A Unique Personal Experience

Role Transition from LPN to RN: A Unique Personal Experience



Abstract

It takes a great deal of courage to let go of what is known, familiar and comfortable. Change is a driving force in everyone. Nurses have a vast amount of opportunity for growth and change in the healthcare field. Many individuals are choosing to evolve and expand their careers and further their knowledge and education. While the LPN performs much of the same skills, the student professional nurse must refine his or her skills in clinical judgment, collaboration, leadership, and delegation to effectively care for their patients and become the RN.

Role Transition from LPN to RN: A Unique Personal Experience

According to Webster Dictionary, transition is defined as “change” or the “passage from one state, place, stage or subject to another” (Webster, 1961). We as nurses are beginning our transition from LPN's that we are today to RN that we will become. Transition is a complicated process in which we not only grasp the changes that are happening in our career but the changes that will be occurring in our personal lives. It takes a great deal of courage to take risks and unknown estimated actions and unleash the known, familiar, and comfortable. This paper will take you through my journey and discuss what obstacles I will come across.

There are two goals that have motivated me to continue my nursing education. The most important one was my personal journey that began back in 1990-1991. At this time I graduated from a LPN nursing program, I sat for my boards and it became official I was now a LPN. During the first years of my career I always knew I wanted to “finish”, I didn't want to stop here I wanted to continue on in the journey and get my RN, as there is saying that “change is the only constant thing that can let you achieve your diversified goals” (Effendi, 2009). Soon after I began working as the LPN I also returned to classes one at a time hoping to find the strength to finish. The outside got in the way and classes soon stopped. In the back of my mind I always told myself I would return. The need for having this personal goal fulfilled drives me back to college to finish.

The other reason that motivates me, I have seen in the last 20 years of being an LPN the roles of the nurses especially is that the LPN has changed. Many of the tasks that we were once able to do have been removed from our job description. I foresee in the future the hospitals requiring nurses to obtain their RN at minimal and possibly even their BSN. I have always been an independent person and never want to see my job taken away because I don't have the proper degree. I want to be able to support myself independently if the LPN role is done away ...