paramedic to rn bridge_excelsior program

[Carlos Danger]

How did you find the program? Since I'm gonna be working in Podunk Texas, I'm considering it as a way of continuing my education and killing down time

It was decent. It was tough, but I think anyone who is motivated and good at self-study would do fine with it. You just have to be able to make yourself study even when you have no deadline (since the program is entirely self paced), and you have to be good at reading and teaching yourself.

My advice would be to finish the exams as fast as possible, and then really study hard for the CPNE for a while before taking it, making sure you really understand the skills thoroughly and also have the critical elements memorized cold. Also, if you don't already have an A&P course in your background, I would highly recommend taking one instead of the exam, both because the exam is ridiculously difficult and because it is such important subject matter.

 

[Akulahawk]

Just remember that not all states will accept the education you will receive from Excelsior. California is one of those states. I'm not saying that Excelsior will not train you well, just that you need to be aware that some states require that you have concurrent clinical and didactic experiences to be eligible for licensure there.

 

[wanderingmedic]

Will programs who require an RN (like an RN to BSN, or RN to MSN) even consider EC grads?

If you get a BSN from a reputable university after doing EC, does that negate any of the negative stuff surrounding EC?

Does anyone know if Excelsior grads who go on from their initial RN and get a MSN or DNP will be at a disadvantage in terms of licensure?

 

[Akulahawk]

Will programs who require an RN (like an RN to BSN, or RN to MSN) even consider EC grads?

If you get a BSN from a reputable university after doing EC, does that negate any of the negative stuff surrounding EC?

Does anyone know if Excelsior grads who go on from their initial RN and get a MSN or DNP will be at a disadvantage in terms of licensure?

For California, I don't think so unless the BSN curriculum covers all the "content" that California deems must be done concurrently with clinical and provides a clinical component at those appropriate times.

You can be a fantastic DNP RN but if your original transcripts (and subsequent ones) don't show that you meet California's requirements, you're going to have a difficult time getting licensed in California.

 

[Carlos Danger]

Will programs who require an RN (like an RN to BSN, or RN to MSN) even consider EC grads?

If you get a BSN from a reputable university after doing EC, does that negate any of the negative stuff surrounding EC?

Does anyone know if Excelsior grads who go on from their initial RN and get a MSN or DNP will be at a disadvantage in terms of licensure?

It depends on the state.

Most states still have NO restrictions or extra requirements for EC grads. Among those states that DO have additional requirements, most are relatively minor, and some will waive any extra requirements once you have earned a BSN, or once you have worked for a certain length of time in another state or in a VA facility. I believe CA is the only state that won't license EC grads at all. Which is purely a result of the typical California elitist political stupidity.

Your best bet is simply to call the BON's in the state(s) you plan to practice in.

 

[NomadicMedic]

http://www.excelsior.edu/state-board-requirements

 

[Akulahawk]

It depends on the state.

Most states still have NO restrictions or extra requirements for EC grads. Among those states that DO have additional requirements, most are relatively minor, and some will waive any extra requirements once you have earned a BSN, or once you have worked for a certain length of time in another state or in a VA facility. I believe CA is the only state that won't license EC grads at all. Which is purely a result of the typical California elitist political stupidity.

Your best bet is simply to call the BON's in the state(s) you plan to practice in.

California's issue with Excelsior College is that their theory and clinical subjects aren't done "concurrently." This requirement has been on the books for at least 25 years but they only really have been enforcing that since about 2003. This has also had a huge effect of preventing nurses educated in the Philippines from getting licensed there either. Topping it all off, there's been some fraud discovered in some Philippine nurses getting licensed, so now pretty much all Philippine Nurses licensed since about 2009 or so are having their transcripts gone through pretty closely just to ensure that they were actually originally licensed properly.

Correct any "deficiencies" and I would expect that EC grads could get licensed in California just as easily as a Philippine grad...

 

[Handsome Robb]

California's issue with Excelsior College is that their theory and clinical subjects aren't done "concurrently." This requirement has been on the books for at least 25 years but they only really have been enforcing that since about 2003. This has also had a huge effect of preventing nurses educated in the Philippines from getting licensed there either. Topping it all off, there's been some fraud discovered in some Philippine nurses getting licensed, so now pretty much all Philippine Nurses licensed since about 2009 or so are having their transcripts gone through pretty closely just to ensure that they were actually originally licensed properly.

Correct any "deficiencies" and I would expect that EC grads could get licensed in California just as easily as a Philippine grad...

That's pretty interesting actually.

If you work as a nurse in another state for a few years I wonder if you could be licensed through reciprocity? I don't know anything about nursing credentials or how the whole process works though.

 

[wanderingmedic]

That's pretty interesting actually.

If you work as a nurse in another state for a few years I wonder if you could be licensed through reciprocity? I don't know anything about nursing credentials or how the whole process works though.

to my knowledge that is not an option. CA won't license EC grads period

 

[Akulahawk]

That's pretty interesting actually.

If you work as a nurse in another state for a few years I wonder if you could be licensed through reciprocity? I don't know anything about nursing credentials or how the whole process works though.

EC Grads (enrolled after a specific date in 2003) face an extremely difficult uphill battle to get licensed in California. Most RN New Grads from the Philippines have similar issues and it's very, very difficult for them to find a school that will host them or hold a class just to cover the identified "deficiencies" in their education. Thousands of BSN grads from there have been shuffled over to the BVNPT for evaluation and possible licensure as an LVN. Because of that, the BVNPT has a massive backlog that is affecting California LVN grads, delaying evaluation of their applications by MONTHS.

 

[Carlos Danger]

It really is ridiculous.

I would bet a protectionist move by the nursing unions in CA or the educational lobby is behind the whole thing.

 

[Summit]

If ever again there is an actual shortage of RNs then I'm sure the rule will be reconsidered... but there is little motivation with such a massive glut of domestic new grad RNs that nobody is worried about the 200,000+ unemployed RNs in the Philippines itching to come over. They sure don't care about a couple hundred graduates from Excelsior.

 

[Akulahawk]

If ever again there is an actual shortage of RNs then I'm sure the rule will be reconsidered... but there is little motivation with such a massive glut of domestic new grad RNs that nobody is worried about the 200,000+ unemployed RNs in the Philippines itching to come over. They sure don't care about a couple hundred graduates from Excelsior.

I'm almost certain that there'll be another nursing shortage, it's just a question of when that will happen. And I'm also certain that the rules will be relaxed once again. I quite imagine that at some point, someone notable to the BRN complained about all those Philippine nurses "taking over" and then the "concurrency" regulation was probably noticed by the right people at the BRN, and since Excelsior College's program is very different from any traditional brick & mortar program, they may have been the easy "low hanging fruit" to go after so that they'd be able to enforce that long unenforced regulation. Fast forward just a few years later and Philippine nurses start having issues with getting California RN licenses because of that very same "concurrency" issue.

I'd be very surprised if the overall intent is to limit the number of nurses not educated in California from getting licensed there, in particular, prevent (primarily) Philippine nurses from coming over in relatively large numbers, crowding out the CA-trained new-grads.