LPN to RN...Apprehensive!

[LillyDarling]

Good morning! So I'm new here (just joined yesterday to answer another posters question about therapeutic apheresis) Anyway, I am an LPN who has been lucky enough to have experience in different specialties. I started out with (of course) ALF/Long Term Care then moved on to travelling Therapeutic Apheresis for 4 years, both of which had LOTS of pt contact. Unfortunately, with Therapeutic Apheresis, I didn't give meds, didn't do any IVs except for running calcium gluconate thru the blood return line and flushing dialysis vas-caths with NS then filled to lumen volume with 5000u Heparin, and only did SubQ Filgrastim injections if I were doing a stem cell collection that day. Fast forward, now I work in Specialty Pharmacy educating Oncology pts about their oral chemotherapy, giving general advice within my scope of practice and reporting Adverse Events to the drug manufacturers. My supervisor also has me trained in 2 other highly specialized areas and precepting all the new nurses that come in. It's a Mon-Fri desk job, so no pt contact whatsoever. I just had my yearly review and actually got a perfect score! My supervisor told me that I am supervisor material and that if I were an RN, they'd give me a promotion. My company will pay for my LPN-RN. Here's my dilemma: I lost a lot of nursing skills while in Therapeutic Apheresis and now I don't even touch pts AT ALL! So naturally, I am nervous about clinical and it's been 8 years since I've been in school, so I'm pretty sure things have changed in nursing, for example: I saw a nursing student on here saying that they DON'T require aspiration during IM injection?! Seriously?! What if I hit a vein and erroneously gave a pt an IV injection?? Sorry about the long posting...long story extremely short: I am nervous about pt contact now. Is it like not riding a bike for a long time and you just pick it back up? Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks :-)

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I wouldn't worry about clinical rotations since we pick up most nursing procedural skills when we work bedside nursing jobs. My LPN-to-RN clinical rotations consisted mostly of preparing care plans. I performed few, if any, skills.

When we worry too much about future events that have not yet taken place, this level of unhealthy apprehension may prevent us from fully embracing the present. Procedural nursing skills are overrated in my humble opinion. Good luck to you!

[LillyDarling]

Thank you, for the great answer The Commuter! Unfortunately, I've had anxiety and apprehension my whole life. I'm in therapy now to get to the root of it. I honestly hate feeling this way! Well, if it's mostly care plans, that would be wonderful! I'm good at care plans:-) I'll have to check my local school to see what they have to offer.