evenanne

Suequatch, the community colleges are on par with that. When you factor in all the fees that you have to pay Excelsior, they're running neck and neck. In addition, the community college credits are more readily acceptible to a higher institution of learning. Anyway, I'm just suggesting another alternative. One thats worked for me. I've already finished Excelsior and passed the NCLEX and am now attending a BSN program. I think that's where Teeta wants to be at the end of all this. I would have had to take extra cources to attend my university if I had done my pre-reqs at Excelsior. If it cost the same and they are all mostly online anyways, why not get the most out of it? Just a suggestion. Oh, by the way, I don't care what anyone says: the CPNE has nothing to do with experience and has everything to do with learning those critical elements and doing it "their way". If you can, Teeta, full speed ahead. Don't rush but don't worry about experience. I never worked in a hospital a day in my life but I passed the CPNE with flying colors (worked UR in an ofice and pediatric private duty where I took care of the same kid for 6 years. Hadn't done manual vitals since nursing school when I took the CPNE).

Why don't you just take your pre-req's at your local community college. The majority of them are now online anyways. It's propably cheaper than Excelsior and you can apply for financial aide if you have too. Remember: when your thru with Excelsior you probably will want to further your education and you'll have to apply at Universitys that want you to have certain pre-reqs with their labs. You will need Chemistry and Nutrition and Statistics among others. When I finished Excelsior (Aug 2006) and started looking around for a good BSN program I really lucked out by taking my pre-reqs thru my local community college-I already had everything they required and all I did was apply and I'm was in. The majority of BSN programs now have an online option. Remember this: by the time you finish with that gosh-awful CPNE you most likely will not want to have to go thru that again by going into their BSN program. At least I didn't. It's still one of the most stessful things I've ever been thru. If you take your pre-reqs thru a community college, you have more options for the future. If you take them thru Excelsior, your pretty limited and lot poorer. By the way, I live in South Florida also. I'm going to FAU now for by BSN. Everything is online and I have the financial aide option which I wouldn't have with Excelsior.

I know just what you are feeling now. I sent in my application on March 3, 2006 and was testing by June 26th, 2006. That's pretty quick for the CPNE (at least at that time). What I did was accept a Tues, Wed, Thurs CPNE which they sometimes have instead of the weekend CPNEs which are always packed. I tested at Racine. Small hospital, CE's are OK. Passed with no repeats. TIP: If you bomb on your vitals (manual BP) like I did, act like you don't know what their talking about and ask that the head CE re-take the vitals with you. You get another try. Remember: it's worth it. After the CPNE, the NCLEX was a complete joke (that's how easy it was for me: 25 minutes, 75 ridiculously easy questions). I work now as a work-at-home disease mgmt nurse and I'm going to school for my BSN. Being an RN really opens up a whole new world of opportunities.