CNA to LPN

Nursing Students CNA/MA

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Specializes in OR, Telemetry, PCCU, Med/Surg.

Hi everybody,

I'm a newly certified nursing assistant in the state of Arizona. Currently I'm unable to work since I just moved here from Belgium to marry my husband. I'm still waiting for my work authorization and change of status to permanent resident. This should not take too long, since everything was filed a couple of months ago and I'm one of the lucky few who got support from a local senator.

Anyway, this actually has nothing to do with what I wanted to ask. :)

The other day I was talking to my uncle-in-law, he used to be a nurse in California. And he told me about this "special path" to becoming an RN.

Since I already got my CNA I should be able to just take a certain chemistry class in (community) college and take my LNP state board exam after passing that.

From there it should be pretty "easy" to get my RN through nursing school.

Now I'm wondering, is this actually true? Can you just take a chemistry class - if so which one? - and take the state board exam?

Has anybody here any experience with this?

Thanks so much in advance!

- Sarah

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Hey there, fellow European ;-),

sorry, but I don't think that's true- the scope of practice of an LPN is much, much wider than that of a CNA. LPN school takes 1-2 years, CNA can be done in 4 weeks and only teaches you the very basic nursing tasks, nothing really medical. You're gonna have to check with your local college, take the prereqs, apply to the nursing program...... be prepared to invest some time....

Good Luck to you from another immigrant (from Germany) and CNA-to-be (my state test is on April 13th) BTW....if you don't have a work permit yet, are you even allowed to go to school?

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To the best of my knowledge, there is no such thing. If you want to be an LPN you will have to go to LPN school, period.

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To the best of my knowledge, there is no such thing. If you want to be an LPN you will have to go to LPN school, period.

I agree. If you want to be an LPN, go to LPN school. Nurse's aide/assistant and practical nurse are two completely different jobs. You can't substitute a CNA class for LPN school.

It would be great if the skills and knowledge of an LPN could be taught and mastered in 4 weeks, but it isn't possible.

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Specializes in Home Health Care.

I'm sorry your uncle in law misinformed you. To be eligible to sit for the NCLEX-PN you must be a graduate of an accredited nursing program.

Most program are 12-18 months of nursing theory plus many hours of clinical experience.

LPN's have a much different & wider scope of practice than a CNA.

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This applies to CA only and I don't know if the rules have changed in about 20 years. With 60 months of verifiable patient care experience, a course in pharmacology, and I don't remember the other stipulations, you can take the NCLEX-PN in CA. There are other examples: military occupational specialty (91C-Army). It is like the 30 unit option for RN. If you can get the LVN license this way, like the RN license, you will have problems transferring that license to other states. Just another example of the backwards way CA gets working nursing personnel. You can't do any better for yourself than to graduate from an accredited PN program. If you do this, you won't have any problems in the future. Short cuts may help you out in the short run, but in the long run, you are doing yourself a big disservice. Good luck in your future educational endeavors.

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