LPN to RN Transitions

With all of the essential information you need to pursue your RN degree and practice as an RN, LPN to RN Transitions, 2nd Edition makes it easy to take the next step in your nursing career. This edition includes practical information on classroom study habits, professional writing, knowledge and skills acquisition, and more to help you succeed in everything from the classroom to clinical practice. Plus, seven new chapters provide the latest information for one complete, indispensable resource!

• Past, Present and Future: Assessing Your Accomplishments chapter introduces topics covered throughout the book.
• FYI boxes ensure you get the most from each chapter by highlighting important information.
• Exercises test your knowledge of each chapter’s content to help you learn and retain information.
• Critical Thinking Questions help you apply knowledge from the book to real-life situations and sharpen your critical thinking skills for clinical practice.

• UNIQUE! Seven new chapters including: Basic Math Review: Preparing for Medication Calculations; Understanding the Nursing Process; Evidence Based Practice; Writing Professionally; Educational Pathways and Expanded Roles; Nursing Theory: Guiding Professional Practice; and Ethical and Legal Considerations.

Designed to fit LPN to RN transition courses, this practical book helps students succeed both academically and professionally —two distinct, but equally important ways. Unit One focuses on the academic and personal needs of the returning LPNs, helping them assess their past professional and personal accomplishments as well as the goals that they would like to achieve in nursing school. It provides useful tools to help them assess their academic skills, motivational exercises to complete, and resources to use throughout nursing school. Unit Two provides the information students need to bridge the gap between LPN and RN practice, presenting the knowledge and skills they need for the role transition to a RN. It demonstrates the difference between the two levels of practice, and it focuses on the critical thinking, clinical, and communication skills that LPN students need to successfully transition to the RN role.

• Unit One addresses the needs of returning LPN students and provides practical learning techniques with motivational exercises, tools, and resources to help them succeed in nursing school.
• Unit Two focuses on the needs of the student to effectively transition into the role of RN — including critical thinking, communication, and many clinical nursing skills.
• For Your Information boxes are integrated throughout and provide important information and exercises to better understand the transition from LPN to the role of RN.
• A chapter on a Basic Math Review covers the basics of arithmetic and dosage calculation methods to help students understand this often difficult area.
• A chapter on Understanding the Nursing Process introduces LPNs to the nursing process in more detail and helps teach them how their scope of practice will be expanded as RNs.
• Critical Thinking Questions or Activities at the end of each chapter help stimulate thought and test content in the chapter.
• Exercise boxes integrated throughout test knowledge of content and reinforce key principles.
• Appendices include a medications/dosage calculation and conversion review exam, a list of the NANDA Nursing Diagnoses, and the Nurses Code of Ethics.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Julia M. Fine, RN, PhD, FNP-C(Indiana State University)
Description:This book seeks to assist the LPN who is returning to school to adapt and prosper in the demanding world of the RN student and to examine the differences in LPN and RN practice. Students are involved through the projects and critical thinking exercises in each chapter. Information is summarized concisely in FYI tables throughout each chapter.
Purpose:The authors set out to gather and consolidate the content needed for a textbook to be used in bridge courses for LPN students who are entering RN programs at an advanced level. This sort of book is needed and the authors have succeeded in bringing together the required content areas.
Audience:The book is specifically targeted to LPNs and could be used for transitional courses in both associate degree and baccalaureate level RN programs. The authors' many years of experience in supporting and encouraging LPNs in the transition to the role of RN are apparent in the subjects chosen and the appropriate level of writing.
Features:Topics range from the sublime and ever-present critical thinking to intensely practical math skills and from the needed skills for the student role to the range of roles of the RN. Identifying individual strengths and building empowerment skills assist the returning adult learner to evaluate both the goal and the cost of the transitional experience. Instructors may want to supplement some sections, such as the math skills, with additional practice and methods.
Assessment:This book joins a small group of texts aimed at the LPN seeking to transition to the RN role. The authors are both experienced in teaching this audience as well as respectful of the LPN's experience as a nurse and adult learner. At the same time, the authors gently force the LPN to examine in depth and appreciate the greater complexity of RN roles and skills. Without this appreciation the transitioning LPN cannot strive for and achieve the multidimensionality of the RN role.