Predicting Transitions in the Nursing Workforce: Professional Transitions from LPN to RN

Cheryl B. Jones, PhD, RN, FAAN; Mark Toles, PhD, RN; George J. Knafl, PhD; Anna S. Beeber, PhD, RN

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY

1. Little is known about the factors that affect LPN to RN career transitions.
2. Characteristics of LPNs that predict LPN to RN transition are: LPN licensure from 1996-2013; licensure at a younger age; LPN education in the US; employment in a hospital setting; part-time employment; and specializing in medical/surgical nursing.
3. To encourage LPN to RN transitions, develop: resources about the nursing career ladder for LPN students; incentives for employers to foster LPN career development; curricula for LPNs to train at the associate degree and transition to the baccalaureate degree in nursing; and consensus among national and local stakeholders to promote the value of LPNs who become RNs as a way of increasing diversity in the RN workforce.
4. Further research is needed to shed light on the barriers to and facilitators of LPN to RN transitions to better understand the policy levers that would accelerate these transitions.

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