QTMedic4life

hehe I was a Navy Corpsman, now I am an Army Medic. Congrats Oorah and Hooah for the Army guy up there. :) CONGRATSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Keep studying and Congrats. I can't wait to see you have that RN. I am ready for your signature change

I am back in Cali and the hospitals actually really enjoy Ec grads. They even support you in getting your licensed endorsed in (since it's on a case by case basis) if you have had experience with the RN license elsewhere. I have spoken with multiple nursing recruiters here and Reno as well as the military locations near by with no problems and lots of support. Just my

Are there things to do around city? Yes there are tons of things to do in the cities places to go. I wasn't at Landstuhl but i had great fun. There are castles and tons of entertainment that's cheap. Get your traveling passport which is different before your Military passport. How's the weather? It's hella cold. I know there will be a lot of injured soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan so maybe a lot of critical care cases. Was it stressful? it can be stressful at every military facility depending on what area you work in. Did you feel lost? sort of lost at first but people help you. Did people help you? Are the native people there friendly? yes, very as long as you try to learn their language and follow their rules. do they speak English? for the most part. Do I have to learn how to speak German or is English good enough? You don't have to but it's highly recomendded. Is housing easily available and is it affordable? How about the cost of living there? I know the Euro is more than the American dollar. Will I have enough time to travel through Europe while working as an Army nurse?Yeppers How about a car? you should get one when you get there andd make sure it's American Speced Do I need to buy a car? you should a little off topic, but are Mercedes or BMW's cheaper there? yes, it's a great thing too./ Is there anything else that I should know? have fun, relax, and welcome to the military. You are going to have a ton of new experiences adn special relationships and bonds that no civilian will ever understand. Anything that I need to steer clear of? the list of places they tell you not to go is a good start. Shopping too much, and all the guys who want to marry you the day after they meet you.

I will have to agree that drill is chill. I am normally two or three people's sponsor for their first drill weekend. All you do is inprocess usually on day one and day two it's pretty much more paperwork and uniforms ordered etc etc. We show our soldiers around and figure out where they are supposed to be for the remaining portion of drill weekend. Sometimes recruiters come and sometimes they don't. Recruiters offer great entertainment because I will admit before you get an assignment you are pretty bored. I take homework and I have like four or five assignments. So like I said it's pretty chill at drill weekend. Relax have fun and get to know your troops. ~Azi J

I am extremely frustrated by the situation as well, but I found my way around it. It is mildly retarded, but i am willing to make things work to my advantage if the state of CA wants to act like mental midgets. IF I ever return to CA it will be to take care of my parents or something else that will hopefully be temporary(crosses fingers). So I have two options of surviving without going postal. 1. Option getting my ECE degree and then working in another state( I live elsewhere now), but then i could challenge the PN because of how much experience i have and then do a 1 year pn to rn program so i can "make up clinical hours" that are needed. Which would mean a pay cut, but i am only considering options as ECE is right for me. I am the kind of person who glances at a page of a book and can recite random information regarding it. I retain too much information and get bored in college classes and more often than not test out of them. 2. I can work at a VA hospital or military hospital as a civilian nurse. It is hard to land that job but i am a reservist and will be a veteran for the rest of my life.... so I have a leg up. Those jobs are hard to get but not impossible. They look at experience and who you know who can get you in. It's not hard to get to know people in that environment who can get you in if you 'volunterr' or ask for 'training' as they are for the most part teaching hospitals. Just info. CA sucks, I hate it but i love it too.. Dumb love hate relationship going on there. Just my 2 cents. ~AJ~

I will email them and ask them again. I called and spoke to a few people on the phone just to make sure I wasn't getting any mis information. If you endorse into WA you will not have to do the preceptorship and they will allow you to do that if you are a medic or anything else. I as a medic am going to be sitting for my NCLEX in Idaho and then endorsing into WA. Like I said I have verified multiple times via the telephone that that is acceptable as they only verify with the state you are coming from not from the school or anything else. I also called CA and they have maintained the fact that they are NOT working with ECE. That came from the board I will email her so I can get it in writing as well, but they stated via the telephone four weeks ago that there has been no change since the board one the appeals case. I will follow up soon. ~Azari~

One of the other girls on here finished the program in 9 months. It took her 5 months of waiting on the CPNE. I will be trying to do something similar. I will be open for all test dates anywhere in the country and have saved money to be able to pay everything really fast so that I can be done. I won't get to enroll until october thouh. I have taken the practice test for the first class without studying and got a 75% and they say that as long as you get a 70% or better you will be able to pass the actual exam. I made myself a schedule for when I start and follow that. Scheduling my exams as soon as I pay for them so that I can have them already on my calendar. I am hoping to be done with all 7 exams in 2months and 1 week then having my cpne within 3 months. So that I can graduate in their graduation in July of 2008 even though I am not starting until October. My apologies for my long drawn out rant. It's too early. ~Azi~

Ummm sorry to inform you but Washington state will let you get your license there as a non-lpn ece grad. That came from the WA board of nursing and I am living in WA and have applied to go to ECE. Just an FYI. And CA will NOT allow you to obtain licensure there at all. Like not as an LPN or Medic or anything No endorsing. Nothing. Check with the board not the school.

I haven't done it, but if you just get advance standing and don't get to challenge the course I would ummm not do it as I want that RN and I want to graduate. I also like the option of being able to travel outside of CA, that is in part because I am not a fan of Cali... So that was my honest opinion. ~Azi~ 28 more days and I am back to WA from CA... Home is where the heart is and I miss them both.

Hi all, I am looking for east washington ECE students. I will be starting to study for NC1 soon . But I was wondering if there was anyone else studying in this area. Then for those that are or are almost completed with ECE. I know WA has the 200 hours preceptorship (sp). Well if you test and get your Idaho license you can just endorse into Wa. Just sharing info and looking for others like me. ~Azari~

I was wondering if there was anyone else in East Washington who will be doing nursing school through Excelsior? Just wondering, thank you. ~Azari~

I am working at this now DC+ I am living in Spokane when I am home (In Cali visiting my mom now) but then I will be doing it. Being in Spokane I am going to get my Idaho license first and then work in Idaho and endorse in. Want to talk more about it PM me. ~Azari~

I say if you don't have a plan on moving to California ECE is the way to go. I would be 100% no doubt in my mind doing ECE if I didn't have the potential risk of moving back to California. So that is my $.02 take what you want and leave the rest. ~Azari~

Ok so I have my Military medic training and keep playing with the idea of getting my RN through Excelsior. I mean that program would work great for me and the biggest part of my process will be waiting for the CPNE. However, I am originally from California though currently I claim my home as Washington state. I love it here and don't exactly plan on moving to California, it's a nice place to visit but it's too crowded for living. My parents both live in california and love it though so there is always the whole need to come back and take care of them so I worry about getting my RN through excelsior. Then I took a look at the requirements for challenging things. I found that if I had to come back I could work at a VA hospital the pay isn't as much as an RN but it still pays and as soon as I have fifty one months of experience I can challenge the LVN for the state and then do a quick little LVN to RN program assuming I take my Anatomy, Physiology, and Microbiology at a community college in Washington instead of through Excelsior. OR in some cases I would need to retake my Anatomy, Physiology, and Microbiology because of time limits. Which is still not a big deal. So I am going to go for it and since my parents will always live in California I will worry about that license if I ever decide to move back and challenge the LVN ect. I hope that helps someone else to decide what they want to do. Some people just don't have the time and money to do other programs so excelsior is a great option for them. A temporary pay cut could be worth the getting it done now that comes with Excelsior!! ~Azari~:imbar