On track to finish 5 courses in 6 months RN to BSN

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

I was the complete reluctant student. I only agreed to proceed with my RN to BSN because my husband was doing the same. He did not have as many courses to get caught up with, but he agreed to help me along.

I was a typical ADN grad, but from 1992, so quite a while has passed. I started at the end of last December by finding an online quick an easy "Information Literacy" course through Penn Forster college. Information Literacy was required for Excelsior but their courses were all minimum 8 weeks long and we couldn't start any other on-line courses with them until IL was done. I swear to you it took a whole afternoon to complete, though my grade was pretty sad © it was over and done and I could move on. 1 credit down.

Next was "Writing for the Professions". Essentially a course on how to write a proper APA style research paper. Taking a writing course was probably the strongest factor keeping me out of college all these years. It has been extremely tough, but very doable. I finish the course next week and though I don't have the grade for my final paper or the power point presentation (the PP I haven't really started yet, but it will just be regurgitated information from the research paper). My grades so far are looking like I should pull an "A" of this one, but I worked my tail off for it.

Right after we started the writing, we both registered for the "Ethics; theory and practice" Excelsior College Exam. We studied very very intently for 3 weeks and it was an incredibly difficult test (lots of analysing ethical dilemmas and answering deductive questions about them). We did both somehow pull an "A" out of that one. Writing and Ethics had to be completed before we were eligible to take any of the upper level nursing courses.

I had never had statistics. I was encouraged to register for a new course Excelsior had specifically designed for healthcare workers. I'm 1/3 of the way in and so far carrying an "A", but not feeling I really have a good grasp of the information yet. I will be thrilled to get any passing grade in this course.

I also had a few more general education credits required that my husband didn't need (he had a previous unrelated graduate degree). First I studied for and passed the "Intro to World Religions" offered through DANTES (kind of like CLEP for military, but available to civilians). Next I am registered to take a 6 credit CLEP exam for "Humanities". It will be a lot of studying but I hope to have that completed in the next month. Granted, some people do not want some of these tests as they do not get the letter grade they need (it's pass/fail) to pursue advanced practice degrees. Since this has nothing to do with my goals, then I'm happy with the DANTES/CLEP option.

If I finish Writing (pretty much in the bag), Statistics, and my humanities exam I will have completed 19 credits since last December.

Now, let me assure all, that it has been incredibly tough, many many many emotional meltdowns and days in a row where my migraines never go away completely. I have "quit" my Writing course, Ethics, and Statistics multiple times but my husband encourages!

[Mimi2BNP]

Way to go Tiff!!! You have a good man by your side. You will do just fine!! Look at the light at the end of the tunnel.

[TashaLPN2006RN2012, ASN, RN]

great job! I'm registered for those three classes for EC's online courses though...mine is ethics in healthcare, the statistics thats for health care and that english APA writing class...I start May 7th for all three. Ethics is 8 wks the other two are 15 wks, and by the time they end I should have my RN license in hand and be able to move on to the nursing portion...really worried about the capstone though, and someone said you have to physically go to NY to give it over a 2 day period and also something about a preceptorship as well...but i haven't researched that yet and i'll worry about it when i get to it. I'm looking forward to the ethics class and english but i hate math so hope i can do well in statistics!