Questions about excelsior program Medic ~ RN bridge

Righteous

Forum Probie
27
5
3
Has anyone been through the excelsior paramedic to RN recently? I wanted to know how difficult it was to make it on your own. My local college has a bridge but I'm one course short of entry and I'm not gonna make it. Don't want to sit around for a year. The links

How hard is the material?

Do they help you pass or just give you an opportunity to take the test.

Is the material they give you consistent with whats on the test?

I'm about to contact the nursing board because there is extra "preceptor time" required.



Theres a stigma surrounding online colleges too. Assuming I complete the ADN, am I at any kind of disadvantage for having gotten it online? Can I still get a job as a traveling nurse?





The reason I started looking if you wanna know.

I get paid 15 dollars an hour. I sometimes get offered five dollars more per hour when they are short.

I then saw that nurses were getting $15 dollars on top of what they already make (more than 15 dollars an hour I'm sure) per hour. The only thing medics are not allowed to do is start heparin and shoot insulin.

While I appreciate being allowed to do more than push patients to different floors, I would much rather be being paid double what I currently make.

The only thing I get out of working there is experience with new drugs/casts/caths (sigh). Learn alotta neat stuff. I can make 5 more dollars just jumping on the truck tho. And some of those nurses will run you ragged.
 

Summit

Critical Crazy
2,691
1,312
113
Excelsior is not designed for a new/newer medic to "shortcut" nursing school.
The excelsior RN program is for a very specific student:

1. Very experienced medic
2. Extremely self motivated, very disciplined, good at learning on your own
3. Well connected in healthcare so that the stigma of ADN only (many hospitals prefer BSN), online college, and Excelsior itself doesn't matter (the hospital knows you already and thinks highly of you)
4. Do you live in the right state?
a. You must be well connected in healthcare so that clinical internship can be arranged post-program (Excelsior won't do this and Excelsior has no clinicals) since many states require this in order to get a license and few hospitals are willing to facilitate this because they are using all these spots for students and local nursing schools... or they want to you leave their state and go be a nurse in some other state for a year or two before they'll license because of Excelsior's lack of clinicals... but you might find yourself in a state without connections.
b. Some states like California will never let you have an RN license if you went to Excelsior

Excelsior will let you in with none of those things. And the program is so notorious for attracting students who don't belong that there is an entire industry that has sprung up to "help them" by taking their money for "study aids" that they bill as affiliated or required. Outing of these companies has messed with their buseinss model of scamming people so much that they have sued other message boards (allnurses.com). A lot of Excelsior students do not finish. A lot of Excelsior students have crippled careers. There are some success stories but most of them meet the criteria I mentioned above.
 
OP
OP
R

Righteous

Forum Probie
27
5
3
I'm in Georgia. I literally do almost everything an RN does already. Even then, seeing the discipline and learning on your own thing.... I'll heed the warning and pass. Are there any programs that anyone can recommend?

Never able to work in California? Sheesh.
 

PotatoMedic

Has no idea what I'm doing.
2,703
1,541
113
Hutchinson community college
 

Summit

Critical Crazy
2,691
1,312
113

Carlos Danger

Forum Deputy Chief
Premium Member
4,510
3,234
113
The Excelsior program is not a "bridge program" for paramedics. It is was actually designed with LPN's and CNA's in mind, and most students still come with that type of background.

It is not an easy program. Nursing and paramedicine are very different, and there is a lot for a paramedic to learn to be able to work competently as an RN.
 

VFlutter

Flight Nurse
3,728
1,264
113
I'm in Georgia. I literally do almost everything an RN does already. Even then, seeing the discipline and learning on your own thing.... I'll heed the warning and pass. Are there any programs that anyone can recommend?

Never able to work in California? Sheesh.

California and Maryland do not accept Excelsior. 13 other states, including Georgia, have additional requirements for licensure. You can find the details online.

Also some ADN-BSN and MSN programs do not recognize Excelsior.

Care to elaborate on your comment? Not trying to start a Medic vs RN debate, just curious about your conceptions of the profession.
 
OP
OP
R

Righteous

Forum Probie
27
5
3
I dont think myself superior at all. I was only trying to convey that I work as an RN in the ER. I should stop saying work, "worked". I went back to the truck for the money.

I mean when the patient comes in I go do a quick assessment and typed all the information into the computer. I'd assist the doctor in the room. Setup the suture kits, insert caths on babies, mothers. ABGs. Use that ...machine I cant remember the name of its been so long. It was a giant glucometer looking thing and it measured everything. Start IV's. Read the orders and administer the medicine with the exceptions of Heparin, blood products, and insulin. IV pumps, document.

I guess I should add that I was not allowed to discharge patients either.

I feel like my job was the mirror image of the RNs. Mind you this is ALL ER. But in that ER I pretty much did everything they did. Not *****in about it, I just wanna get paid the same. So I gotta slog my way through some kinda schooling.

-edit: I should start a post asking how to increase my pay as a medic later.
 

akflightmedic

Forum Deputy Chief
3,891
2,564
113
I know how to do everything a truck driver does....maybe they should just hand me my CDL. Unless of course you think it is a bad idea. I heard something once, big difference between what you do and what you know. And then of course, some of my finer staff and even I myself used to say...you pay me for what I know, not what I can do.

I have several other pearls of wisdom along the same line...short version is this: Any monkey can do any skill.
 

Bullets

Forum Knucklehead
1,600
222
63
If your thinking of going back to school for 2 years plus another 2 years to bridge to BSN, why not just go to PA school for 3 years? Or do you not have a BA/BS at all?
 
OP
OP
R

Righteous

Forum Probie
27
5
3
If your thinking of going back to school for 2 years plus another 2 years to bridge to BSN, why not just go to PA school for 3 years? Or do you not have a BA/BS at all?

Further education seems to be the best answer so its back to school. PA is a ways off but I'll just concentrate on getting a bachelor's pertinent to it. Then I'll really be getting paid for what I know. Meantime I'll just start collecting certs.
 
Top