Rently. People give you more responsibility.” Instructors expected students to demonstrate

Rently. People give you more responsibility.” Instructors expected students to demonstrate a capacity to seek out new and relevant information and frequently questioned them about their patients. This evaluation process was a familiar ritual to Post LPN students. When our participants felt that they responded well, they expressed a tentative willingness to risk identifying more with the RN role: “I find coming into this program, you need to justify everything that you’re doing and explain the reason for it. It makes you think more about your reasons for doing something and whether you can justify them well enough to, you know, proceed to doing care. And I think maybe that’s because you have somebody who’s constantly challenging you to prepare. So if you can give a good answer, you know okay, I’m on the way. What can I do better? If you cannot answer the questions, then you’re challenged to go and maybe LOR-253 cancer research a little bit better so you do not feel, oh, I did not answer that question very well.” “I think one thing that I find myself doing more just in this role is just researching because they put such an emphasis on that that I find myself looking everything up, so that’s one thing that I’ve changed in my practice is I look things up more.” “Well, as an LPN and an RN, it’s our professional responsibility to have continuing competence and learning, so has taking the RN program taken me farther than I would have taken myself as an LPN? I do not know, because that was my responsibility to continue to learn . . . oh, I do not understand what this blood work means. Maybe I should look it up. I still should have and would have been doing that as an LPN. Going through this program has forced me to [research ��-Amatoxin biological activity patient conditions] because we have homework every night to do, so maybe it’s a little bit more forced learning but . . ..” “Instructors have been really good about asking you questions and getting you to think or why is this being done, and why would you think that you would do this? And what would you do if this happened? (They) kind of encourage and draw out of me that way of looking at the whole picture.”Opportunities for new experiences supported participants’ sense of gaining a more complex nursing identity. They identified the topic areas where they gained the most new knowledge as acute care, research, leadership, psychiatric mental health, and community nursing. Describing her opportunity to attend an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), one participant described how the prospect of interacting more with this patient group contributed to her growing identity as an RN: “I went to ICU today, and like the whole day I was like Wow! This is awesome. I already work and feel confident in (acute care) I would have loved to (complete the practicum in ICU).” Similarly, another participant described how she learned of a community resource which distributed milk to the needy and was able to refer her patient: “After seeing what’s out in the community . . .. I was never aware (of these programs.) Another added: “It’s nice to see that nursing is the (profession) that does that! I get excited about it! There’s so many things that we can do. (In hospital nursing) it’s one on one. You help one person, but in community nursing, you’re talking whole communities and populations, and like a long life span too right? They’re going to teach their kids, and their children’s children. That was interesting.” Participants consistently identified that the new experie.Rently. People give you more responsibility.” Instructors expected students to demonstrate a capacity to seek out new and relevant information and frequently questioned them about their patients. This evaluation process was a familiar ritual to Post LPN students. When our participants felt that they responded well, they expressed a tentative willingness to risk identifying more with the RN role: “I find coming into this program, you need to justify everything that you’re doing and explain the reason for it. It makes you think more about your reasons for doing something and whether you can justify them well enough to, you know, proceed to doing care. And I think maybe that’s because you have somebody who’s constantly challenging you to prepare. So if you can give a good answer, you know okay, I’m on the way. What can I do better? If you cannot answer the questions, then you’re challenged to go and maybe research a little bit better so you do not feel, oh, I did not answer that question very well.” “I think one thing that I find myself doing more just in this role is just researching because they put such an emphasis on that that I find myself looking everything up, so that’s one thing that I’ve changed in my practice is I look things up more.” “Well, as an LPN and an RN, it’s our professional responsibility to have continuing competence and learning, so has taking the RN program taken me farther than I would have taken myself as an LPN? I do not know, because that was my responsibility to continue to learn . . . oh, I do not understand what this blood work means. Maybe I should look it up. I still should have and would have been doing that as an LPN. Going through this program has forced me to [research patient conditions] because we have homework every night to do, so maybe it’s a little bit more forced learning but . . ..” “Instructors have been really good about asking you questions and getting you to think or why is this being done, and why would you think that you would do this? And what would you do if this happened? (They) kind of encourage and draw out of me that way of looking at the whole picture.”Opportunities for new experiences supported participants’ sense of gaining a more complex nursing identity. They identified the topic areas where they gained the most new knowledge as acute care, research, leadership, psychiatric mental health, and community nursing. Describing her opportunity to attend an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), one participant described how the prospect of interacting more with this patient group contributed to her growing identity as an RN: “I went to ICU today, and like the whole day I was like Wow! This is awesome. I already work and feel confident in (acute care) I would have loved to (complete the practicum in ICU).” Similarly, another participant described how she learned of a community resource which distributed milk to the needy and was able to refer her patient: “After seeing what’s out in the community . . .. I was never aware (of these programs.) Another added: “It’s nice to see that nursing is the (profession) that does that! I get excited about it! There’s so many things that we can do. (In hospital nursing) it’s one on one. You help one person, but in community nursing, you’re talking whole communities and populations, and like a long life span too right? They’re going to teach their kids, and their children’s children. That was interesting.” Participants consistently identified that the new experie.