USParamedic2RN

A good ole 603 aka 51/50 sounds appropriate for this lady :) I bet she would think twice about doing it again ! Sounds as if she meets the criteria for it LOL

I've responded to " RX refill " calls a few times and when asked what hospital they wanted to go to i got med com on the radio, put thru to the ER physician at that hospital, explained what i had and let the patient hear for themselves that they would be seen if they had a cc but no refills would be given and that the wait in the ER was over 8 hours. Most of the time they would sign a pt refusal. It kept our unit available for a true emergency ( or another refill call lol ) and it saved the ER time and a bed.

In the ER was a guy who came in saying he had " groin pain" he acted very peculiar and it was hard to get a history and definitive c/c. Said he could only talk to the male doc. So when we finally get him in the back, I try to talk to him and explain to him i work for a fire dept as well and I work with all men and I am very understanding....come to find out, he came to the ER cause he had masterbated earlier in the day and now " can't get it up" for his wife who would be coming home and wanted sex. He said if she found out he had masterbated she would kick him out and divorce him so it was easier to come into the ER and complain something was wrong. Ohhh some of the crazy 911 calls I had to respond to ( of course in the middle of the night) 1. mosquito bite to tip of member 2. several calls to the casinos for CP... had no pain at all except they had no ride back to Memphis so they took an ambulance and once we arrived at ER, they got out and either walked to their house or caught a ride 3. same call from Memphis Motor Sports Park during NHRA race, c/c CP, got to ER and he removed himself from stretcher and said thanks for the ride. Some Memphis FF/PMs knew him by his first name and said he does it all the time. 4. Shortly after Hurricane Katrina we saw multiple patients from same family who came to ER for " Hurricane flashbacks" and told us their doc from back home said only Oxycontin would help alleviate the flashbacks and it would be easier to give them 60 day supply until they could get back. So i asked which city in LA they were from and they couldn't remember, they were that traumatized. I made up a city, yep thats where they were from, i made up a street name.. would you believe they lived on that same street ! For all the BS that came into the ER, some of them were miraculously healed after a nice 8 and 12 hour theraputic wait :)

Yes that is something i looked at prior to applying at Excelsior. My sis is an RN in California and I knew that was one of the states that doesn't accept Excelsior graduates without experience. We still have our home in Mississippi, right on the TN stateline. We fly home every few weeks and what I will do once I graduate is apply for licensure in both MS and TN. We may be living stateside fulltime again by then but if not, I will most likely live stateside half the time working PRN until I aquire enough time put in to work wherever we're living at the time. A large reason I'm wanting my RN is so that I may work and volunteer internationally with organizations such as Doctors without Borders and respond to disasters working as an RN and Paramedic.

I am not sure if there are actual nursing scholarships but when my kids got ready for college we went to http://www.fastweb.com/ and began applying for scholarships. Both my children have received scholarships for various reasons. Take some time to go thru the various scholarships. You may find a scholarship that isn't for nursing but it applies to you for some other reason. Did you know there is a scholarship for being left handed ? It's interesting to see the scholarships that are out there ! Matter of fact, I will be going back and looking at the web site again. Not only for my kids again, but for myself now :) Good Luck !! PS.. I did go ahead and register myself on fast web and there are 28 scholarships pertaining to nursing that i'm looking at right now. Some are even from Excelsior :)

Lunah, I cannot thank you enough for all the links and information your sharing. I am paying close attention to what books and study materials you used that helped you so much since we're coming from the same background. I know what works for some may not work for others and vice versa but this gives me some perspective of how to flip the role of health care provider as well as learn about care plans and differences in nursing vs EMS.

SusieQ, Don't offer that help so quickly until you have met me LOL. I recently sent my appliation off, have sent off transcript request from my former college and since i'm 9 hours ahead ( live in Dubai) I have to wait until hours from now before I can make my first phone call. I have browsed the web site and joined this website which is worth its bytes in GOLD! So i found some course outlines and started to read just the one for Health Safety and literally scared myself away from the PC LOL. I hope i'm just taking in too much stuff at one time and I will be fine. Hubby says there have been many a person that has become an RN via Excelsior that didn't have the luxury of ANY medical experience and that I will be just fine. But as a Paramedic, i feel that I am on a whole different page. I hope once I am given an advisor, i will feel more comfortable but right now I think i'm more scared than I was when i went to Paramedic school ( 10 years ago). I don't know where to begin. What I am doing at this point is going all over the EC web site and this web site and making as many friends as possible. I excelled as a Paramedic and had the confidence and skills to take on anything but right now I feel sooooooooooo inferior and way out of my element. One thing I do know though is that I've wanted to be an RN for a while and I know I will make a great RN. I hope I'm making the right decision to go the EC way vs school.

Hey ladies, I am 47, living in the Middle East with hubby who is an airline pilot. I am going thru Excelsior which is perfect for me since there is no nursing schools that I can go to over here and I'm able to do it all online. They even have a testing center in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi. I will have some gen ed classes to either clep out of or take, i do have some from wayyy back that will transfer over. Waiting on admissions to get me finished with my enrollment. I went to Paramedic school at 36 and that was the hardest thing i did in my life! I was in class with kids barely old enough to drive an ambulance, let alone be a Paramedic but I stayed focused. I had manadatory " close the bedroom door, read and study" time and the kids which were 12 and 9 knew that during that time, no disruptions and call Gram who lived 2 miles away with help. I remember some of the younger students who were way behind on clinicals and/or didn't get their objectives turned in on time and our instructor blew a rod! She ( although i was emabarrassed) reminded those students that if a single mother that worked fulltime raising kids alone could follow the requirements and stay current, then surely they could. I think as older students, we're sometimes more focused because we know how easily time, chapters, information can be lost and we can get way behind quick. We are apt to stay on top of things more and we're harder on ourselves. I remember being devistated that I made a B and not an A on a test and worried so much about the National Registry exam ( the nclex for Paramedics ) and scoring high on it. My instructor took me in her office and said " Melanie, they don't post test scores on your license or that Patch that you will wear on your uniform designating your level of training" I think we appreciate what we're doing at this age than we would if we had done it earlier. Age is just a number and maturity is on our side. I figure if i get my RN before I get senility, I am still ahead of the game :)

OHHHH to be 24, single and not a single restriction in the world!!! Girl, the world is yours and you should definitely go for it! I agree about NOT renting out your condo or if you do, allow a 6 month lease. If you're near an international airport, you could rent out a couple of bedrooms as " crash pads" for pilots. That way your home is occupied and your generating some income from it. My husband is an airline pilot and after our kids left for college we rented out 2 rooms and it was very simple and easy to do. The experience you will gain traveling will enhance your skills, teach you so many variations of improvising and different techniques you will be more invaluable than you already are. I wish they had traveling Paramedics ! I would have done it in a heart beat. The only traveling I was able to do career wise was with FEMA responding to emergencies. I now live in the Middle East ( Dubai) with hubby who took international job after layoff in the US. Have you considered traveling abroad ? Its a blast.

Hi all, I'm in the same boat. Finished my application and now waiting on enrollment. Are you able to register for these exams if you have some Gen ED courses to either CLEP out or take before the nursing ? Sorry, very new to all this and trying to learn as much as possible and feel lost lol I've never taken an online course and only watched my husband go thru a mess via U of Phoenix online. I wanted no part of it and now here I am :)

Ok after reading this thread and reading all the notes that Ivan and Lisa so graciously created and shared for all of us, I no longer have the urge to take the CPNE prior to a single course just to see how i would have done LOL. I can tell you right now I would have failed. Lisa, the mnemonics were instrumental in Paramedic school. Especially during codes. ( Every Little Boy Must Pee Sometime) mnemonic for ACLS drugs at the time i was in school ( it has since changed). I will say this though, I am soaking up every bit of information on here and filing it my mind as well as on my PC for future use. Joining this web site is probably the best thing i could have done and I'm so thankful I did it before hand. I can't wait !

Hi PsychNurse! I am right there with you. I am about to enroll in EC and find out which Gen Ed classes i DON"T have to take LOL and go from there. Have you completed your application yet ? I was just wondering where you are in the process. I am a 10 year Paramedic from the Memphis,TN area going for my ASN then BSN ( don't want to put too much on my plate too soon) I have 2 years experience working in an ER in addition to the 10 years working 911. Have you chosen to bypass the study guide companies such as RUE and go direct with ES ? I am certain that is what i'm doing and so so so glad I read and did my research on that prior to signing a contract. I will purchase my study materials and workbooks via EBAY or friends that have gone thru RUE recently. I will however invest in practice exams as I found they are so valuable when I was in Paramedic school. They may or may not have had a direct outcome but I know I felt alot more confident and I passed everything the first time around. I don't think I could have went thru " testing day" again if I had not. I would LOVE to afford to take the CPNE early on just to see where I stand on my skills and education from the beginning and learn my weak spots quick but I don't think you can challenge it. I will do good to KLEP out of some classes if allowable. Hope to make alot of friends on here and hopefully study buddies Melanie

First of all I want to thank everyone from student to professor and everyone in between for taking a few minutes out of their day to post on this web site. Had it not been for me clicking on a possible link to learn about Excelsior, I wouldn't have my mind made up. I have my transcript in hand and am about to fill out the application and begin my journey from Paramedic to RN. I have enjoyed reading where everyone came from and with all the years of experience, the amount of initials i see behind someone's name, all egos were left outside the door. I have put off getting my RN long enough and now I will follow the footsteps of thousands of others who didn't have the time to sit in classrooms and chose self motivation and taking chance ( trust) in myself to do this. I hope my endless sea of questions don't get on your nerves and you allow me to pick your brains in between study guides :) KMLeod, come go to Excelsior with me. If i can put myself thru Paramedic school while going thru a divorce forcing me to raise 2 young ones by myself, I know i can do this now at 46 and living in the Middle East. I welcome the study buddy anytime !