Are Online LPN to RN Programs Right for You?

July 14th, 2010

The transition from LPN to RN is a larger one than most students think: you are changing your entire outlook in the nursing community and taking on a much larger responsibility with not only your patients, but with your career future.  As an LPN, you were given much responsibility regarding patient care, but it was usually care that most registered nurses do not have to partake in.  Not that it wasn’t important care, but it was just care that RNs are too busy to attend to; thus why the nursing community created the differences between LPNs and RNs.  However, now earning your RN degree has never been easier with the use of online education, and LPNs can now earn their further nursing degree without the hassle of beginning their nursing courses all over again and can instead put their experience as an LPN into schooling, lessening the amount of time it takes to earn an RN degree. 

Studies have been predicting massive nursing shortages within the next few years, which is even more of an incentive for students to enroll in online classes that will expedite their RN degree.  Most students in any part of the nursing industry understand the patience and understanding that comes with patient care and have devoted a large part of their lives toward studying and staying on this particular course.  However, some students decided early on to simply try out nursing through LPN programs, rather than take on the more intense RN programs that involve true nursing work that we sometimes get a glimpse of through media programs.  After a few months though, it becomes clear that most LPNs want the heightened responsibility of an RN, but do not want to complete the years of coursework necessary to earn that level of prestige.  Enter online education.  Students now only have to attend classes for a few months to a year and most of their clinic experience has already been taken care of due to previous job qualifications.

A better way to earn a degree has never been thought of!  With the upcoming nursing shortage (although we are currently experiencing a similar nursing shortage now), these online programs have not come at a better time.  Online education is truly revolutionizing the education industry and the faster students begin to take advantage of this process, the faster our economy will righten itself and we can push on to become a better-educated country. 

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