Phelp LPNtoRN 6e

82 Unit I • The Transition Process

increased ability to integrate theory with practice and to be more informed regarding client care and healthcare issues. 2. One of the reasons that you returned to school may have been related to a desire to increase responsibilities and scope of practice. The RN role will provide more opportunities for career mobility, flexibility, and professional development. 3. Another positive outcome of change will be monetary rewards. Salaries for RNs have improved in the last decade. The potential for financial growth continues to be greater within the professional roles, even with the uncertainty of future healthcare reform. 4. With any additional education, there is a greater potential for increased prestige. Although such recognition may not seem important or may seem to have elitist overtones, being recognized for increased knowledge, skills, and associated achievements reaps the reward of educational changes. The ADN and the title of RN bestow a distinct and honorable recognition and provide opportunities for increased decision-making. 5. Along with increased prestige comes increased self-confidence and self-esteem. As you recall from your LPN/LVN training, Abraham Maslow identified a hierarchy of basic needs. According to his theory, after physiological, safety and security, and love and belonging needs are met, an individual has needs of esteem and self-esteem. Esteem needs include respect from others, recognition, prestige, and importance. Self-esteem needs encompass those related to achievement, competence and independence, and self-worth. Advanced education provides a greater means to achieve a belief in your own abilities and thus to have self confidence and self-esteem. 6. A final positive outcome of change is self-actualization. Maslow theorized that the highest level of needs occurs when the other basic needs have been met. Self-actualization is the need to be all that you can be through self-fulfillment and reaching your potential. In your return to school, you are fulfilling a dream or a goal. You are also increasing your ability to solve problems, broadening your means to deal with various situations, and developing greater power to cope with stress. The positive outcomes of change are varied. Each change with which you are faced provides the opportunity for positive outcomes.

THINKING CRITICALLY Critique an organizational change that has occurred in your workplace or within a community organization with which you are involved. Compare and contrast the positive outcomes experienced with that change, both for the organization and for yourself. Copyright © 2025 Wolters Kluwer, Inc. Unauthorized reproduction of the content is prohibited.

CONCLUSION Change is a dynamic and ongoing process. Many of the changes that we face are not of our choosing. However, we also have the ability to effect our own change and to plan for and deal with the results. Nurses must understand the dynamics of the change process.