LPN credits to RN Completion

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Jul 17, 2015

I was granted a year of advanced placement for possessing an active LPN license when I enrolled in a brick-and-mortar LPN-to-ASN transition program several years ago. The program took 14 months to complete.

Many schools do grant advanced placement or en bloc credit to LPNs who are seeking to earn an ASN or BSN degree and RN licensure. You simply need to find these schools or be willing to travel to them.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Jul 17, 2015

Because not all programs are created equal, and not all schools are willing to take another school's coursework as equivalent to their own.

My college (RN program) did not award any credits for possession of a practical nursing license. Knowing a bit about the LPN program run through our local votec......I understand why. There was no equivalent coursework they took that could replace anything in our curriculum, save for Fundamentals 101, half a semester.

There was a way in it somewhere (can't recall the details, it didn't apply to me) whereby someone could 'test out' of that one course, but it wasn't really worth the trouble I guess; I had LPNs in my Fundamentals class with the rest of us.

Like Commuter said, you either start from scratch, OR be willing to go wherever you can find a school that will grant you credits. Good luck!

CT Pixie, BSN, RN · Jul 17, 2015

Mine did. By being an LPN going into the bridge program, I was able to by pass the first year of the RN nursing classes for my two year program.

There are a handful of LPN to RN bridge classes approved in my State (actually they are the ONLY ones that are brick and motar that the state has) and they all allow the LPN to bypass the first year of a two year programs RN classes.

AJJKRN · Jul 17, 2015

Not to start a war, but have you ever looked at ASN to BSN programs... :sarcastic: ...either the courses are truly not equivalent, they want to fill the extra credits needs somehow (which is what my program did-and it was a good brick and mortar program), or they can just get away with it! Either way it's part of the educational mind game when advancing degrees, Good luck!

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Jul 18, 2015

Thread has been moved to the LPN-to-RN Nursing Student forum to facilitate responses from LPNs who have transitioned or will transition to the RN role.

lindseylpn · Jul 19, 2015

All the schools around me that do LPN to RN you take a short transition course over the summer and then enter into the 2nd year of the program.

NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN · Jul 26, 2015

I know that it seems like a lot of repetition. When I entered my transition program many of us thought, oh, med/surg, piece of cake.....not quite. Depending on when and where you went to school and how long ago it was, you may find that a lot of the theory has changed since going through your LPN program. It went a little bit deeper than my LPN program did, but whoa, the information had evolved since I had taken it last...if I had used that to take my boards....I don't know how well that would have worked. I'm an A student. My first test, since I didn't study much, figuring it was a review, I got a C...many others got the same or worse shocker test result for that first test...the rest of the grades for the course were great, because I treated it like a new course with new material, because it was a lot of new material.

vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN · Jul 26, 2015

To piggyback on what commuter said: my Lvn to RN bridge program *did* count my Lvn program and experience into their program. I only have to go to school for 1 yr for my RN/ADN because of my experience and degree. (Only 6 mos experience reqd)

caliotter3 · Jul 26, 2015

Ditto what RNsRWe said. My BSN program had an advanced placement option when I started. We took some written tests and did a skills check off on some basic nursing functions. I took advantage of that option to shave as much off my program as allowable. Later though, they changed their policy and did away with advanced placement.

I can see where it would be sensible, and would make things easier, to have a seamless transition from the LPN program to the RN program when taken at the same school.