Medic625

I graduated from Excelsior in August, passed the NCLEX in September, and was hired into the Emergency department of one of the Cleveland Clinic's community hospitals in October. I was never asked where I went to school.

We have 4 rooms per nurse with the possibility of 1-2 more hall beds per nurse in my ED. I'm a new nurse, so I find that any more than 4 patients seems overwhelming. I can't imagine having 8 or more! That's insane!

Am I missing something or have you been asking the same question for the past 5 years?

I have been a paramedic in Ohio for the past 10 years. I recently graduated from Excelsior's P-RN program and actually got my license number today. The program worked great for my rotating schedule. I was already offered an ER position. I would say go for it!

Thanks. And the program was fine. As long as you can motivate yourself to study, you'll get through it quick. It took me a year. I used the college network books. I wouldn't recommend using them, but their material was spot on. When you get to the cpne, I suggest using robs cpne. It's gold and its inexpensive.

I'm from Ohio and recently graduated from Excelsior's program. I take the NCLEX next week. I already have an offer in an Emergency Department in the Cleveland area contingent on me passing the NCLEX. I didn't have any problems finding a job after graduating from excelsior.

Use Rob's CPNE material. It's less than $100 and more than you need to pass the first time.

For the Excelsior LPN to RN there are 31 general education credits required in addition to the nursing courses/ exams. I had an associates degree in fire science, so I was able to transfer in most of the general education requirements. The only Gen Ed exams I had to take thru Excelsior were sociology, a&p, lifespan psych, and microbiology. I started the program in July 2012. I was able to complete those 4 courses plus the 8 nursing courses by December 2012. I was testing roughly every 2 weeks. The big hold up with the program is the 8 week FCCA and the wait for the CPNE. I took both FCCA courses January through March of 2013, applied for the CPNE in April, and tested the last week in June. So, it took me almost exactly one year to complete the program. I have read posts on here of people who were able to finish faster than that. However, you really don't have control over how long it takes because of those final 2 tests and the wait time. I would recommend using a community college for your general education requirements. You would save a bunch of money that way. $100 a credit hour vs $400 a credit hour is a big difference. And lastly, I don't think all those gen Ed requirements have to be completed prior to starting the nursing exams, so you could go to a community college full time while also working your way through the nursing tests. That would probably be the fastest way if you can handle it.

I'm using the ATI program provided by Excelsior, Rx for Success provided by the college network, and an exam cram book I bought from Barnes and Noble. I'll let you know if they work. I test in two weeks.

Congrats!

You can apply to whatever rpac you want. I applied to npac at the end of march, got a date mid April, and tested June 28th.

Thanks

Good luck with the program. And stay motivated.

I already have the stats and chems from my fire science degree. I sent all my transcripts to the adviser and all the excelsior sciences were approved without the labs. I even questioned her when I got the approval. It's strange since their prereq list specifically states the labs. Oh well, good for me I guess.

That's the one