Paramedic To Nurse Online Colleges-Help Needed

[x635 4,066]

I'm trying to figure out which online college to pick to go to to complete my Associates and eventually my Bachelors Degree in Nursing.

I really want am interested in one of those Paramedic to Nurse online classes, but I don't know how legit they are, and I don't even know if Texas accepts that. Maybe I could test out in NY or a state that does, then get reciprocity.

I've contacted "The College Network" which advertises this program. What scares me is the hound me, calling 3 times a day, which is something a good school wouldn't need to do. I've yet to call them back

With a 3 month at home, it's hard for me to attend school. Our local community college has a mobility track, but it takes a year classrooom and clinicals. They (ACC) just built another campus accross the street from my house, which already is at capacity. They are planning to hold the nursing school mobility track there in a few years. Texas State is next door, but they only have AS-BS and Masters tracts.

Any advice or experience with becoming a nurse online would be greatly appreciated!

[Guest jcnyc]

Go talk to a nurse, you can't do it online. You have to do it in a classroom, otherwise it gets all watered down, same reason you can't get an EMT or Medic online.

[INIT915 1,119]

Go talk to a nurse, you can't do it online. You have to do it in a classroom, otherwise it gets all watered down, same reason you can't get an EMT or Medic online.

Actually, you can do it online. Check out Excelsior.edu in Albany, New York. I have not experienced their program personally, but I know of ton of Medic-turned-Nurses who have, and they generally highly recommended it.

If I recall correctly, "The College Network" actually uses Excelsior's testing process, just for a much higher fee. The only catch with Excelsior is you have to be an actively practicing Medic (or other approved profession, i.e., RT, PT, OT, etc.) to qualify.

[Guest jcnyc]

Every program I looked at has a minimum 20 hours a week of some type of involvement.

[firefighter36 52]

Watch out for online higher education. Seth, I sent a PM about my experiences. Meanwhile, take a look at this episode of Frontline from PBS.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/view/?utm_campaign=viewpage&utm_medium=grid&utm_source=grid

[INIT915 1,119]

Watch out for online higher education. Seth, I sent a PM about my experiences. Meanwhile, take a look at this episode of Frontline from PBS.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/view/?utm_campaign=viewpage&utm_medium=grid&utm_source=grid

Was your experience from Excelsior?

Again, I don't have first hand experience, but there are quite a few local ER nurses who took that route (because they were former Medics.)

[INIT915 1,119]

Every program I looked at has a minimum 20 hours a week of some type of involvement.

What do you mean by "involvement."

[Goose 188]

Actually, you can do it online. Check out Excelsior.edu in Albany, New York. I have not experienced their program personally, but I know of ton of Medic-turned-Nurses who have, and they generally highly recommended it.

If I recall correctly, "The College Network" actually uses Excelsior's testing process, just for a much higher fee. The only catch with Excelsior is you have to be an actively practicing Medic (or other approved profession, i.e., RT, PT, OT, etc.) to qualify.

I have also heard the same things and have some friends in their program now. I looked over some of their module materials and they appear to be pretty squared away. My only concern for them has been job placement - i really don't know how an online degree stacks up to a classroom one in the eyes of an employer.

Personally, i know i really prefer a classroom setting...just seem to learn better that way.

[FDNY 10-75 640]

A few of my friends have bridged medic to nurse via Excelsior and DO reccomend it.

[RNEMT26 40]

I do know nurses who have done the excelsior program and have gotten fine jobs. However, in all honestly, it's difficult for new graduate nurses to land jobs esp, in the hospital without knowing someone. Unfortunately most of them have been stuck doing LTC (long term care) i.e Nursing homes and rehabs. Hospitals are low on cash and some have gone into hiring freezes and are not hiring new grads because it cost a significant amount of money to train them, I mean orientation alone will last at least 3 months or so. And even with that you wont feel comfortable doing things on your own till you have at least a year under your belt.

As for Goose's question on how they the two degrees stack up. That's a good question, I did the traditional classroom bit, but if people have gotten jobs with it then I don't see much of a difference. Alot of it has to do with experiece, whether it be professional (Medic/EMT/PCT), or volunteer.

As far as commitment goes, I mean you can do anything. However nursing school is demanding, the work is hard and studying takes hours. With a 3 months old at home (Congrats btw), I'd say it might be a bit of a challenge, but i guess anything is possible with time management.

From what I've heard (now this is just hearsay) essentially you do all of your testing and stuff online. You do a certain amount of clinicals and within those clinicals you take some sort of practical test and need to score a 100%, altho I am not fully sure what score you need to get inorder to pass, but my gut is that it's 100%. If you do happen to do with online, MAKE SURE WHOMEVER YOU TAKEN THE CREDITS WITH THAT THEY ARE CREDENTIALED, either by the CCNE, there is another agency but i forgot the name of it. Otherwise 1. You wont be able to take your NCLEX 2. You just wasted an assload of money for nothing, so def. buyer beware.

While I am a Nurse I do not have experience with online classes, like I said I did the traditional classroom bit and viola! 6 years later (with transferring and a alot of other BS) I finally earned my degree and now I work in the ICU and have my BSN. Any questions feel free to PM me and I'll try to the best of my ability to answer them. I can ask one of my coworkers who did excelsior how it was ect. Good luck.

[WAS967 97]

The Excelsior program is the largest nursing program in the country. There are plenty of people that have taken it graduated to good jobs and it (the curriculum) has stood up to criticism in various states including Georgia. It's a good route for an experienced medic to take to become an RN. A brand new medic out of school might find the transition difficult to RN, but it's still doable.

I'm currently taking my A&P through Excelsior (wanted to redo it anyways since it's been a while and they didn't accept my A&P from WCC for credit) and my one beef with it is that you kinda feel like you are on your own. They give you a course outline which basically boils down to "read the while book, do the workbook, take the test". The nice thing is it is completely self paced and you can work at your own speed for a lot of classes (I've been doing the A&P slowly over the course of the last year - been busy with a lot of stuff).

If I were going to do ANY online class, it would be the excelsior one. TCN uses the Excelsior tests but I'm not sure what advantages they offer over Excelsior alone. Sounds annoying that they hound you so much however.

Edited November 28, 2010 by WAS967

[x635 4,066]

Thanks for the advice, guys. Much appreciated.

I'm still deciding what's going to work best for me. Texas is VERY strict about licensure so I've got to do my homewok there too. I get different answers from different people when I ask the question.

What concerns me is, that when I fill out interest forms to some of these schools, they hound me worse then a car salesman. They incessentally call day, evening, and even night, even when I ask for email only contact. The College Network is the worst about this. I would much rather communicate via email.

I am looking into the Excelsior program, so far I like what I see. I have to do a lot of my general coursework first, though. I'm looking into college loans, which is another whole ordeal but there's lots of programs for nursing students.

The enviroment for nurses in Texas is great. They will need thousands of new nurses in the next several years. You can work basically any specialty, inlcuding ER and L&D, right after certification. Most hospitals will want you to get a BSN or MSN sometime early in your career. There are several new hospitals in the Central Texas region being planned, built, and opened.

That's one of the reasons why I want to be a nurse. It's great pay, so many different oppurtunities and options available here.

I'll keep you guys advised, thanks again for the Excelsior reference, looks promising.