RNBearColumbus

I transferred in all of my science classes, micro, bio, etc. The best way to know what you would need to do to complete the WGU BSN is to contact them and talk to an admissions advisor. They are great to work with and will let you know what you need to do to get a review done of your previous college work. ( But they are VERY liberal when it comes to transfer credit. Ny micro class transferred in and it was from 1984. ).

Check out Western Governor's University. They accepted all of my Excelsior credits, as well as credits for classes I took at other schools. On line program, very affordable

Excelsior LPN to RN: 2015 WGU RN to BSN: 2020 Right after graduating from Excelsior, I got a job in a large hospital system with no problems. Now I'm a hospice and palliative care nurse.

Yup! Run! That case load is too high in my opinion. I have 16 on my case load and that feels overwhelming at times. Also, I tend to look suspiciously at any job offering a sign on bonus. In my experience, its a sign of an organization that has trouble keeping people around.

No, they are not going to phase out LPNs any time soon. While there may not be many hospital jobs for LPNs, they are still a huge part of the workforce in long term care and skilled nursing. People have been saying for YEARS that LPNs are going away, but it hasn't happened yet, and there are no signs of it happening. If you want to pursue a LPN certificate, I say go ahead. However, I'm curious as to why you say you don't want to be an RN. As a LPN, your scope of practice and opportunities for jobs will be limited. As a RN, you will have many more opportunities. Never say never. Once you have that LPN behind your name, you can work and pursue an associates degree in nursing to become a RN.

Biochem isn't that bad if you break it down. Do one unit at a time. Read the material! Seriously, this isn't like some of the other classes where you can take the PA, study what you missed, and then pass the OA in a week. This class is a marathon, not a print. Take the end of unit quizzes and tests. DO NOT rely totally on the videos and files some people have posted on line in a certain face book group. They are outdated, since the class was restructured back in October 2019. Reach out to the course instructor early and often. They have additional materials that will help you clarify concepts. They want you to pass. Once you have studied all of the units, go back and take the end of unit test again. You should do better the 2nd time around. (I was told that if you score 85% or higher on the unit tests, you'll do well on the OA) Use the live and recorded cohorts, as well as the live BYOQ events. I found them VERY helpful. Biochem took me 4 weeks total. I spent 3-4 hours on each weekend day, and 1-2 hours each weeknight. Passed the OA on the first try.

The patient's that died were not hospice patients. Most had recently been taken off vents, and the high doses of fentanyl and other opiates were ordered by the same physician. According to local news sources, the 23 people that have been suspended were nurses, pharmacists and managers who failed to follow proper procedure for the review and approval of orders. While we do use morphine and other opiates for control of pain and dyspnea at end of life, the doses are titrated to effect starting with smaller doses, and increasing as needed. We do not immediately start giving huge doses of morphine with the goal of "snowing" the patient or hastening the end of life. It really makes me sad that people on social media ( and even the mainstream media) have equated the actions of this one doctor with hospice and end of life care.

THIS! A thousand times this! Having all of the information in front of you BEFORE calling the provider will help you more than anything!

lol.. yeah, this is an old thread.. my response was in reply to Sindy1.

Cancel it. If you are planning on getting your RN from Excelsior, You can get all of the study materials you need directly from Excelsior. No need to pay a 3rd party for materials that are not endorsed or approved by Excelsior.

Don't do it. They are nothing more than a middle man for getting your ADN from Excelsior College. Achieve Test Prep does not grant the credits, and does not grant the degree. Take a look at the Excelsior student forum here on All Nurses. A few people have quite a bit to say about Achieve Test Prep. Bottom line, if you are thinking of going through Excelsior for your RN, you can get everything you need directly from Excelsior. No need to spend extra money ( to the tune of THOUSANDS of dollars) on a third party.

I was a LPN with 12+ years of experience when I took the CPNE in 2016. The biggest hurdle you will face as an experienced LPN is doing things the "Excelsior Way". Forget EVERYTHING you think you know about how to do things, and learn to do things the way that Excelsior expects you to do them during the CPNE. These message boards are filled with posts from LPNs that failed the CPNE the first time because they thought that they could do things they way they have always done them. You can't. Use the CPNE Study Guide and "relearn" the things that you need to do to pass.

I'd say your experience is fairly normal. I see both home patients and patients in facilities. My facility visits are usually much shorter than my home visits. As you've seen, in a facility there is much less "case managing" that needs to be done. You don't need to order / reorder meds, you don't usually have do any treatments, and with non verbal patients there is much less opportunity for social interaction. I spend more time at facilities talking to the staff nurses, making sure they have the resources they need to care for the patient, and that they have all the needed comfort meds in place. My average time for a facility visit is about 20 minutes if there are no new developments or needs. ( My average home visit is roughly 30-45 minutes, sometimes longer if the patient likes to be social or needs meds refilled etc.).

I was helped by having experience in long term care, then acute care. Care in LTC is very similar to home hospice in that the focus is on quality of life, not quantity. In both LTC and home hospice, you do what you can to make the best of whatever time people have left. In hospice, you have to realize that even though you can't fix what's wrong with a patient, your focus is on helping them to live what ever life they have left to the fullest extent possible, and as comfortably as possible. My fulfillment comes from knowing that I help my patients live their final days at home, with their families, and that they were as comfortable as we could make them. I also get fulfillment from helping the families of my patients cope with their loved ones end of life. (You won't just be a nurse for the patient, but for the entire family).

Hours and being on call depend on the agency you work for. As a home hospice case manager, I work Monday - Friday, 8:00 - 4:30. I work every 6th weekend. I'm never on call. Our hospice has nurses hired specifically to work evenings and over night. Once 4:30 comes, I log off my computer and turn off my phone. They get turned on again the next morning at 7:45. I'm able to complete all of my charting during my actual work day, and never have to work "off the clock" Work life balance is good, at least where I work. I have a case load of 15 -18 patients at any one time. I see 4-5 a day. I have a HUGE number of resources I can rely on while I'm out in the field, including triage nurses, managers and physicians. Your experience certainly would be a good fit for hospice. I like the suggestion in the previous reply that you try to shadow a hospice nurse on his / her rounds.

I think the range would be OK.. Come to think of it, I don't think that there is a spot on the OhioHealth online application to put an expected / desired salary in. (But it's been a couple of years, so I could be wrong...).

Can't answer for OSU, but at OhioHealth, you could expect between 25.00 - 30.00 hourly with that level of experience. They do offer shift differential if you are willing to work nights. They also pay a differential for weekend shift. ( right around 5.00 extra an hour on Sat. and Sun.)

I work for a hospice attached to a rather large hospital company in Ohio. We have both home hospice, and an inpatient hospice unit with 25 beds. I am a hospice case manager, and see my patients in their homes. However, once one of my patients is admitted to the inpatient unit for an acute reason, they are considered to be in the hospital, and I am not expected to see them while they are in the IPU. Even if they go to another acute care inpatient setting, I still would not see them. Once they are discharged, either to home or to a ECF or SNF, they go right back on my case load, and I start seeing them again. If they are at another facility for respite care, I would still see them, just like I do my other patients that are residents at a ECF or SNF.

I second what Pixie said. The EC practice exams were well worth the expense. Take one test early in your studies, use it to see where you need to refresh your knowledge or go more in depth. As you get closer to the exam date, take the 2nd one and see where you might still have areas to improve on. I used them for every EC exam, and passed all of mine with A or B grades.

At our hospice we accumulate PTO at the same rate as the other RNs that work for our company. In the first year, you accumulate roughly 4 hours each pay period, and after the first year, around 5 hours per pay period.

The hospice agency I work for has nurses the are hired to work days, evenings, and overnight. Case managers work M-F, 8-4:30, NO on call at all, and we work every 6th weekend. The evening and night shift nurses ( I think there are 2-3 of each) work a rotating schedule, and work every other weekend. There are also triage nurses working the same shifts. No one is ever "on call" except maybe for managers. It's done a great deal to reduce turn over.

Often, the universe has a way of forcing us to deal with our fears even if we don't want to. Learning to care for the dying, and care for the families of the dying, will provide you with skills that will make you an awesome nurse in the future. Don't look at this is a wasted opportunity. It is a gift. You have been given the opportunity to face and conquer something that you fear, with the guidance of an experienced nurse. If you do end up in NICU or L&D, you will still be dealing with people experiencing end of life, grief and loss. Having a solid skill set to use will make those situations easier to deal with. That said, it's just a semester long preceptorship. It by no means limits the types of positions you will be able to apply for or work in once you have graduated and are actually a nurse.

I don't work in an IP setting, but here are a few things that helped me when I started with Hospice a few months ago. Check out http://hpna.advancingexpertcare.org The web site of the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association. There is some good information and resources there. Get comfortable with comfort meds. Medications like morphine, Ativan, Haldol etc. A lot of nurses (especially new ones) have been taught to believe that these medications should be used sparingly, and that they can hasten death. For that reason, some nurses are reluctant to use them. The more you know about these medications and what they are used for in the hospice setting, the better prepared you will be to care for your patients. Realize that for our patients, the destination is not in doubt. It is your job as a hospice nurse to make sure that they get there in a Cadillac, and not a wheelbarrow. Hone your listening skills. You will learn more about what your patient's need and want by listening to them and their families. Remember that you are not just the nurse for the patient in the bed, but for the family as well. Familiarize yourself with some of the top diagnosis for which people are admitted to hospice. Review the disease process, medications, etc. Get familiar with how these conditions are managed once a patient is on hospice. You will need to teach your patient's and families about them as well. Good luck

Starting in hospice after working for 6 months in pediatrics will be difficult, but doable. It all depends on how open and teachable you are. Your experience in LTC as a CNA will be some help, but you've never worked with that population as a nurse. Hospice is definitely not a "fluff" specialty and there will be a lot to learn and even UNlearn. ( Understanding comfort meds like morphine and Ativan for example.). Have you thought about working for a year or so in a skilled nursing environment or a med surg unit? I've done both over the years and found that experience invaluable when I made the jump to home hospice.

I tested in Albany, and yes, they have a dedicated pediatric unit. My patient was a 9 year old, and I know that at least one of the others testing that weekend had a toddler age child. Hand washing stations were in the bathroom in each room. The CE also got a bottle of hand sanitizer for me and put it where I could reach it, but the patient could not. One last thought: I went to a workshop before CPNE, and discussed my apprehension about taking care of a pediatric patient with the instructor. Her advice was golden: Pediatrics is just Med - Surg on a smaller person. Good luck!