Help! Undecided about returning to excelsior

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Hello everyone, I have been reading a lot of your posts with keen interest. I am a veteran paramedic (20+ years) 51 years old. I am currently working for a fire dept in the state of Texas. I initially started working for an ems system for the same city back in 89' and in 2000 we consolidated with the fire dept. I work mostly on a Rescue (ie. Ambulance), 24 hr shifts, with occasional moves to a fire apparatus. I have a lot of patient care experience in the field but none in a hospital environment. I am coming close to retirement but want to keep working and wish to obtain a nursing degree. I am not enrolled in excelsior but have submitted and applied for admission with evaluation of transcripts and have taken one of there exams (lifespan development) some years ago before life took over. I still need a&p 1 and 2, microbiology prereqs.

In order to attend a Brick mortar school I would have to finish more prereq. Because they state that some of my classes are to old and have to be redone. Excelsior accepted those courses. Because of that I will not be eligible for a program Until fall of 2013. Also I would have to use vacation time to attend school because most firefighters will not do shift trades if they have to work on a rescue.

Here is my dilemma. Should I go down the excelsior road or do the B and M route because of my lack of in hospital experience. I have read both sides of the opinions in your posts but I am still unsure. So please help out a fellow care taker.

Love this site:heartbeat

Thanks!

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Specializes in Surgery, Med/Surg/ICU, OB-Peds, Ophth.
Hello everyone, I have been reading a lot of your posts with keen interest. I am a veteran paramedic (20+ years) 51 years old. I am currently working for a fire dept in the state of Texas. I initially started working for an ems system for the same city back in 89' and in 2000 we consolidated with the fire dept. I work mostly on a Rescue (ie. Ambulance), 24 hr shifts, with occasional moves to a fire apparatus. I have a lot of patient care experience in the field but none in a hospital environment. I am coming close to retirement but want to keep working and wish to obtain a nursing degree. I am not enrolled in excelsior but have submitted and applied for admission with evaluation of transcripts and have taken one of there exams (lifespan development) some years ago before life took over. I still need a&p 1 and 2, microbiology prereqs.

In order to attend a Brick mortar school I would have to finish more prereq. Because they state that some of my classes are to old and have to be redone. Excelsior accepted those courses. Because of that I will not be eligible for a program Until fall of 2013. Also I would have to use vacation time to attend school because most firefighters will not do shift trades if they have to work on a rescue.

Here is my dilemma. Should I go down the excelsior road or do the B and M route because of my lack of in hospital experience. I have read both sides of the opinions in your posts but I am still unsure. So please help out a fellow care taker.

Love this site:heartbeat

Thanks!

Hello!! Your work history sounds very interesting! I can't really give advice, because I have the big clinical still looming ahead of me but I will tell you why I went with Excelsior. I have been an LPN for 20 years, with nursing home, med/surg, ER, OB-Peds, clinical experience and have been in surgery since 1998 and I am now CSA. Although I have not worked the floors in years, I believe the scope of practice has changed drastically since I first became an LPN. The nursing exams were very doable. Preparing for my clinical is a bit more complicated. In my current position I don't have an opportunity to do a head-toe nursing assessment on a patient, I will basically be able to listen to heart/lung/bowel sounds quickly before the patient goes to sleep. I am going to be drawing on experience from years ago, but even more I think what is going to help me the most is the confidence I have in giving safe, quality patient care....and lots of memorizing and skills practice!

I couldn't do the B/M route because I need to work, and I am on call for 180-210 hours every 2 weeks. This was my best opportunity to finally finish and so far, it has been not bad at all! Good luck with what you decide!!

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Do a regular program if at all possible. Only do Excelsior as a Plan B if there is no other way.

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I am currently in this same position of being undecided. I am a single mom of 2 and desire to obtain my RN but need distance learning to accomplish this. There are local colleges in my area that offer this but are a little more traditional and will take longer to complete. I have heard and read many reviews. The one that has me the most hesistant is that TX board of nursing is going to review Excelsior later this year to decide if they will still approve it. I am about to do some research to see if I can find this to be true.

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Could you let us know what you find out from the Texas BON. Good luck with your decision. It appears I am coming closer to a decision about continuing on with excelsior due to all the great and positive threads on this site as well as the perseverance demonstrated by individuals going through the program. I will keep everyone updated. Thanks!

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

I am pretty sure EC is good with the Texas BON through 2017, but it is definitely worth verifying first.

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