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I went thru excelsior to go from my LPN to an RN. I started in november of 2002 I finished in november 2004 It worked for me, it is not for everyone but for my own situation it worked for me. You do have to be determined and have the ability to self study because there are no deadlines or assignments. It is up to you to do what you have to do. One thing I will add is that the clinical weekend at the end is NO joke. Everyone makes fun of it but believe me that was a very very stressful hard weekend and when I was going thru it, they claimed to only have a 65% pass ratio

I have looked around and i cannot find any articles one way or the other. I do have a relative who is 38 takes lamictal, now she drinks a lot of water, not to "flush" the meds but because she likes it. She was a big water drinker long before taking the lamictal. On avg she drinks about 80oz a day and when she does work out at the gym you can add about 30 more oz. Now this is not done for psych reasons, it is actually a nuerological condition but she did ask her nuerologist about the possibility of her exercising causing the medications to metabalize faster than "normal" AND she asked them about her water comsumption and they told her it will not effect her medications. That is one example and who knows maybe this guy was wrong. I want to somehow find an article about this.

I forgot about lithium but when reading the blurb you put on the bottom of your post about lithium, is the normal restricting fluid due to wanting to protect against the side effect OR is the result of the side effect that the medication is being "flushed" and not effective? I posted this in two different places and someone else mentioned how if the drug was water soluable, it probably is possible but if it is fat soluable then it probably is not possible. I will have to look into that. I would also be curious about roughly how much water it would take and how soon after taking the meds. thanks frank

I posted this in two places and someone on the other thread mentioned lithium, but you are right about about water soluable vs fat. I will have to look up some of the drugs we use to make sure whether they are water soluable. thanks frank

I am wondering if anyone can help me out. I am having a debate with other nurses about if it is really possible for a psychiatric patient to "flush out" their medications with water. It is my position that this is really a myth, that while it technically can be done but in real life it is not happening even 1% of the time nurses claim it is happening anyone who has any articles about this PLEASE PLEASE give links I really want to know, even if I am wrong thanks in advance frank

Hi everyone, I am a psych nurse (recent rn, lpn for 2+years) and I have never done anything else but psych. I have heard how I should have done med surg and I might still but for now I really enjoy pysch. Here is my question. I am not from NJ, I live in pa but I have worked (and still do) at both hagedorn and carrier clinic. I do like both of them but I was wondering if there are any others I can check out. Too bad I am not real familar with what is out there. Can anyone help? I am looking for good psych units, any age group, in northern NJ. It doesn't have to be a huge place, it could be small but a good place to work. Any help would be appreciated

I totally agree, I also stumbled and it has been awesome, I now go out of my way to tell other nurses at work about the site.

I don't know about cal but here is a little trick I learned. Do you remember your last question? If you do, Did you get it right? If you got it right then you passed. If you got it wrong then you failed. They are not going to fail you after you had just answered a question correct. If you could have gotten the answer right and still failed then the computer would not even have given you the question. Same thing with if you got it wrong. They are not going to pass you after you had just failed a question. You either pass or fail when you reach a certain percentage. So it all depends on what you did in your last question to push you over the edge one way or the other. hope this helps

it was southern regional medical center.

I just finished their program in november. Feel free to PM me to ask anything you want

They don't surprise you with anything. Everything you need to know is right there for you but it is nerves that get you. That is what everyone told me but I thought I could handle stress and as long as i know the material I would be ok. Well I made it thru but I was never so stressed in my life. First of all I went to GA (I live in pa) so I am 12 hours away from my comfort area. I had 5 other students there but we have never met and we don't even stay in the same hotel. So they may be nice but you have no real support from them. There are also 6 clinical examiners who are VERY VERY nice (at least in ga) but they are intiminating still. They watch everything you do and cannot help you in the slightest. That is their job and they do it well but trust me there is no support there. They are not even supposed to make small talk with you, just business. There is an advisor from excelsior but once again you have never met this person and there really isn't anything they can do to support you stressful very stressful but I did make it. trust me it sounds a lot easier then it is

cfno8fan vbmenu_register("postmenu_1548522", true); I have a bunch of questions Do you already have your pre reqs done? If so then you have the 7 or 8 nursing classes right? Who did you get your books thru? Excelsior or another company like the college network? How long have your been an lpn? I see you work on a med surg floor, is that where you have always worked? ok enough questions I guess. Now my turn Yes I think it will prepare you enough and don't let the clinical fool you, I thought "ok I have this under control, I can do it with minimal problems" HA that was the most stressful thing I have ever done, boards included!!!! If you work med surg, good for you. You are getting plenty of clinical exp now. For excelsior you have to prove competent of a new RN. Remember that is a brand spanking new RN who has never worked in a hospital. You can certianly do that. Any lpn worth a damn is as good (better really but I was being nice) as a new RN. So clinically you will be as good as you want to be. What I mean is get in on everything you can at work. If there is something going on that you don't know about or have not seen then get your butt in there. The tests are not easy but not the hardest thing in the world either. They are multiple choice ranging from 160-240 questions. There are many many ways to study. I strongly suggest that you don't do what many students try to do. That is think they have to know everything. You cannot know everything to the smallest detail. You will go crazy trying to do that. Read the book, study it of course. Take advantage of the practice exams online. You have to pay for them but there are 2 100 question tests with rationals for each course. It will give you a clue as to what they are looking for. You will not find any duplicate questions but it helps guide you and lets you see the style questions they are going to ask. I see you have three kids, finding time to study is going to be a problem. I had two when I was mostly taking the classes (three now) and it was tough. BUT you can do it. there is a lot more for me to type but I have to go, I will try to get online tomorrow to write more. feel free to ask any questions you want to know frank

I was an lpn for 2 years until I became an RN. I mostly did it for $$ reasons. I was laid off from my other career and couldn't afford to spend the 2 years in school to get my RN. I had to do the lpn first. At the same time though I did all the pre reqs for the RN. That way when I did go for the RN then I already had those done. By the way I did my RN thru excelsior. I just finished in november and passed my boards in jan (yea for me) If anyone has any questions about excelsior or what it is like just send me a message. I will gladly share what I know with anyone. Also the biggest thing I hear that is not true is that excelsior lpn to rn program is online. It is not online, that program is a take home course. You never have an instructor, not even on line.

thank you again siri, I am still interested and intend on applying to two local ER's by the summer to get some much needed exp. thank you for all your info and help frank

siri THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!!!! You have given tons of info. So much so that I cannot read it all right now (I hate when life gets in the way of my fun LOL) I will get to it probably tonight. I must say the more I read the more I am interested. I have always been interested in crime and that sort and yes this was before CSI which I cannot stand. That has to be the most over acted show around LOL. Give me law and order any day LOL. I am assuming I need to get myself into an ER and start getting experiance, is this correct? thanks again frank