Seeking advice

[FiremedicMike]

First, for some background.

I am a fire based medic in an extremely busy urban environment, I have been here for 11 years now. About a year and a half ago, I decided to take the leap and work towards medical school. I am currently working towards my undergraduate degree with about 120 credit hours at a 3.7 GPA, 4.0 in my science/math classes. Last week, I came to a sobering realization that it would be about another 10-12 years before my first day as an attending, at 31 that sounds dreadful. I have decided to start evaluating the path to becoming a CRNA, as anesthesia has been my main focus from the get go and seems to fit my personality quite well.

From my somewhat limited research, it seems that excelsior is my only option to go from medic to RN? I recognize there are several threads on excelsior here, but none of them seem to really address the questions I have, some I just need some clarification.

1. Is excelsior my only option to go from medic to RN (other than starting fresh, obviously)?

2. Is it true that there are only 7 classes that need to be taken, in my own time line, in order to take the nclex and become a licensed RN?

3. Does anyone know for sure if Ohio accepts excelsior?

4. Are there any hospital clinicals that need to be completed (other than the clinical exam at the end)?

5. I have read that some states don't accept excelsior, if I completed my RN at excelsior, became licensed in Ohio, then completed my BSN through Ohio University, would I be eligible to gain licensure anywhere?

5a. Given the above scenario, would I be a competitive or uncompetitive applicant for CRNA school?

5b. Given the above scenario, if I obtain my CRNA, do licensure issues in other states become moot because of my advanced training?

6. I recognize that the nursing scope of practice is different than that in EMS, however I would consider my assessment skills and critical thinking abilities to be strong. For those medics with >5 years experience before going to excelsior, did you feel at all behind on your first day as an RN compared to those around you who went the traditional route?

7. Is there any stigma in hiring excelsior grads?

7a. Will my many years experience in EMS help dampen any stigma that may exist?

Thanks all, I know this is a lot of info and I appreciate the time it takes to evaluate and answer these questions. I tend to over evaluate everything and pretty much never do anything without an extensive amount of research first.

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

Does excelsior provide any study guides at all or just list textbooks to study from. I hear people talk about how the TCN study guides are expensive and lame, but I don't particularly care for straight up self study out of a textbook. As an example, my current geography class has a textbook and syllabus. The test comes right off the syllabus, so I simply study that and I'm good. It would be great if excelsior was the same?

I would suggest checking out studygroup101.com -- they have very comprehensive notes that typically follow the EC exam content guide (which is basically the syllabus, yes).

[FiremedicMike, RN, EMT-P]

I would suggest checking out studygroup101.com -- they have very comprehensive notes that typically follow the EC exam content guide (which is basically the syllabus, yes).

Oh wow very nice. So the big bundle is only $57.00? With the studyguide101 pack and the course outlines, can I pass the exams (provided I am a fast learner)?

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

Oh wow very nice. So the big bundle is only $57.00? With the studyguide101 pack and the course outlines, can I pass the exams (provided I am a fast learner)?

Very likely. I found SG101's notes to be very comprehensive! However, if there were sections that left me scratching my head a little, I'd hunt down the info in more depth. My very-pathophys-heavy paramedic program was a great help in prepping me for EC, though. Unfortunately SG101 was still making their notes when I was taking the final exams in late 2007, so I didn't have those for the last three exams. I did use Lisa Arends' notes, though -- they're available on eBay, her user name there is larends. Not sure how up-to-date those are these days, but people still use them.