RUNNING HEAD: ASSIGNMENT ONE

Assignment One

Recognizing the challenges of role transition:

Where am I now and where am I going?

Kareline Nicol

3104222

NURS 250

Tutor: Marlyss Valiant

September 10, 2018

In the nursing profession, a clear understanding of one’s role within a position is of the

utmost importance. This assignment will include a brief description of myself, the qualities that I

am most proud of, and those qualities that I hope to change. To follow will be a description of

my current position as an licensed practical nurse (LPN), along with an analysis of the areas

within my role that I appreciate and those that I value least. The final portion of this paper will be

a reflection of my transition into the role of a registered nurse (RN).

A person’s individual story tremendously effects who they are in a professional capacity.

For myself, becoming a nurse had always been my goal; at the age of 21 I achieved that goal

and began my career as an LPN. In the seven years since, I’ve worked in an array of health care

settings including acute care medicine, psychiatry, residential care, and hospice. In my

exploration of these settings I’ve found a personal quality I’m proud of is my ability to adapt to

change. The nursing profession is everchanging and even on a day to day basis the work

involved is unpredictable. Another quality that I take pride in is being empathetic, this quality

helps me to better address the needs of my patients since it allows me to thoughtfully consider

any situation from their individual perspective. Lastly, a third quality that I value in myself is my

ability to remain calm and focused in pressing or emergent situations. My relaxed demeanor has

allowed me to assist in emergencies including code blues, and code whites; this ultimately has a

positive effect on the outcome of my patients. These qualities have proven to be beneficial not

only in my personal life, but also in my nursing career.

I am proud of my positive personal qualities however, there is always room for

improvement. I’ve identified some areas that I will challenge myself to improve on. A

characteristic that I’d like to change or improve would be my ability to communicate with

patients and their family members in times of grief. I often feel uncertain of the right thing to say
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and, as a result, I’m left worrying that I’ve worsened the situation by not meeting their

communication needs. Another characteristic that would benefit my nursing practice to improve

would include my struggle with being assertive. Challenging myself to improve in this area will

positively influence my interactions with work colleagues, and challenging patients.

Additionally, I’d like to work on my tendency to become impatient with myself. I like to

complete tasks in a timely and efficient manner. As a result, when I’m distracted from my daily

nursing tasks I become impatient with myself and find myself worrying that I might not

complete my goals of care for that shift. In recognition of these areas for improvement, my plan

is to continually to evolve and grow in an effort to be a better nurse.

I currently hold a fulltime position in Hospice, where my role involves all aspects of

patient care for five patients. Working together with an RN, with patients of their own, we

administer medications, provide personal care and offer support during the final stages of life to

patients and their family. The pace and atmosphere at hospice is ideal for my personality type.

Ultimately, the goal is to create a peaceful environment and offer comfort to patients. There are

many aspects of my role in hospice that I value. I value the autonomy within my position to

prioritize the needs of my patients in the planning of each shift. The RN and LPN work as a team

and LPNs are primarily responsible for half of the ward patients, the autonomy and

independence in that sense is rewarding. I value the team work that we practice as an LPN and

RN team. I believe that working together as a partnership promotes a higher standard of patient

care. Mostly, I value the opportunity to connect with the patients and their families. Comfort,

above all else is the priority in hospice and I consider it a great privilege to provide comfort to

patients and families during such a sensitive life transition.

No career is perfect, there are a few notable aspects of my role as an LPN in hospice that

I do not value. One aspect I do not appreciate is hierarchy that is sometimes present within the

RN and LPN nursing team. As an LPN, I am sometimes presented with situations that leave me

feeling undervalued by my RN team member. Additionally, on occasion, patients and/or their

family members have treated me unfairly due to my LPN title. It is difficult to accept when a

patient does not wish to be under my care. This is often a result of the misconception that LPNs

are undereducated. I value least of all the extra tasks, unrelated to patient care, that we, as nurses,

are required to do. Such tasks include doing laundry, dishes, cleaning the kitchen, and handing

out patient meal trays. I feel that these tasks put a strain on our contact with patients by limiting

the amount of time available to spend with patients and families.

I’m looking forward to the journey ahead as I transition from my role as an LPN to that

of an RN. The most difficult thing to let go of in my role of an LPN will be the ability to pass on

difficult or unmanageable situations to the RN in charge. A position as an RN will require more

responsibility and decision making skills. As an RN, I will be the person who the LPNs and care

staff will approach with issues regarding patient care, staffing or any number of problematic

scenarios. As an RN, I will embrace the added responsibilities that come with the advancement

of knowledge required in the RN role. An area of RN responsibilities that I will likely resist

would be some of the more difficult team leading tasks. Since I pride myself on being an easy

going personality type, directing other members of the care team will be a challenge for me.

Certain aspects of my history as an LPN will assist me in my transition to an RN. In my

LPN practice, I’ve been fortunate enough to work in multiple settings, granting me the

opportunity to work along-side many RNs in varying roles. These experiences have allowed me

to observe the individual ways that each of my RN colleagues have managed diverse situations
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in the clinical setting. As an LPN, I’ve had the unique opportunity to identify which methods

used by the RN were successful and which weren’t. I plan to utilize my knowledge gained from

past experiences as I take on the RN role.

Among the numerous change models, I resonate most with Rogers’ (2003) innovation-

decision process. According to Rogers (2003), there are five steps to the diffusion of innovation,

those consist of knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation. Since

beginning my transition from LPN to RN I have already gone through some of the steps involved

in the innovation-decision process (Rogers, 2003). The knowledge step began for me when I

started to develop my skills as an LPN. I grew more confident in my LPN practice and became

eager to expand my knowledge and earn the right to more responsibilities as a nurse. In the

persuasion step I weighed the pros and cons of furthering my education and considered the

sacrifices I would be required to make, should I return to school. After much deliberation, I

finally reached the decision stage and began mentally committing myself to furthering my

education and my career. In the implementation stage I made a life transition, I left my fulltime

job at Whitehorse General Hospital in the Yukon Territory and moved to British Columbia to

begin classes at the University of the Fraser Valley. Following that, I entered into Rogers’ (2003)

final stage of change, confirmation. In this stage, I came to the realization that I had made the

right decision when I was successful in my courses and began to expand my knowledge. This

confirmation led to my enrollment in the LPN to BSN bridging program at Athabasca

University. Ultimately, I couldn’t be happier with the decisions that brought me to where I am in

furthering my education.
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In conclusion, there are many aspects of the LPN role that I appreciate and some that I do

not. I’m certain that I have further to go in my process of change. Over all, I’m pleased with my

progress in my transition from LPN to RN and I look forward to the journey ahead.
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References

Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). New York: The Free Press.

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