren't going to be evaluated fairly, work within the system to be evaluated by someone that is more objective. Do this well before the end of your course/clinical experience.

Finally, I know you consider the instructor who tipped you off to be "a friend" but as a long time clinical instructor, I find their behavior to be less than professional as well. This instructor is accepting the inappropriate and unprofessional behavior of their fellow instructor. Did the instructor that gave you the information also offer some suggestions on how to not to fail?

I do wish you the best. You've made it this far, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, so hang in there!

And when you do get that RN, ALOT of other nurses that you work with will want to watch you fail too, unfortunately. I have been VERY disappointed with nursing, because the other nurses can be SO nasty to each other. Everyone wants to look good; the simplest way to do it is to make others look bad. So political and pathetic. The patients and the pay, the only way I stay.:mad:

I don't know about all of that, I think that's an individual unit thing. I have yet to run into one RN in everday work life who "frowns" on the program, I only read that stuff here. I have a feeling that those same nurses would be nasty regardless of where the new grad went to school.

But nonetheless, the OP should stick it out in their current program, file grievances with the school if needed, whatever.

Don't start all over with EC when you've come so far in your current program.

I will tell you this too...ALOT of the Excelsior instructors WANT to fail you as well. They see you as someone trying to "sneak" in through the back door of their sacred profession "the easy way." Hey, they get paid the same amount at the end of the clinical, whereas YOU have spent $3000-$5000 on a two day gamble.

What needs to be remembered here is that EC examiners are only doing this as a side job. The vast majority of them are full time instructors at local nursing schools in their areas. They can be just as evil and vindictive as at any nursing school and the CPNE can be a big gamble depending on who you get examining you.

Just because they accept employment as examiners for EC does not mean that they have to believe in the program, nor does it mean that they have to be any more fair or reasonable to students than they are at their regular instructor jobs.

In turn, there are also instructors in LVN and associate's RN programs who do not believe that grads of such programs should be able to practice as nurses and only BSN grads should be nurses. You don't have to agree with the program to be employed by the school.

This is where some hostility from instructors or examiners can come from at times.

Is it just me, or have others noted that nursing instruction seems to attract some seriously neurotic, downright WEIRD types (esp. women)? Now I do know some really cool people who teach and are great at it, but come on!

Now I had paramedic instructors that were maybe a tad eccentric, but they were fair, had everyones best interest at heart, and they really were excellent teachers that you could rely on. Coincidentally, they were all men.:roll Go figure.

Maybe we automatically HATE these female teachers because they hold SO much control over our careers?

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