If most LPN's had a dime for each time they heard those words, we would all be rich, and not have to work at all. LPN's are an intergral part of a health care team. They have a place in nursing. We can never discount that for some, becoming an LPN was the goal. And that we can be happy and content in that role.
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I am a happy LPN. I got my LPN late in life, because circumstances were all in place for me to do so. I was interested in increasing my clinical skill set. It was a perfect plan.
When I was younger, I graduated from High School with a goal in life of popping out babies and baking bread with a husband that would work. (To all you younger readers, this was a viable option in my day). I successfully raised kids, and when school time came, I was interested in something more. I was not an ideal student in high school, and took the local EMT course to perhaps do a little call, raise a few kids......even had the white picket fence. Then, family was ill and my parents sent me to CNA certification, and I spent some time with family taking care of them. Humbling, for sure.
I wouldn't call myself a "book smart" kind of a person. But show me, and I was right on it. To travel for an RN course of study, after many years out of school, and not the most ideal learner of abstract things read in books that then have to transpose to real life, was not on the table. My kids were reaching college age. It was their time. I took a job as a CNA at the local hospital. Life was good and I liked what I did.
Times change and so do values. The economy took a nose dive, I live in a geographically remote area, and it became obvious pretty quickly that I needed to go to an alternate level if I was going to be financially responsible in part to keep a roof. What work did for me was to give me a feeling of independence that I never knew. I could take care of things myself. It was liberating and enlightening.
I took 18 months of my life, made it work, went to a pilot LPN program in our area that seemed to come out of the blue, and continued to work in a different capacity in the same hospital I was employed at as a CNA. It allowed me a bit more pay, to focus on clinical skills that I love so much, and to be a different part of the same team.
Being an LPN is a good thing. It focuses on parts of nursing that may be most applicable to where you are in life. I have great admiration for RN's of every caliber. It is amazing to be able to increase your education to the highest level possible and I don't for a moment think that continuing one's education is a bad thing.
But for me, and many others like me, being an LPN is what we want to do. That is the end goal. It is what is comfortable, what the priority is, what the dream was and was realized. And that is ok. So no, not every LPN wants to continue on to become an RN. Some are happy right where they are.
