Magelan

My last job in Chicago, IL (resigned in Jan 2015) - SNF $26.50/hr + $0.50/hr weekend shift differential. Started with $24/hr back in 2012 as a new grad. I had a part time home health job in Chicago as well that paid $40 per visit. Moved to Northern Virginia a little over a year ago, SNF as well - $22.50/hr but weekend shift differential was $2 for 7-3 shift & $3 for 3-11 shift.

I have never had an issue getting a job as a CMK grad. Employers will be asking for your license and that is all that matters. CMK was accredited by the state of IL, hence we were eligible for licensing. NLN & CCNE - that is more applicable for RN programs. Btw, what program are you about to start?

St. George's University - School of Medicine - 5 more weeks until the end of Term 1 and so far it is going very well :) I hope it will stay this way :)

My significant other was a physician back home and when we moved to US he finished RN through Excelsior (foreign MD to RN). Excelsior at start was more as a back up plan, but it ended up he was not able to pass USMLE Step 2 CS and he ended up being a RN. Long story short, you need to decide whether you want to get your USMLEs done and to try to get the residency (that is becoming very challenging for IMGs, especially the ones with "graduation cut off date" issues) or you want to pursue you nursing career. As previous posters noted, MD does not give you that much of advantage. Nursing in US is not like nursing anywhere else in the world. It is not an arena that MDs can enter just like that. Been there, done that, it took us a while to realize that getting higher nursing degrees is not an overnight express... Excelsior will take at least a year if you devote full time + over time study to get it done expressly. Realistically - let's say 2 years. CPNE waiting time is around 6 months and you would definitely need to put in a lot of hours to shift from medical to nursing model and overall way of thinking as a nurse :) It might look easy, but it's not. Good thing, with ADN from Excelsior, you can brigde directly to FNP since your MD training is above bachelor degree. We were looking into online program offered by South University. That will take additional 2.5-3 years... CRNA... That's like going to MD school from the scratch. Being said,you would need to get your BSN first after ADN from Excelsior in order to be eligible for ICU positions(ICU experience is prerequisite for most CRNA programs). CRNA programs are very competitive to get into. I was a dentist back home so Excelsior did not want to take me. For that reason I attended LPN school and practiced for almost 3 years. I did start Excelsior back in 2013. but got accepted to med school recently. Those few more exams that I have with Excelsior are on hold for now. I can only imagine my struggle when CPNE gets me :) Best of luck...

Go over Excelsior Practice Exams Questions in detail and if you have time, StudyGroup101 Manual will help. I know it's getting close, but grasp as much as you can before the weekend :)

It's $9.99 :)

Last update Took Reproductive Health Exam today. A :) This was my last nursing Exam (excluding FCCA & CPNE ) For this one I can also say that the Practice Exams bought from Excelsior were precious source of information. Many of those questions came up on the exam today. And again - only multiple choice questions - NO SATA

I took Reproductive Health today and got A :) And honestly, there were a lot of questions from those Excelsior Practice Exams. I do not know if they have different questions on the exams or all of us have the same test... If they randomly change exam questions than it is possible for some students not to get as many questions that are similar to those in Practice Tests... Beside Practice Exams and Study Group 101, I can suggest Saunders Comprehensive Review for the NCLEX-RN Examination book. It is concise, has all necessary facts and the book comes with CD Q-Bank so you have additional questions for practice. Saunders was the only book that I have used for NCLEX-PN and I still use it for Excelsior if I feel that StudyGroup101 Guide needs additional clarification on some topics. That book is awesome! Life Span 1 should be a breeze for medics - Respiratory, Cardio & Oncology. For me - that was the easiest one and got A. LS2 & LS3 were a bit harder for me, but still got B's. As a medic, if you could get over with Foundations and Transition, Life Span exams should not pose any difficulty to you

When it comes to Foundations, Excelsior Practice Exams are helpful. I took that exam on 11/20/2014 (3 weeks ago). Personally, the topics that were covered were not "my cup of coffee". I passed with C (second C grade - along with Transition that I did not like either), some of the questions were similar/same form Practice Exams. Study group 101 did help a lot. The exam had a lot of vague and SATA questions... Do not want to scare anyone, this was just my experience. My advice for Foundations would be to thoroughly go over 101 study guide. A lot of topics makes this exam a bit challenging. On the other hand, I took Safety Exam 2 days ago. Got B, even though I have expected A since my scores on Test A and Test B were 83% & 84%. Good thing - a looooot of questions came from Excelsior Practice Exams and there were NO SATA :) I was a bit surprised by scores on some topics like "Health, Wellness, Illness" since on Practice Exams I had more than 90% of right answers. On the actual exam I got less than 70%

Or even better - switch to PRN at Gerogetown and take the offer at Inova. No commuting headaches. When it comes to commute, you can always ask at Georgetown to give you weekend shift so commute would not be a headache plus all schedulers love having people who are willing to pick up weekend shifts :)

Small update :) Passed Health Safety today :) Got B even tough I expected A :) There was a lot of similar questions (if not even same) from Excelsior Test A and Test B. I was really surprised with the fact that there were no SATA questions Overall, this exam was way easier, to me at least, than Chronicity and Transition.

Thanks :) Will keep updated :) I did not follow your posts, hope you're on Excelsior "journey" as well. Wishing you the best as well :)

No :) I enrolled last year - 06/2013 but I was able to take Life Span exams before Fundamentals (Chronicity etc.) It's doable to take all nursing exams in 6 months but I was lazy :) LPNs are waived from Health Differences so one exam less for me. I did the exams this way: - 12/2013 - Transition - C - 02/2014 - Life Span 1 - A - 09/2014 - Life Span 2 - B - 11/05/2014 - Life Span 3 - B - 11/20/2014 - Foundations in Nursing Practice (Chronicity) - C I have scheduled Safety for next Monday - 12/08/2014 & Reproductive Health for 12/18/2014. Hopefully before Christmas Nursing Component (except FCCA & CPNE) will be completed.

Many MDs are bitter. Many Nurses/NPs are bitter. On the other hand, there are a lot of MDs and Nurses who are incredible clinicians, excellent team players and happy with their jobs :) The question is - why those bitter ones started their careers in the healthcare? Many reasons, but caring for people obviously not... Residency after medical school is at least 3 years. Family and Internal are 3 years (analogues to FNP and Adult NP). During those 3 years, residents get paid 45-50k a year - not more. Another thing, during residency, your average working week is at least 80 hours. So, if you look from that perspective, I make way way more as LPN :) But after residency it's fairly easy to get a job that pays more than 200k. My friend just got offer as Internal Medicine MD in Wisconsin - Hospitalist position, 230k a year with schedule 1 week on - 1 week off with 3 weeks of paid vacation. He is just finishing his residency so this is offer was given to someone with official "no experience", but everybody knows how many hours he has spent in patient care during his residency. In my opinion, going thru MD/DNP path is worth. The fact that you will be able to completely address the patient's needs is very rewarding. MD combined with the nursing background is most probably the best thing - MDs wast medical knowledge together with nursing "touch" :) Medical and nursing model working together and "prescribed" by the same person would make the best patient care experience ever.

I totally agree for LS3... Those practice exams did not help AT ALL I did get B on that one last month, but to be honest I did make a lot of guesses. "MyStudyGroup101" Study Guides and Practice Exams are usually the only things I use. I spend 4-5 days (3-4 hours per day) for each exam, but that's me. So far - no failures :) In my opinion it is a little easier for LPNs to prepare for those exams because we had pretty much the same type of questions on NCLEX-PN.

Another EC student here :) I do recommend Excelsior. I have started it last year, and almost done with nursing subjects (Health Safety & Reproductive Health scheduled for next month). No failures so far. This could be done faster, but simply I was lazy :) And honestly, I did not study that much for those exams - around 4-5 days each. CPNE is a bit challenging. My brother passed CPNE last weekend. Was not as bad as we expected :) But for that one you need to prepare well. It is nothing comparing to previous exams both of us were taking at the testing center (We had two months drama going on in the house while he was preparing for the CPNE) As others said - doable :) Good luck!

Totally agree :) One step at the time. There is a few of paramedic2RN programs. Check which one is recognized by California BON. When you get your RN-ADN you can again bridge to BSN. All that can be done online for way less money than going directly trough traditional BSN program. I am half way done with Excelsior and so far happy with the program. Online/distant option gave me the opportunity to keep my full time job which would be almost impossible with any classroom based option. What I have heard, it is not impossible to get RN license in Cali even with Excelsior (check on Excelsior thread under "Colleges/Excelsior College Online Nursing" - there is a topic regarding Cali). I live in Illinois which does not recognize Excelsior either, but I plan to move anyway.

You have lazy nurses both among males and females... Unfortunately every facility where I worked had that "kind"... DONs/Managers in some places have their "favorites" and you can do nothing to change that. The only thing I could do at one point when the other male coworker was passing a lot of stuff on me was to ask my DON to put me to some other team where I did not have to have to deal with him. Eventually, the other nurse (this time a female) complained about the same thing to the DON... But the guy had a "back" - his gf held a position in the upper nursing management so we could do nothing but ask to stay away from being assigned to the team that he was having on a permanent basis...

@ThuJone As a male LPN with more than two years of experience, and with the previous CMA certificate, I would totally suggest you give a shot with LPN or even better - RN program. I live in Chicago, so I can only say how the things are here in Illinois. I got my first LPN job 2 weeks after my license has been issued. I could have found it quicker, but wanted a job in 5 miles radius. CMAs here in CHGO start with $9 per hour, and it is very hard to get a job. My initial LPN wage was $24 per hour and after two years I came to $27.50. Being said - I make 3 times more than CMA, and I'm satisfied with my job. Back in the days I could not even get a minimal wage CMA position so worked as a truck driver for a while until I saved some money for LPN school :) As the other people mentioned here, LPNs are usually confined to SNF and Doctor's offices, but there is a lot of bridge programs to RN so you can progress in your career. Wish you the best :)

Thanks KejRN and Pixie The area of NOVA that I'm targeting is around Arlington, Alexandria, Falls Church :) I did look at INOVA website, they do hire LPNs for some positions as office nurses and at their LTC facilities. Yes, I'm very aware that for LPN's there are not so many (if any) options in the hospital setting. For example here in Chicago hospitals are rarely hiring even ADNs, mostly BSNs since the market is extremely saturated plus most of the hospitals went "Magnet". Last jun I got offer in Charlottesville, VA but could not accept only $19.10 per hour so I decided to stay few more months in Chicago. Winchester, VA is very nice place, I was considering it as well. I'm just concerned that LPNs are not getting as much in Winchester I'm currently bridging to RN thru Excelsior college (1 more nursing subject to go, 5 more general and FCCA & CPNE) so when that (hopefully) gets to an end I hope there will be more options in beautiful Virginia :)

Hi everyone :) I will be relocating to Northern Virginia next January. Any insights from nurses living in the area? I am a LPN with 2 years of experience in acute rehab and skilled nursing, so I have no problem with working in LTC or acute/subacute rehab facilities. Any advice on where to look for a job? What is the pay for LPNs in NOVA? Here in Chicago I'm currently at $27.50 per hour. I'm aware that it will be hard to expect that in NOVA/DMV area but would like to have some info :) Thanks in advance :)

Chicago, IL - started in SNF in 2012 - $24 - no shifts differential and no benefits. A year ago (09/2013) switched to Short Term Rehab facility (Chicago as well) - $26, weekend differential $0.50, and got the health insurance after 8 months (open enrollment only once a year)... A lot of OT (which makes it $39). Really can not complain... Home health PRN - $40 per visit. Last Jun tried to move to Charlottesville, VA and the offer was only $19.10... So I've decided to stay in Chicago till next year...

I'm one of the guys that has Virginia valid only license. And that is because my drivers license is still from Illinois. As the other people mentioned before, that's not an issue if you work in Virginia and not plan to move soon. If you want to make your license compact, than just get a Virginia ID, update Board of Nursing and your license will not be "single state only" - it will be upgraded to compact :)

Btw, good passing rate is considered 75% and above. That is what the school needs to be "in good standing" and maintain state accreditation.

- PCCTI - ATS - Northwestern Institute - Ambria Those schools have good passing rates but I think only PCCTI is around 20k, all other schools on this list are more expensive. There is a new LPN school in Dolton, IL. 18k - not sure about the name, you can google it. CMK - 15k - Clarendon Hills & Glendale Hts