DrCera

... two (2) phase three classes the college added a few years ago. Mostly because they want your money .... The FCCA's have been part of the programs for more than several years. They used to be on paper and you had to complete them and send them in by mail and wait for them to be graded. ...a 70% to pass. You need a 70% to pass any and all college courses - I don't know of any college that gives credit for less. ...The take away point here is there is no point to the FCCA classes and it only delays your ability to become eligible for the CPNE exam... Opinion noted. ....OH and that's another issue for those of you so anxious to take the CPNE clinical. The waiting period as of today (2017) is approx. 13-14 months after passing your FCCA classes. ... EC must compete with other programs for hospital clinical spots. You can be certain they are always trying to find additional hospitals - the more people who do clinicals the more they make, right? But, they can't force hospitals to take their clinical students. If you are affiliated with a hospital, you should approach management about adding EC clinicals. With more testing sites, the wait will be shorter. The EC website and nursing catalog contain all this information so you shouldn't be surprised. ...Are you sitting down still? Good, because even after you pass the CPNE its not over yet. The college YET AGAIN added another mandatory 12-week class that you must go home and register for which cost $500 dollars... The ATI is free through EC. Yes, this was recently added, but EC was one of very few programs that didn't already utilize the ATI or HESI exams. You should be grateful that it is not HESI. It is my understanding that ATI has helped to develop the NCLEX questions, so getting it free to review for NCLEX is a plus. It also prepares you to pass and will bring overall NCLEX pass rate percentage for the college up. Just like any other college, EC actually cares if you pass - the pass rates reflect on their program. ...This college was SUED in 2014 with a very rapid settlement in 2015 under a Class Action... The items the students complained about are all available through the EC website and always have been. The suit was settled because, I believe, EC thought it would be cheaper to pay 11 students $250 each than to pay a lawyer to proved them all wrong - Yes, $250 each is what they got. ... Very soon an Injunction” will be filed against this college to prevent the entry of any additional students until this program is FIXED... Over 40,000 RN's have graduated from this program, I'm still not certain what it is you consider broken. There you are, my 2 cents. EC is a nursing program - like any other nursing program, there are issues, annoyances, frustration. But for the cost and convenience, it is an excellent program. EC is also one of few nursing programs to receive a Center of Excellence in Nursing Education designation from the NLN. The program is accredited by the ACEN and has been in existence for over 30 years and as mentioned, they have graduated over 40,000 nurses - that would average over 1000 per year.

Instead of recommending Ibuprophen, for inflammatory issues and mild pain, I would recommend the person try to incorporate more Turmeric and peppers into their diet.... health and wellness are inherently nutritionally based, which is a foundation of Naturopathic medicine. For OTC medications, a person should always ask their primary care provider for advice. Some institutions have 'standing orders' (don't yell, it's true...) and Physicians routinely tell their staff to suggest certain OTC medications for certain conditions depending on circumstances. This may have been what the OP meant when she said IBU or colace - it may be standard practice and routine in her setting. In my opinion, Naturopathic medicine is 'anything that doesn't come in a pill' and can be easily accomplished by or for the patient - it reminds me a lot of nursing interventions (A nursing intervention is defined as "any treatment, based upon clinical judgment and knowledge, that a nurse performs to enhance patient/client outcomes" - or 'what can you do for your patient that doesn't require a doctor's order'). The use of meditation, heat & cold, massage, distraction, positioning, aroma etc. are all items that may be used to help & comfort a person - and if the person feels better, that's what is important. These items are nursing interventions and also naturopathic. There are many naturopathic (herbal, energy and body) therapies that are evidence-based and well studied. Cancer Centers of America employ NDs at all their facilities to collaborate care for their patients. Many old remedies are coming back into practice (think honey & maggots) in allopathic medicine. It's an interesting field - keep an open mind :)

BTW there were 120 job postings on indeed today for 'integrative medicine RN' ... It's an up & coming field!

Maybe you didn't see in the op's statement - they did mention 'practicing within limitations'. And FYI herbalists don't prescribe or recommend "meds" of any kind nor do they discourage people from seeing their family physicians. A herbalist would recommend chamomile tea for difficulty falling asleep; peppermint for upset stomach; lavender in your bath to help you relax; turmeric & pepper in food for inflammatory problems (yes, by the way, these are all EBP - look it up.) But yes Mnstn, there are many, many nurses out there who have furthered their knowledge on natural health and herbals and use it in practice & at home. I have a masters in nursing and a doctorate in natural health and I am a master herbalist. If herbalism and natural health interest you - go for it! You won't regret it.

I always recommend doing the exams in order. N104 Health Safety focuses on the Nursing Process & safety which is the cornerstone of all the future exams. The exams seem to be progressively more difficult as they go up in number. The difficulty will also depend on your experience in the subject areas - Medics usually have an easier time with LS1 (Cardiac & Respiratory). Make a note of any item or subject that could be placed in order or have several steps to help to master those pesky SATA questions :)

StudyGroup101 Life Span 2 study guide has been updated to correspond to the new textbooks. EC finally stopped using a 2008 text and went to a current one.

ACE and outside credit options are reviewed every year to determine if the curriculum still corresponds to EC course content, from what I understand from previous EC posts. Always check with an adviser before taking an outside exam/course.

-Is this SG 101 affiliated with EC? MyStudyGroup101/StudyGroup101/SG101 is not affiliated with Excelsior College, CLEP, or DSST in any way. We do write study guides to correspond to the exam content guides issued by the college and make them available at what we think is an extremely reasonable price. There is no contract or obligation associated with the use of our study guides other than the License Agreement to not resell, share or redistribute the material. -Is it beneficial? Some students love us - some don't. Everyone has their own learning style and you must find what bests suits your needs. Remember during your studies: Google is your friend! And, YouTube has a video for everything! You can do a search of allnurses to review previous posts from students. We try very hard to include everything you may need to pass the exam! The study guide proper is usually less than 200 pages but we include charts, cheat sheets, review bullets, student submitted flashcards, pictures, and weblinks - and anything else we can think of that may help you learn and retain the material and PASS those exams! Each study guide includes hundreds ( 400+) of practice questions including SATA. (Educational studies show that more practice questions equals higher exam scores.) We also offer an audio review companion so you can listen to topics on the go. -Are the contents updated if not affiliated with EC? We update as soon as the content guides become available - updates are not immediate, we do need time to review, research and edit :). ADMIN - I hope this is not an advertisement violation! I was trying to answer the questions posted. Good luck to everyone in their studies! Cera MyStudyGroup101

The SG101 LS3 study guide was updated to cover the new content guide outline (as well as Foundations, Repro, LS2...) The study guide covers everything listed in the outline and summarizes the new textbooks/editions. You are always welcome to check with us to see if the study guide you are using is the latest version. Perhaps you had the old version of the study guide? Health Safety & Health Differences study guides are being revised as the college issued new content guide outlines at the end of December.

I have a $200 tuition grant certificate for anyone who would like to have it. Requirements: 1. Become a new student who was referred by a WGU student, grad, or official. 2. Reside in Indiana 3. Apply & be accepted @WGU Indiana 4. Enroll in a WGU degree program by February 1, 2015. email [email protected] if interested.

Fundamentals is covered in Health Safety, Health Differences and part of Chronicity - you should be able to review those and take the Fundamentals 210 exam... you might compare the outlines and see if the same areas are covered...

Nibbles1 - Thank you so much for your error report. Although the medications are interlaced throughout the sensory section, flashcards, and quizzes, we will be adding a separate page with the medications only - including side effects, contraindications, and nursing interventions. We will also incorporate the definition of legally blind in the study guide. As to the ACE inhibitors note, we must go by the EC post until they see fit to correct it. Sincerely, Cera Hensley MSN, RN Mystudygroup101

Life Span Developmental Psych and Human Growth & Development are interchangable - they are the same course - EC will not give you credit for both. You might try UeXcel for English.

ctcpete - you did report an error in the only study guide that you have purchased, microbiology - we did correct the error as soon as you made us aware of it and sent you an updated study guide. There are no NCLEX study courses for microbiology that I know of and we do offer quizzes with rationales for our nursing study guides.