How to deal with negative comments about Excelsior

[ltsgnn]

Hello everyone I'm writing to seek some advice on negative responses to Excelsior College. I work at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. I'm scheduled to take Transitions August 27 so whenever I have down time at work I study for it. Sometimes the RN's I work ask me what I'm studying and I tell them. The RN's I work with proceed to tell me not to do Excelsior and lecture me about how I should go to a real college and get a real education. Please give me advice on how to respond to such comments. I tell the nurses that an Excelsior graduates have a high NCLEX passing rate and the program is accredited by the NLN but these points are ignored. I don't want to hide the fact that I'm doing distance learning but the negative comments I hear are starting to agitate me.

[LPN_2005/RN_10]

You already told them that the program is accredited, and you're able to take the NCLEX, and that's basically what your employer need to know. As far as their ignorance of distance learning programs, you can't change their opinions. Excelsior is a real school that is located in New York which offers distance learning programs, just like thousands of universities in the U.S.

My coworkers were very understandable when they knew I would be testing out of classes and clinicals, since they told me I was pretty much working on an RN level anyway, but getting paid as an LPN.

If your coworkers have any respect for you, which it seems like they don't, they will recognize your skills and knowledge, and have confidence that you're able to do distance learning without having to sit in a classroom and starting with the basics-->skills you're probably performing everyday at work.

If you already informed them about Excelsior and they still don't approve of it, just ignore them. Go to work with your head held high, performing your skills at your best! If they keep bugging you about Excelsior, ask them if they're willing to pay your bills while you're enrolled full-time to a "real college" getting a "real education"

Good luck with your studies!

[NC Girl BSN]

When I did Excelsior, I kept it to myself. I would study during my breaks and tell people I was just brushing up on some old literature. I had encountered the same remarks as yourself and I just did not want it to break my momentum with studying. People say crap all the time about the program and I am just too strong of a person lower my standards and stoop to the idnorance. They talked crap when I got my LPN and they talked crap about Excelsior but guess what?? I am a Bonafide RN just like the rest! You can look me up on the BON any day. Funny thing you will find, after you finish the program and get your RN, the same people will come up to you and suddenly be intrested in the program. They will say things like I have a LPN friend who has been trying to get into a traditional RN program for ages and I want to tell her about EC.LOL!!! Just hang in there! This too shall pass.......

[nurse_mo1986]

I'm in the midst of my excelsior education myself. However, I haven't had many ppl say negative things about the program. However, that may simply be because at my facility, there are several RN's who have gone this route and ppl have seen that they are just as good as any other RN in the building.

The one's that have said something negative, I simply brush off my back and smile to myself knowing that one day soon I'll be Nurse_mo1986RN :)

[ltsgnn]

Thank you guys for your responses. I've been a LPN for several years and I have worked in several hospitals including two millitary hospitals and in many cases I do have more skills then some of the RN's I work with but I'm getting paid LPN pay. To keep my morale up I will not tell any of the nurses at my job what I am doing anymore, when I'm studying I will just tell them I doing prereqs. When I take my NCLEX in one year (With hard work and by the Grace of God) then I will talk to them about the program.

[ndragonfly]

Who cares what anyone else says? At the end of the day it's your money, your education & your life....the ONLY person you need to satisfy is yourself. If I were you I would tell the other nurses that all though their comments are appreciated they are not needed & should you need them you will ask for them.....

[caliotter3]

Stop telling people what you are doing. It is none of their business and you do not need their interference. You have no obligation to justify attending Excelsior to them. They are jealous and that is that.

[pielęgniarka, RN]

I would occasionally get silly questions like... you're so lucky you don't have to do clinicals! or... do you get to keep your notes with you when you take a test? For some reason people thought I took the tests on my home computer!!! I even had one nurse that thought that I didn't have to take the NCLEX!!! Lol!!! I can laugh at it now.

What I would say is this "EC is distance learning, not an online school. It is very difficult. I study for my classes just like you do with books and study guides, then go to a testing center to take a test. I am fingerprinted and photographed when I go to take my test. The test is just like finals for that class. My previous clinicals and clinical experience apply toward the program. What I have to take when I am done with all my classes, is a proficiency exam at an assigned hospital. This requires months of studying to prepare for. People usually have to travel a good distance as well. It's a very expensive and very strict three day assessment of my nursing skills on the hospital floor, the kind of skills any other associate-prepared nurse would be expected to be able to perform. I will have a Master's degree nurse from the college watching over my every move. If I make mistakes I fail. If I pass the proficiency exam I will soon thereafter graduate and will able to apply to take my NCLEX, the same NCLEX that you would have to take."

After I passed the CPNE, then went on to ace my NCLEX I think it redeemed EC's program in some people's eyes. There have actually been two nurses I work with that have since started the EC program but have stopped. They say... I don't know how you did that, it is too hard! One even got as far as to the CPNE, failed it and never went back. Just hang in there, when you are done with the program it will be all worth it!

[smitty10]

Sometimes People are just not happy unless they can bring someone else down.

Sometimes People just get the "Crab in a Barrel" mentality.

Sometimes you just have People who really hate to see other People better themselves.

And then my Friend thats when Sometimes you just have to cuss some People out, grab a beer and take that wonderful slide to Freedom! ;0

[blueheaven]

You are either a good nurse or you aren't. As long as your program is accredited by the appropriate nursing groups...who cares...it gets you to the same place and the same paper. For me, my distance learning program is just as challenging as one in a brick and mortar school.

[TashaLPN2006RN2012, ASN, RN]

Thankfully where i'm at no one knows what Excelsior is so i just say "oh i'm studying for a class for school, and my final is scheduled for DATE" they just say ohh okay...and move on, some people i explain what the program is, but i agree with the other posters, it's YOUR money, YOUR time,and YOUR life, so to hell with everyone else. I'd get snarky and make a snide comment on the side when or if i got really aggrevated something like "oh where did you go to school?" and when they answered i'd say "is THAT the school the paper was talking about a couple weeks back that was getting their accrediation pulled for turning out horrible nurses????" then smile and walk away...lol

[jsnurse44]

I am just getting started with EC, and everyone at work knows that I was previously taking Pre-Nursing courses so when they ask how school is going I will just say "fine" I don't want to share anything until I have my RN License in my hand they will be shocked!

Good Luck