ChesterRN

Congrats on passing...You must feel great. BTW: Your comment really helps affirm the notion that information provided by allnurses.com does indeed affect peoples decision-making process related to nursing school.

Update: GW is now accredited by CNNE :w00t: For verification call: 202-994-5192 It's still unclear if GW NP Grads will be eligible for California NP certification, though.

Please provide an authority or reference that specifys in writing related to the problem you speak.

Actually, there's a lot to be said for clinicals and other school related field trips. One time when I was in 6th grade, our class went to the NASA science fair. After that, I really wanted to be a spaceman.

Thats an interesting point. I wonder what would happen if all 6,000 of us decided to go to another state?

What are you trying to say...that we learn more from our patients than from educators, powerpoint slides and books combined?!? Can it be true?

Very well said! As an educator and one charged with the task of hiring educators, I must say you are well aware of one of the most fundamental flaws in the provision of postsecondary education.

I'm not sure about these guides, but if they were anything like the ones I bought around 14 years ago or so, they only helped with confidence. One thing I did is bought a bunch of NCLEX books that were broken down in categories and used the index of the exam syllabus to guide my study. What I lacked, I looked up in the regular books in the exam bibliography to bridge the gap. Again, its all in your confidence. After you study for comprehensive exams, you may find yourself second-guesing yourself because you may feel like you haven't really mastered the material. You always have to give yourself credit for what you know, which is usually more than you think you do. The NCLEX books and exam preps will help prove that.

Back in the day, I went in with 4 other people and shared the cost...Do you have access to other folks in your area who are in EC?

Is it just me or does it seem like Liz and the OP are tag teaming EC without providing authroities? Also does EC now have an LVN-RN program as reported by the OP...I've never heard of this term used with any student of EC, although I've been out of the loop for awhile.

I must say that I feel there are trolls in the area. Time to put up or shut up. As an EC grad, working in CA with no history of every having one problem getting a job, I would really like to know the name of any hospital that wont hire EC graduates. Please name the hospital so I can personally verify, then forward this info to EC legal council. Otherwise, please slither away into your hole and stop providing misinformation about how EC grads can't get hired by certain facilities in California. It's clear on the other thread that you have an agenda related to EC. Your behavior is unfair, reckless and does a disservice to every EC grad, student, faculty and every organization that employs the 6,000 + EC grads working here in California. Sorry to be so blunt, but at least one troll has been doing nothing but slamming EC with impunity on another thread. https://allnurses.com/forums/f125/pros-cons-excelsior-program-152169.html

Filipino education certainly seams the way to go. Unfortunatley, when one of the hospitals I worked at about 6 years ago tried to recruit 89 nurses from the Philipines, wouldn't you know it, not one passed the NCLEX-RN. But, I'm sure the training is superior. Thats an interesting concept. When I took the CNPE with 18 others during the weekend seminar, all you can eat CPNE party, only 3 of us passed. And wouldn't you know it every LVN failed, and the three paramedics passed. And of course this hasn't caused any problems with holds and bed availability either. You're right, California is way ahead of its time, even at the expense of the patients and financial solvency of hospitals...or perhaps you work as a volunteer nurse.

Now now traumahawk, be nice...I think Liz is just troubled and misguided and wants to get to the bottom of things. You see, for us, there was no teaching--you prove it or your fail. You can do it or you can't. You're safe or You're not. Very little touchy feely stuff, and certainly no second chances. Its hard for those outside to understand. Most folks subscribe to the work hard and not smart approach and really don't understand the notion of where we come from; what its like to work in the field, to run an MCI, throw down a tube with no light, do an IO on a shattered pedi femur, work an algorithm until the box emptys, do a pleural decompression when theres barely a chest left or any of the critical thinking that goes along with that prior to us becoming nurses. Folks hear of the process, but don't really understand what's really behind the license. It's so easy to cast dispertions when there is so much ignorance related to the process. You shouldn't come down so hard on Liz. It's not like she requested a sticky for this thread, or was the second poster following the moderator after the sticky was established, or created links to the BRN decision, or the BRN's delightful response to the courts decision or EC's response (which is now a broken link), or in any way wants to put EC in a bad light...oh, maybe she did. I think that Liz is just concerned that EC gets a fair shake, just like the BRN gave EC a fair deal. I don't think Liz really has an agenda, right Liz?

Ok, I think were on the same sheet of music now. We both agree that the terminal end goal for any graduate RN is to be a safe clinician. I'm sure you would also agree that exercising safe clinical behavior does not cross a continuum such as health. For example, with death, there is no continuum; you are either dead or not. Just like being safe, RN's are either safe clinicians or they are not. If you can, try and follow this logic in the form of my questions. Do you think that the NLAN would provide programmatic accreditation to EC without reservation if the program produced unsafe graduates, or in anyway was not able to demonstrate that EC grads possessed knowledge and skills consistent with their standards? Also, do you think that all of the other BON's that accept EC grads are placing the consumers of nursing care across the country in jeopardy by allowing EC graduates to practice? Also, do you think the architects and administrators of NCLEX in any way would make the exam process available to program graduates who were unsafe? Also, do you think the Masters and Doctoral prepared nurses who actually administer the CPNE who are deans, associate deans and professors of traditional nursing schools would jeopardize their credibility in affirming safe and competent status on an unsafe nurse candidates of EC? Also, have you ever seen anything in writing from the California BRN which provides any documentation that EC grads have had more problems in the clinical setting than traditional grads--not slimy innuendos, I mean actually by name-EC? If not, why not? Do you think the reasoning for this is that the BRN, although delusional, may indeed be able to appreciate such terms as "slander", "libel", "defamation" ect.? These are some things to think about when you start to feel yourself gravitate towards the delusional extreme on the continuum of the BRN's way of thinking about EC.

Ok, now I think I see your point. You would be OK with the CPNE and EC if the above areas were tested. Is that about right? Here's what I think. Any generalist generic RN program is not worth it's salt unless students are exposed to at least 789 hours within a neuro intensive care environment and possesses skills consistent with that of a safe staff neuro nurse within a Level I trauma center. How much credibility would I have if I truly possessed this system of beliefs? The point I think you may be missing is that the overall goal of any generic (pre-licensure) program is to produce beginner clinicians who are safe and effect nurse generalists. It is true that EC doesn't test competency in the advanced areas that you have mentioned, insofar as psychometric domain, but let me tell you, all areas are covered within the cognitive exams, which are required of all NLAN accredited nursing schools. Again, the areas that you have mentioned fall well outside of the parameters of what beginning nurses do, or what they should be doing without more training in the form of an intensive orientation or skills workshop. Either way this is training that is considered "post licensure." It is crazy to think with the minimal exposure that any traditional nursing student receives in intensive care would provide for sufficient knowledge to function in that environment as a beginner RN. Again, safe, beginning nurse generalist is the overall goal of any program. This is what NLAN looks at before they put their endorsement on any program. But then again, perhaps you and the BRN know more about programmatic curriculum design and evaluation than national authorities who have actually procured Ph.D. scholarly degrees in curriculum design. Perhaps the BRN knows more than the scholars who possess advanced degrees in psychometrics who guide line item construction for NCLEX. Perhaps the BRN is right and the vast majority of BON's in the country are not when it comes to public safety. Maybe one day the California BRN will share its logic with us all, so us simpletons, the scholars, The NLAN, The NCLEX and the rest of the country's BON's can all learn.