LPN to RN

Lizziefive · Nov 7, 2007

I am currently an LPN and will be graduating within the next month with my RN. I have worked in skilled nursing homes for the past two years prior to graduation. I have accepted a position at the local hospital on the medical floor. I feel pretty organized after working in a nursing home, and have felt like I have functioned at my full scope of practice as an LPN. Does anybody have any tips to make the transition from LPN to RN smoother?

Someone told me when I graduated as an RN not to tell anyone but the hiring manager and my preceptor that I was an LPN and it really did help.. sure people treated me like a newbie to nursing but at least things were fully explained to me and nobody acted like I should know this already. Even if I did know something already- I learned a different take on it.. Its different to work as an RN - you are more independent and have to make more decisions by yourself- but being an LPN first is a huge advantage- let everyone think you are a new graduate with excellent skills!

Good luck!!

Liz

**SKM-NURSIEPOOH, BSN, RN** · Nov 7, 2007

hiya almost finished!

i think the hardest part of transition for me was the critical thinking. what i mean by that is knowing how to interpret the data from my assessments and formulating them into plans of action.

sure, as a lpn i knew how to interpret data, but once i reported off to an rn or md, my "responsibility" significantly decreased. sure i continued to monitor my patients, but & my main focus was doing my nursing "tasks" or "duties." i really didn't do much projecting of patient outcome nor did i review the "trends" from the data/numbers of the vital signs/lab results. sure, i knew my normals, but i didn't know how to interpret them fully.

i also wasn't that great of a delegator of certain tasks to uaps either. i felt that i couldn't *trust* their clinical judgement/skills whenever it came to them taking vitals for me. i didn't want to chance giving a bp, cardiac, or diabetic medications based on their results. as a result, i would fall behind in the unit because i wasn't used to delegating tasks such as obtaining bgs, let alone vitals signs to uaps from my previous jobs.

after working as a critical care rn for two years now, i can definitely see the difference in both my knowledge base & my overall confidence including delegation. i went from working ltc, to progressive care, to peds as a lpn to jumping straight into sicu/micu as a new rn out of university.

i hope this helps ~ cheers :cheers:,

moe

p.s. lizziefive's right about not :nono: letting others know your former lpn status either. for some reason, i've not been able to discern as of yet; but many rns either don't care to know or they're very dismissive :smiley_abof your former status & will let it be known, once you've told them or once they find out. many will look at you as if you're not good enough, or like you've wasted precious time, despite you're going back & obtaining the rn licensure. it's like they look at you as if to say: 'oh...you're one of those ______ nurses...' (just fill in the blank for yourself).

please note to other rns on here...i've said many rns that i've encountered & of course, this is my own experience :banghead: ; it may or may not be the experience of other lpns to rns here. nor am i accusing any of you rns here of such behavior either. :chair: just thought i put the disclaimer in there just the same...lol! i don't want to get flamed :flamesonb or reported as posting a negative post reply. just trying to be honest & helpful is all .