warning to all excelsior students- i want all potential and current students to know what happened to my girlfriend. take it for what its worth. my girlfriend was a california excelsior student for 6 long yrs (worked full time, supported and took care of her 3 kids) . she spent thousands & thousands of dollars for very expensive books, tests (about $200 per test). skills bags ($150), dvd ($130) , flashcards ($25), audio cd ($25), workshop ($700), and the outrageously expensive and outrageously easy to fail cpne (the 3 day clinical examination that must be passed to receive your rn degree). she failed the first cpne (as way more than half do). that meant another $1800 to retake that. of course, there were airline tickets (about $500 per trip x 2), hotels (about $450 per cpne) and car rentals ($250 per trip). all together she spent close to $20,000 to obtain what is essentially a worthless degree. not one of the 14 hospitals she contacted would hire her when she told them she was an excelsior graduate. are you hearing me? not one. so, when they tell you they're accredited, yada,yada,yada - remember it doesn't mean you can get a job. she tried to enroll in 3 regular, legit college programs. they all refused her because she already had her degree and rn license. so now, she can't even do that. excelsior knew years ago there was a problem. they had the opportunity to work with the ca board of registered nursing. they didn't. if you don't believe me - go to their site. type in 'excelsior' and see for yourself. also, go to georgia's nursing website. see the problems there. nurses are being denied jobs because they're excelsior graduates!!! don't let this happen to you. go to a respected and accepted college.
It varies. At my CPNE this month in Albany, 5 out of the 6 of us passed.
I also wouldn't have passed if it weren't for Tina's workshop in San Jose.
--Equusz
And there have been reports of no one passing at a given site on a given weekend. The best one can do is to prepare themselves and go in with as much confidence as they can muster.
Please don't be discouraged. The CPNE takes alot of preparation and understanding. You have to take your time and really understand what they want you to do. It can be done. I passed 1 year out of LPN school. As I think back on my experience, I was numb the whole time, kinda acting like a robot. I made several mistakes but I got through it with no repeats.
Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.
people take this test lightly and do not prepare properly.....they are picky and you must follow the guidelines. ..this is a test you want to know in and out ..back wards and forwards...during my weekend people walked in thinking that since they had been a lvn or paramedic for 20 years they could master this without any prep whatsoever.....some did not know anything about careplans or even did not know their critical elements....dumb....if you are prepared know your stuff and are up to date on the ec practices then you will do just fine..they see you know what you are doing and back off you...get a good workshop ...look into taking care planning courses if you feel you need more practice...get yourself in the epn search and read every post about cpne experiences......find rob's cpne video......make a lab at home...passing this thing can be done......good luck to you....
omg---7 tested and only 2 passed??? that's insane. i mean are they really that picky???
something has to be up with this school when multiple states don't accept their degrees, california, georgia, florida..you don't ever see this with people who go through the state programs and many private standard universities, least not from what i have read.
not blasting, just asking if you have insight on why...i also went to their website, they need to be much more open about the limitations of getting a degree in this program and then finding out you have states you can't even work in. also how can you do theory only in 4 months, when the rest of us have to take theory and clinicals for 2 years? for example at my school we have to get 1300 hours of clinicals even for accelerated programs like at oklahoma state university which is all online it takes minimum of 15 months. again just asking, just doesnt make sense to me...
ok the answer to this is very simple. traditional nursing schools take two years to do the theory because they tell you it will take two years. you are going at their pace, not yours. not to mention the obvious fact that you are not going everyday for two years to nursing classes. first of all you go to a particular class two or three times each week for only one hour to one hour twenty minutes each class. then there are summer breaks, spring breaks, xmas and holiday breaks, and weekends, and the two/three week dead zone between semesters. in other words there is a lot of wasted time. they go slow like that because not everyone learns at the same pace. i am sorry to say it but some people are smart and learn quickly and some people just don't get it no matter how slow you go. luckily there is a program, excelsior, that allows people who are smart to go through at their own pace and not be shackled by the less intelligent that you typically find at traditional nursing schools. you will only make it through the excelsior program if you are 1. very smart and 2. very dedicated, because, unlike at traditional nursing schools, no one is there to hold your hand and gently walk you through the program. you either have what it takes to make it on your own or you don't. it is hilarious to me that graduates of traditional nursing programs are pointing to the quick completion time of the program as evidence that it is substandard when it is in fact that quick completion time that is proof of excelsior's higher quality graduates and superior, more modern and relevant nursing program. what you never hear any of these naysayers address is the fact that excelsior graduates pass the nclex at or above the national level. i would ask these "einstein's" who attended the old fashioned, very slow, take your time, hold your hand and walk you through kind of nursing schools, why did it take you 2 years, asn, or 4 years, bsn, to gain the same knowledge that i did in only 6 months, asn, and 1 year, bsn? seems to me that you guys are the ones who are intellectually challenged or should at least be demanding a refund from that old fashioned nursing school for unnecessarily wasting so many years of your life and taking so much of your money. just a thought. and as far as the clinicals go, excelsior only admits people to the program who have substantial, real world, hands on, get your hands bloody on a daily basis and get a paycheck at the end of the week for it, clinical experience already. in my case it was 13 years as a navy corpsman working in naval hospitals for 1000s of hours doing stuff that nurses in the civilian sector cannot even do. so i hope this answers your question and you are no longer confused about the true nature of the excelsior nursing program.
Unfortunately, however, this anti-Excelsior sentiment is gaining ground. States are starting to discriminate against Excelsior grads, in violation of their own bylaws ("graduates of an accredited nursing program are eligible for licensure in our state...BUT NOT EXCELSIOR"), and without any kind of data to support their contention that EC grads are not as well prepared as traditional grads. EC has the data to support the quality of their graduates, but the bureaucracy in some states doesn't care. Frankly I think it's because of an old-school pay-your-dues mentality and not a little bit of traditional RN's feeling threatened by paramedics who can bridge over non-traditionally and "take their jobs". Bogus, but I believe that soon EC will have to start adding a clinical component to their program. They should examine the way certain distance BSN and MSN programs do it where clinicals can be arranged in the student's home area. I'm just glad I was able to finish while my state still accepts EC, although I've already run into several hospitals that won't hire a new grad that didn't have formal clinicals. Fortunately I have other ways of gaining RN experience.
Unfortunately, however, this anti-Excelsior sentiment is gaining ground. States are starting to discriminate against Excelsior grads, in violation of their own bylaws ("graduates of an accredited nursing program are eligible for licensure in our state...BUT NOT EXCELSIOR"), and without any kind of data to support their contention that EC grads are not as well prepared as traditional grads. EC has the data to support the quality of their graduates, but the bureaucracy in some states doesn't care. Frankly I think it's because of an old-school pay-your-dues mentality and not a little bit of traditional RN's feeling threatened by paramedics who can bridge over non-traditionally and "take their jobs". Bogus, but I believe that soon EC will have to start adding a clinical component to their program. They should examine the way certain distance BSN and MSN programs do it where clinicals can be arranged in the student's home area. I'm just glad I was able to finish while my state still accepts EC, although I've already run into several hospitals that won't hire a new grad that didn't have formal clinicals. Fortunately I have other ways of gaining RN experience.
--Equusz
You are right. This is basically a bill of attainder or ex post-facto law. Not sure if it applies to an entity in state government but it sure does to the federal government. What is clear is that if a person or group sued the BON for discrimination they would surely win. There is no basis in fact for their BON to deny EC grads the right to work in their state. This is nothing more than the state trying to shore up its state college tuition numbers and everyone knows it. Shame on Georgia and California for their blatant hypocrisy and their obvious poor judgment in shutting out such a large source of new nurses in an environment where nurses are badly needed and the problem is only getting worse.
Only two states refused to accept Excelsior College graduates for licensure back in the beginning when the Excelsior program started. Only those two states (hard time remembering which two) really have a leg to stand on regarding Excelsior. Every other state accepted EC grads for years until they got some "fly in their ointment". Nobody should take their "arguments" seriously. If EC was good enough all those years, it is good today, and will be good enough tomorrow. Shame on all states that put brick walls in front of potential nurses.
ok the answer to this is very simple. traditional nursing schools take two years to do the theory because they tell you it will take two years. you are going at their pace, not yours. not to mention the obvious fact that you are not going everyday for two years to nursing classes. first of all you go to a particular class two or three times each week for only one hour to one hour twenty minutes each class. then there are summer breaks, spring breaks, xmas and holiday breaks, and weekends, and the two/three week dead zone between semesters. in other words there is a lot of wasted time. they go slow like that because not everyone learns at the same pace. i am sorry to say it but some people are smart and learn quickly and some people just don't get it no matter how slow you go. luckily there is a program, excelsior, that allows people who are smart to go through at their own pace and not be shackled by the less intelligent that you typically find at traditional nursing schools. you will only make it through the excelsior program if you are 1. very smart and 2. very dedicated, because, unlike at traditional nursing schools, no one is there to hold your hand and gently walk you through the program. you either have what it takes to make it on your own or you don't. it is hilarious to me that graduates of traditional nursing programs are pointing to the quick completion time of the program as evidence that it is substandard when it is in fact that quick completion time that is proof of excelsior's higher quality graduates and superior, more modern and relevant nursing program. what you never hear any of these naysayers address is the fact that excelsior graduates pass the nclex at or above the national level. i would ask these "einstein's" who attended the old fashioned, very slow, take your time, hold your hand and walk you through kind of nursing schools, why did it take you 2 years, asn, or 4 years, bsn, to gain the same knowledge that i did in only 6 months, asn, and 1 year, bsn? seems to me that you guys are the ones who are intellectually challenged or should at least be demanding a refund from that old fashioned nursing school for unnecessarily wasting so many years of your life and taking so much of your money. just a thought. and as far as the clinicals go, excelsior only admits people to the program who have substantial, real world, hands on, get your hands bloody on a daily basis and get a paycheck at the end of the week for it, clinical experience already. in my case it was 13 years as a navy corpsman working in naval hospitals for 1000s of hours doing stuff that nurses in the civilian sector cannot even do. so i hope this answers your question and you are no longer confused about the true nature of the excelsior nursing program.
i agree with your post regarding the quality of education with excelsior, but i disagree with your regards to traditional programs.
1. there are less intelligent people who attend traditional nursing schools.
2. nobody holds your hand in traditional nursing schools.
3. when i passed the nclex-pn i didn't receive what my official score. all it stated was that i passed. maybe the nclex-rn is different but, for the pn actual scores are either pass/fail.
4. i don't consider myself or any of the people i graduated with as intellectually challenged, and none of us don't need to request a refund as we've received an excellent nursing education.
these areas bother me about your post. i attended a traditional nursing school and i have to say that overall i received an excellent education, and i don't consider myself less intelligent from anybody else just because i graduated from there. nobody had their hand held in nursing school in my program, and there were many intelligent people who graduated from my class. i do agree that there are less intelligent people out there that have graduated with nursing degrees and how they received their education is beyond me but in all fairness not everyone fits this category.
i've met many excellent nurses who graduated from excelsior when it was regents college when it was accredited in ca. i've also met excellent nurses who graduated from traditional nursing schools. excelsior is an a+ in my book and i resent the fact that ca would ignore this school when they accept foreign graduates coming from countries where most of their schools have crappy (coming from actual people who've attended these schools) clinical rotations. in all fairness not everyone falls under this category either. i think that ca needs to get with the program and accept excelsior because as someone pointed out "it's an accredited program through the nln". had ca accepted excelsior i would have had my rn almost completed rather than sitting here waiting for the fall to roll around and start the last half of my nursing education.
I appreciate your response but I think you misunderstood my posting. I did not mean to imply traditional nursing students are less intelligent. That is a stereotype and I don't belive in stereotypes. What I was in fact saying is that if you are slower or not very motivated but you still want to be a nurse you must go to a traditional nursing school because those people would not make it through the Excelsior program. So traditional nursing schools are in fact where you find these people mixed in with the more motivated and more intelligent who are being forced to go slow for no other reason, OK. Second when I said they hold your hand, well, yes they do especially when you compare it side by side with Excelsior. Traditional schools have a limited number of seats and therefor a vested financial interest in making sure you pass and continue on to the next semester. Every time a nursing student drops out or fails out they loose that remaining revenue for that seat for the remainder of the program. So yes they will bend over backward and give chance after chance to pass before they give you the boot. So yes they hold your hand when compared to Excelsior. Third the NCLEX pass rates are well documented and Excelsior grads pass on the first attempt at or above the national average. You can find a link to this fact on the Excelsior web site.
Thank you for clarification on what you meant. The pass rates you meant are on the first try. My school has a 100% pass rates for my class and 95% pass rate for the classes before me on average. The class after me has a pass rate of 96%. My school was famous for dropping you if you weren't performing. To the school it's a risk to keep people in the program if they're underperforming. They wont pass the NCLEX and therefore jeopardize the schools reputation and not to metion risk losing their accredidation. So weeding off the undesirables is something that they do in order to keep pass rate and reputation up. So I can say that definately there isn't hand holding in my program and many other programs. Yes we took 16 months non stop to finish the program, but the pace that we went has no barring on intelligent/not intelligent. We went at our pace and exceeded the amount of clinical and theory hours because our program director wanted us to get an excellent education and wanted us to cover just about everything. For our LVN we had separate courses in pediatrics, maternity, psychiatric, and leadership, which I know in other schools they're usually lumped into one or are covered in med surg. There are many people who have gone through Excelsior who have went at their own pace and have taken longer than traditional schools, and it doesn't mean that they're not intelligent, all it means is that they might have had something going on in their lives other than Excelsior. Maybe they were working full time, and are full time parents, involved in church, girl scouts etc. As you were motivated you were able to finish faster, and there's nothing wrong with that. I personally think that's great.
EquuszARNP
132 Posts
It varies. At my CPNE this month in Albany, 5 out of the 6 of us passed.
I also wouldn't have passed if it weren't for Tina's workshop in San Jose.
--Equusz