Rue vs excelsior

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I am currently looking into getting my ADN through distance learning because I have been taking classes through a college close to home, but I am missing out on my family. I am confused as to which way to go. Is going through Excelsior better than using the Rue study books and why. If going through Excelsior is better how do they prepare you for the clinical? Also I have had an IV therapy course, but I have never stuck anyone and this is one of my fears in taking the clinicals. Please Help! I really want that RN behind my name and fast!

TNcanNURSE

118 Posts

hi redtxlvn

My first thought after reading your post is that either you are misinformed or underinformed about this process. I am not meaning that in a negative way. You have to live and learn and I am just beginning to have my questions all answered.

Clinicals consist of a 2 day clinical exam or CPNE. You can enroll in a clinical prep when the time comes.

Excelsior college would most likely be the institution that will issue you the ADN degree. Although there are other options in Excelsior (formerly Regents) is by far the most popular and dare I say the best choice.

Rue is a publisher. Nothing more, nothing less. A publisher will sell you study guides to aid in passing your exams. There are several publishers on the market: Rue, Moore, Chancellors, DLSI, the College Network, etc, etc, etc. In no way will they provide you assistance will studying. They don't teach . They aren't a college. Just a publishing company.

Little known fact: you DO NOT have to sign with a publisher. You can purchase study materials directly from Excelsior or you can buy used materials online and save a ton of dough.

Although I am signed with a publisher myself I would definitely recommend NOT signing with one. They are way too expensive and really provide no service. My bill----approx 4 grand for study guides alone. If I had known beforehand I would never have used ANY of the publishers. The thing is Rue and their colleagues are the ones spending major money to advertise to as many nurses as possible and they sure as heck aren't going to tell you that you don't really have to have them.

I was under the misconception that RUE etc. WERE THE PROGRAM and that if you wanted to get your degree this way then you had to sign with them. A very expensive mistake.

IV's...........To the best of my knowledge you won't be able to start one at your 2 day clinical as the students are not allowed to do anything invasive. NO foleys No IV starting. I can verify that information for you though.

oh and you don't want to enroll in Excelsior college until you are almost completed with your exams and such to keep from spending too much on tuition.....

Well sorry this is so long, but feel free to send me a private message. I'd be glad to help you out in any way I can.

Specializes in Mental Health, MI/CD, Neurology.

See that response from tncannurse? Impressive, eh? I taught her everything she knows. :kiss

Tex, you are off to a great start! You have one up on tncannurse, myself, and TONS of other people out there..... you are doing some research ahead of time. I thought I did, but apparently I didn't do enough because I too signed with a publishing company. EC is the CREATOR of the exams and CPNE. They are the ones who you should get the info. from if you're smart. Some of the publishing companies have some decent materials, but considering the time and amt. of money we will be spending on this, why not get info. that you KNOW FOR A FACT is correct? Not to mention you'd end up spending WAY more by going with a publisher.

The "clinicals" which some people call them, is a total of 3 days. It's a clinical exam. There is NO teaching by the examiners. They act like your shadow as you move through it, watching every move you make. You'll get to know more about the CPNE as you go on, as far as what exactly you'll have to know for it. The 1st day (evening actually) consists of labs. There is an IV push station, an IM/subQ station, sterile dsg change station, and an IV piggyback station. The 2nd and 3rd days consist of PCSs (patient care situations) where we are assigned different areas of care fo perform on a real patient in a hospital. Each area of care has certain steps called critical elements that will be burned into your brain. You won't have to stick anyone, and during a PCS we don't even give IV push meds. We may have to set/adjust gtt rates, flush a lock or hang a mini bag, but that's it as far as scary IV stuff goes. Most people don't even have an IV course under their belt like you do, so again, you have one up on us. :D

Good luck with your plans. There are a bunch of us ECers floating around out there who will be more than willing to answer questions for you.

TNcanNURSE

118 Posts

Spazzy is wise beyond her years. She is the virtual guidance counselor of Excelsior college:D

Specializes in Mental Health, MI/CD, Neurology.

Yeah, I'm the virtual something, that's for darn sure.

nursenoelle

163 Posts

Originally posted by TNcanNURSE

Spazzy is wise beyond her years. She is the virtual guidance counselor of Excelsior college:D

I wish she was around when when I first started distance learning. I am paying RUE for studyguides that I don't even use.:devil:

debRNo1

139 Posts

Good luck with your plans. There are a bunch of us ECers floating around out there who will be more than willing to answer questions for you.

:confused: ready -willing- able to answer...............

deb RN

Excelsior ADN '01

SunnyLPN

1 Post

I read through the responses on this thread, because I, too, am considering the Rue program to obtain my RN. According to the booklet I received from Rue, however, their program IS through Excelsior College. Are you saying it's better, then, to take Excelsior's program directly through Excelsior College than to take this same program through Rue?

I'm a bit leery of taking any program in this manner, simply because I'm afraid of spending a lot of money on something and finding out I can't test for my license or something. But some of you have done it this way? And you had no problems with the licensing board in your state?

I'm a single mom, and one of my sons has some disabling conditions; if I want to get my RN, I'm going to have to do it this way. I can't cut back on work to go to a traditional nursing program.

Thanks for any guidance!

~Sunny

jnette, ASN, EMT-I

4,388 Posts

Specializes in Hemodialysis, Home Health.

It's really quite simple.. as stated above, Rue, et. al are publishers and nothing more ! They do NOT in the end grant you your degree. The nursing PROGRAM is through Excelsior itself.. every last iota of it. Excelsior has it's OWN study guides.. free. They also have a bookstore where you can call and order your textbooks.. the recommended books for each course are listed at the back of the study guides. They give you a choice of two or three.. only one is necessary. These can also be purchased on eBay for far less. I chose to go with the books recomended by Excelsior, because I knew that the exam material would be taken from these textbooks. I'm glad I did. I have heard horror stories from ppl who have used Rue recommended texts and study guides.

I used none of the above. I signed up with Excelsior and followed through all the way with them and them alone. They do have counselors and advisors available to you at all times... plus so much more.

I must agree.. in NO WAY would I use Rue or any of the other publishers who are only out to make major bucks off you... and give you less than what Excelsior offers... way less ! All they can do is SUPPLEMENT reading material and condensed study guides to help study for the EXCELSIOR nursing program exams.

Don't let yourself be ripped off.

Specializes in Mental Health, MI/CD, Neurology.

Wow, Jnette is RIGHT ON! I wish I had those same thoughts when I first started out.

Sunny, so many people think that RUE is part of EC (or vice versa) because of the screwey way that RUE words things. What they do is they make study materials that people can buy from them for big bucks to study for the EC exams. That's it. They have NOTHING to do with the college. They are a publishing company, nothing more. Their staff members go and take the EC exams and afterwards write down as much as they can remember from the exam. RUE uses that info. plus the EC content guides to make up their study materials. The whole RUE staff taking the test thing doesn't seem even mildly reliable to me, partially because I know what dumba$$es many of their staff members are. :chuckle And I was told that this is how they obtain the materials that will be covered on the exams by an actual RUE employee, so I'm speaking the truth.

Incidentally, the content guides that that EC has for the exams are provided FREE to students --- they can either mail them to you or you can download them.

I was an idiot and signed on with RUE, but in the long run I ended up using only the free content guides and, as Jnette did, some of the EC recommended books. I bought them used online at sites such as half.com. Sometimes I even used my old LPN school books, since hey---- anatomy is anatomy and it hasn't changed since I was an LPN student. :D

Whatever you decide to do, DO YOUR RESEARCH. I thought I did, but I didn't do enough. Getting feedback from various impartial people who have been-there-done-that is the best kind of research in my opinion, and that's what you're doing by reading and posting here. You're doing things the smart way---- you're off to one heck of a great start, Sunny! :)

justrubl

23 Posts

Specializes in HH, ER.

My name is Kerri and right now I am going through NC1. I am new to this board and have been reading the posts about Excelsior College and the various publishers that have study guides for the exams. I would like to share my experience, and those of a couple of my friends. Many years ago I got a flyer in the mail from Moore Publishing company. I went to an interview and was told that I could go through them to get my degree as an RN and I would actually graduate from Regents College (anyone remember them?). I agreed to pay $50 a month and I would receive these study guides and text books and would be able to test out of the classes. That was in "94 and I didn't have the internet to do the research that everyone has now. And here we are 9 years later and Moore, disguised as IStudySMart is doing the exact same thing, along with RUE. My best friend ordered the study guides through RUE and hasn't opened it (she was only able to get them to send her one) more than a half a dozen times. There is another program called Excel-Advantage. I looked at this program and they gave the impression that they are part of the college, as does Dr Fry's.

I did sign up with Chancellor's (I know...I know....I should have learned the first time....right?) and I have actually found the guide somewhat helpful. It does not cover all the information necessary, nor does it always go into as much detail as is needed, but it does summarize the information very well. And working on an ambulance it is much easier for me to take that study guide along instead of text books. I am still going through the study guides from Excelsior and reading the text books, but this is a way for me to have information that I can study when I am unable to look at the text books. I know that it is an expensive way to go and I am going to be paying for it in the end,but it doesn't seem to bite so much since they do a finance plan. If I am able to keep on the schedule I have tried to set for myself I will be an RN for over a year when I am finished paying for these guides (@$97/mo.) But part of that money is for the week long prep for the CPNE. One thing that really impressed me was that they didn't try to represent that they were in any way associated with EC. I am not trying to endorse them but I did want to give another opinion. These guides have actually helped me and the people who worked there were actually helpful. So far I haven't taken any of the tests but I have had 3 different starts with trying to study and take these exams and this time I am actually feeling like I am getting somewhere. That counts for a lot to me.

As far as RUE and Moore are concerned, they are horrible and I had trouble getting any of the guides past the first one. Way back when I did this the first time with Moore, I got the first guide and couldn't get any more or any help with registering for the tests like the promised. And my friend wasn't able to get any guides past the first one with RUE. Thee two companies are so much alike that until I did some research and found out that IStudySmart was actually more publishing I though that Moore had changed their name to RUE, just like Regents had changed to Excelsior.

I guess the bottom line for me is that with family illnesses that I am having to worry about, my mom is cripples with scholiosis and my dad has advanced Parkinson's, I need to get this degree ASAP and for me it was worth it to spen the money and get these guides that has the information in the guides, instead of just giving you questions to look up, so that I can make sure I have the most information possible. I can also say that Chancellor's does have a cancellation policy that I can take advantage of if I find out that their guides aren't helpful. You pay for the guides you have received and a cancellation fee. So if I find out after this exam that their guides weren't helpful then I can cancel and it won't be as expensive as if I had gotten all their guides. Like I said, I know that these guides aren't a substitute for EC's guides and reading the text but they make a good supplement for me. I know people who have went through the program with the guides from Moore and those who didn't. My old boss got his MSN through EC and just used their guides, but he said it was very time consuming and a little confusing reading the books without any outside explaination. He said he wished he had been able to find a study guide that would have helped.

Anyway....I know i have been a little long winded (ok...a lot long winded) and I hope I haven't offended anyone, but I just wanted to express my opinion. Though I am sure that the published guides aren't absolutely necessary, I do know that if you can find one that works for you they can be a helpful resource.

Specializes in Mental Health, MI/CD, Neurology.

Hi Another Kerri! :)

You weren't long winded at all----- you were very helpful, and I'm sure you saved a lot of people from doing something that they would regret later.

I too, started out with EC when they were called Regents, and like you, before the days when there was all of this great info. and the message boards online to research options. Throughout my time in the EC World, :D I have found that out of all of the publishing companies out there, people have the fewest complaints about Chancellor's, so I'm totally with you on that one. I'm with you on your entire post actually except for one thing---- Moore didn't change it's name to RUE. I had heard something similar once, but thought it had to do with Chancellor's and Moore (who knows). Moore is still out there and they do CPNE prep workshops, just like Chancellor's and RUE do, and some of these other wack-job companies. I don't know many details about their study materials, but unless something has changed fairly recently, I think they're still up and running. I know someone who attended their workshop this summer.

I'm glad you are happy with your study guides--- that's what really counts. Best of luck to you throughout all of this...... it's quite a ride! It's bumpy and scary, but when it's all over and done with, you will look back and realize what a mountain you conquered, and you'll realize that you really did learn a lot.

:)

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