In the spring of 2002 I received one of the junk mail advertisements from one of the private companies that publish study materials to help people get through Excelsior College's Nursing program. It might have been RUE. There are several companies that have packages and programs. After I investigated the various claims and ending up on the Excelsior Web site itself I learned that it was cheaper to go through the college directly and order the college text books rather than to go through any of the various publishing companies. What this program entails is studying an entire semester of these college courses and taking a very long test by proxy at the end for what was usually three college credits. By the time I signed it up was a couple of months and then by September I moved into an apartment and out of the home of my third marriage. It seemed like my entire life every time I made a start to proceed with my education either a marriage or a divorce happened to complicate my concentration. I messed around reading the text book for about a year and a half - so much for getting through the entire program in that length of time - and then it was time to test. I had no cash to test and my credit cards were entirely too high to start putting a college education on them. So I gave up. Here is the first word of advice I have to any one starting out in the Excelsior program. I am sure that it says this in the large volumes of info on their site but I missed it. When you start paying their annual tuition fee the clock starts ticking on your program. It is not necessary to enroll until you get to the actual nursing courses. You can take the pre-requisites off the clock. But the two years I was enrolled and did nothing almost cost me my goal. There is a seven year limit to finishing up the nursing program.
So I worked as an LPN supporting myself. The kids were young adults and independent. I was living in a condo that I had purchased. Life was a lot of hard work but I was enjoying my freedom and all was good. Except that even when I was taking all of those various classes I wrote about in Part One of this blog series, I really thought I would get my RN eventually. But my biological clock was clicking and it was looking like it wasn't going to ever happen. Then I met a nurse friend at work named Peggy. Her husband liked to hunt and fish on his vacations. The man that I was dating at the time was not a traveler. He liked his own pillow and his own toilet. Travel was one goal I wanted to realize so Peg and I took an annual vacation for a few years. We would take turns planning it. One year she would plan and the next year I would plan. I am a President Lincoln fan so in 2007, the June before I turned 50, we found ourselves in Springfield Illinois. She had her College Network modules with her. She had one more module to pass to complete her written tests for Excelsior and then would be preparing for her clinical weekend test. The College Network is one of the many publishing companies that charge an arm and leg for study materials for assist people in getting through Excelsior's Nursing Program. Peggy and I talked and made an agreement. Which follows.
Back up to when I was nine years old. I seemed to get grounded a great deal. When my kids were growing up we did time outs that were about ten minutes but when I was growing up in the 1960s the trend was grounding - for like a week. I would have to come home from school and go to my room. I would be expected to come down stairs to join the family for supper and then return to my room. I spent a good deal of time assigned by my parents to that schedule my fourth grade year. My fourth grade teacher felt sorry for me. She sent me home from school with my arms loaded down with books. And I learned to love reading. All that time spent in my room I was traveling to wonderful times and places through books. And one place I seemed to read about was the Oregon Trail. I really liked those pioneer books. So Peggy and I's agreement was when I completed Excelsior College's nursing program - which would end with something called the CPNE - we would take a vacation and ride on a covered wagon on the Oregon Trail. When we got home from Springfield Illinois I emailed The College Network.
As I said before, it is cheaper to go through Excelsior College directly. I would caution any prospective Excelsior College Student Wannabe to avoid publishing companies if they can. But The College Network worked for me. Their modules are like cliff notes for the college textbooks - still they were each around 300 to 350 pages long - and the main thing they do that was the clincher for me is that those high testing fees are rolled into the financing package. So I made the monthly payments and when I was ready a module arrived. When I finished the module and was ready to test I called and they cut me a check to pay for my test. It worked for me. But it still took me forever. I have to say I enjoyed it. I would get up after working second shift the night before late morning. While I sipped on my coffee I would spend about an hour reading the module. When I got done with a module before testing I would take a couple vacation days and do Excelsior's practice tests and cram. I got all A's and B's on my eleven written classes except one C. I enrolled back into the school of nursing in July of 2009 because I had completed my pre-requisites and was ready to start the nursing written exams.
I feel I learned a lot and digested a large amount of information. I feel I got a very good education in the nursing field with distance learning. Following the written tests I had to complete two online courses called FCCA before I was CPNE qualified. Those were hard for me. There was a great deal of reading and they boxed me into the eight week online classes to get it done.
I should also mention that besides The College Network modules I did purchase the actual textbooks used. I would get one edition back and it was pretty inexpensive that way. And I would google. My main problem with the modules were they were not indexed. So when I was reviewing and cramming I was unable to look up information. So that is why I needed the text books and google.
So this brings us up to 2014 when I was finally ready to begin the application and preparation process for the CPNE. That part of the story will be told in Part Three.
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