Looking for online RN - BSN with no clinical componet.

Spazzy Nurse, RN · Oct 30, 2004

As long as I am pretending that I am a know-it-all tonight........

Why do you feel Excelsior is the better deal? That is through RUE right?

Nope, EC isn't "through RUE". And ISU isn't "through College Network". I'm not as familiar with ISU as I am with EC, but I am assuming that College Network pulls the same thing with ISU as it does with EC..... it gets students to buy their materials to use to go through a program at a college. That's it. The students could go through the college directly, but instead they choose to buy expensive study materials from a publishing company that is not affiliated with the college in any way, shape, or form. RUE does the exact same thing but they just do it for EC, whereas College Network has a few different colleges that they make materials for.

Please, feel free to correct me if I am wrong though.

Jo Dirt · Oct 30, 2004

LPNtoRN:
Could you kindly link me to a few posts on allnurses.com where EC students say they have had difficulty finding jobs? I would love to see a couple of posts, since I myself have never once seen anyone say such a thing.
***It was under the thread that was "frozen" a couple of weeks ago due to a little argument that occurred. You can ask Chris at Lucas about it, she will likely remember better than I would.***
Yes, that's right. ADMISSIONS ADVISOR. Opalm was right--- you were not speaking to an ACADEMIC ADVISOR. Big difference there....Toots.

***So I was still speaking to an ADVISOR!***

jennifer0223 · Oct 31, 2004

hello all,

ok to answer a question asked of me....is 5775 it? no it does cover the 16 classes i have to take in order to finish as quick i want to. yes i have to pay for my tests to challenge out.

2. i said cn has programs with isu ec and other colleges. i also said yes they are a publishing company.

3. yes they are expensive but i do not believe as expensive as some of the others

4. i personally do not have the credits i need to get into isu without either doing the distance learning or going to a community college. i do not have the work schedule nor the child care to go to the local community college.

5. i am a lpn...............i am doing the lpn to bsn with the aide of cn because isu has the only one so far with distance learning. the rest make you get your adn first. i am a diploma lpn that got my education for free through my home school system. i was very fortunate.

6. community college also makes you pay for the classes you take up front ....sorry i don't have that kind of money. i can pay 100.00 a month on a loan i can't pay 400.00 for a class out of pocket.

7. i said the cpne was 1500.00 and yes my preceptor is free but i do not desire to take the cpne because they only allow you 2 mistakes. they will not allow you to start over and if you fail you have to pay that amount over and over until you pass it their way. which may not be the way of your own state. i also don't have the money to travel out of state to take clinicals or the clinical test

8. i want my bsn so that i can teach, i do not want my adn, i want to skip that step.

yes it is expensive though it is not 20,000. when i finish my classes and test out and get the credits i will then be eligble to go to isu and get financial aide. then again perhaps i will choose a differen college who knows.

i do know this............our nursing credits from any college only last us 2 years. so even if they counted nursing training mine was outdate 8 years ago. so it would do me no good.

the point is clinicals.............if the person that originally asked wants no clinicals then i am unsure where to tell you to go. if you don't want to have to take the clinical test then isu is good, but you have to take 450 hours of clinical time. if you are willing to take one ofthe hardest tests out there then ec has short clinicals with just a weekend or two. and now we know that uop has clins of 110 hours.

the point is who cares where we go or how we go about it as long as we are competant in the end and we get the education that we set out to achieve. i am tired of working in rn jobs like staff developement and mds/careplans and getting paid lpn rate of pay for an rn job so that a company can cut corners. so i am remedying this problem. plus again i wish to teach.

i wish every one luck in whatever program they choose. just please do some investigation about the sources you use. if you choose ec just realize that though nln accredited they have some problems in a few states. and know that rue and cn are both publishing companys and if you are like me and have schedule, money and childcare restraints they might be good for you. i will tell you the difference between rue and cn is that rue sends you study guides and textbooks where as cn only sends guids where they have taken out of the need for text.

good luck all. if anyone wishes to ask me something please do so privately i will not be participating in this thread any longer. takecare all.

jennifer

BBFRN, BSN, PhD · Oct 31, 2004

Good luck in your program Jennifer- it sounds like you made the right choice for you. And honestly I would've done a LPN-BSN route if one had been available when I started.

Only one thing to clear up about the CPNE: The EC way is the ANA standard of practice way, which is pretty universal, and which most clinical procedure manuals and SPAs are based on. They make sure that everything they tell you to do is evidence-based practice. I think any clinical experience will be the same in this dept. (unless your instructor isn't up-to-date on current practice standards). An EC student does have to make sure that they personally are up-to-date with ANA standards of practice if they want to pass the CPNE. The CPNE isn't really all that scary, as long as you're not a LPN thinking you're going to go there doing what you do at work all day. I think some people who fail miss that point and do themselves a diservice by thinking they don't have to study for it, and by not transitioning into "thinking like an RN," instead of "working like an LPN," if that makes sense.

opalmRN · Oct 31, 2004

The point is WHO cares where we go or how we go about it as long as we are competant in the end and we get the education that we set out to achieve. I am tired of working in RN jobs like Staff Developement and MDS/Careplans and getting paid LPN rate of pay for an RN job so that a company can cut corners. So I am remedying this problem. Plus again I wish to teach.
Good luck all. If anyone wishes to ask me something please do so privately I will not be participating in this thread any longer. Takecare all.

DITTO to you Jennifer. Please do join in with the discussion as those of us in distance ed programs (and we know who we are) do appreciate and RESPECT your decision.

Continued success!! :)

Jo Dirt · Oct 31, 2004

I read on another post that most all EC students pass the CPNE and that it is actually a very simple test.

Spazzy Nurse, RN · Oct 31, 2004

So I was still speaking to an ADVISOR!

Like Opalm said, an admissions rep (aka admissions ADVISOR which you so eloquently feel the need to keep capitolizing) is more or less a sales rep. It is not at all the same as an academic advisor, which is someone who only enrolled students can talk to. So I'm right and you're not.

Jennifer--- I totally hear you about it being so much easier to fork out just $100 a month for the publishing company payment plans. That was what hooked me.

Jo Dirt · Nov 1, 2004

Like Opalm said, an admissions rep (aka admissions ADVISOR which you so eloquently feel the need to keep capitolizing) is more or less a sales rep. It is not at all the same as an academic advisor, which is someone who only enrolled students can talk to. So I'm right and you're not.
Jennifer--- I totally hear you about it being so much easier to fork out just $100 a month for the publishing company payment plans. That was what hooked me.

Well, since some people felt the need to be petty and ask how I was talking to an advisor when I wasn't enrolled I felt like I should clarify.

I can see the temptation in making payments that make it seem like less to pay short term, but that is kind of like the debt consolidation companies who make it seem like they are taking care of all your credit card bills by taking them over and charging you a low mothly payment. You end up paying much more long term. I sympathize with people who don't feel they have any other choice.

alodocios · Aug 30, 2012

i know this is an old thread but the cpne is not that easy, every one does not pass, not even most everyone passes, and i am an ec grad who passed cpne the first time and plenty of students were dropping like flies. I hope those who chose to do TCN ( i have no experience with RUE) think long and hard. I am still paying them for modules i never used because they didn't always coincide with the courese so i just got the books( downloaded, sorry i know its not right, please spare the lectures, i could't afford them either did what i had to) and read the assigned information straight from the horses mouth, never failed a test and asked the staff lots of questions when i didn't understand and they always responded. CPNE is passable obviously but you do have to know what you have to know and you have to know it well and you have to learn to handle stress or nerves will fail you for that test. I know lots of ec nurses who had no prob getting a job, ec has a rep for being hard to pass so if you make it, it makes you look good, if your state takes ec but some states don't. Those that do, there is usually a time when new grads get hired and if you grad at an odd time of year you may have a challenge not because it is ec but because the new grad positions are taken. having that prob now. I get nods for graduating from ec, like "wow, you must know your stuff, that is a hard program to finish," but not hiring new grads right now, unless i go to nursing homes or hospitals so far from me that they are closer to the next state. any how just thought i would chime in as i am looking now for a bsn program.