How the course works:  You begin coursework as soon as your payment clears.  The day materials are emailed to you is  the day that your 'six month' completion clock starts ticking.  We will send you all information needed to pass the theory portion of the course via email.    You do NOT need to purchase books for this course.  We do recommend that you purchase a new 2009-10 version of a nursing drug book (any of them are sufficient).  It is no longer prudent to attempt to memorize individual drugs.  There are too many on the market to make that a safe practice.  You will be taking a drug book with you to work and using it daily. 

ALL communication is done via email or fax.  When you finish a section, email us and ask for the next one when you are ready.  Typically, we wait for you to tell us when you want additional work.  In the past, when we sent work automatically, folks tended to 'lose' it in their email accounts when it sat there for several weeks waiting for them to be ready to work again.  So to save us all the frustration, just shoot the administrative assistant an email when you are ready for more work.  

WE EXPECT YOU TO READ AND FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS.  That includes information on this website, in the student handbook, the course outline, and in the modules.  Grading criteria is given for each assignment and it is strongly suggested that you use it to do your work for this course. 

This course is offered in English and you must be able to read and write in English to complete the course.  You are expected to know how to do college level work and use your professional judgment for topics etc.   If you have not taken a college level course and done college style research papers, we recommend you review that prior to enrollment.  We expect that you use professional language and grammar in communications with us.  PLEASE use spell check, even in your emails.  (We have received a significant amount of emails that were so misspelled and fragmented that we were unable to understand it).  Please note:  while email use is common in today's workplace, you are still expected to use sentence structure, capital letters, etc in professional communications.   Paper writing and care plans are part of the course.  Any traditional format is acceptable.  You may use resources from your college days or the local library, or online.  Coursework is self explanatory.  Professional nurses are expected to problem solve.  You may use your professional judgment for topics, etc.  

A good refresher course is designed to simply review things in nursing that haven't changed in the last 10 years, and provide you with the information about what has changed.  For example, the pathophysiology of seizures hasn't changed.  The drugs certainly have!  We review the brain anatomy ( a couple of slides), review seizure patho (a slide), review seizure precautions- which haven't changed (a slide), give 'honorable mention' to the old standby seizure meds;  Dilantin, Tegretol and Phenobarbital which everyone remembers, and focus on the new classifications of drugs.  It's like 'riding a bike'.  You will be surprised by how much 'clicks' and what you remember.  We have been doing this course for a decade and online for nearly five years now.  Our nurse educators EACH have 25+ years experience.  We have been around long enough to know what has and has not changed.  **If you have been out of nursing more than ten years, you WILL be learning new information.  You should not expect to learn decades of missing information in 120 hours of theory content.  You will need to study additionally on your own to master the material and make yourself marketable again. 

Because the standard now is for most states to require a retaking of the state board exam (NCLEX), this course prepares you to take that exam.  The style of questions are 'NCLEX-style'.  Multiple choice, designed to measure critical thinking.  There are no trick questions. 

The course is divided into five major sections.  There are small quizzes (just 10 questions) at the end of every subsection.  The quizzes pinpoint areas of weakness prior to taking the section exam.  Tests and quizzes are timed and not designed to be open book exams.  If you need to look up all the answers, you will not be able to finish the test in a timely fashion.  You will need to study.  All activities are designed to enhance learning, and prepare the nurse for current issues and styles of practice.  A Master’s prepared instructor will monitor the course and content.  Assignments are graded and feedback given. 

The final grade for this course is PASS/FAIL.  A passing grade is a minimum of 80% on each quiz, exam or project and a minimum of an 85% on the medication exam.  There is only one re-do or retake allowed in this course.  The average of the two grades (the failure and the retake) must equal 80% or for the med test 85% to be considered passing.