From RN to BSN: seeing familiar situations in different ways

Registered nurses enrolled in post-RN programs are a special group of students with unique learning needs. One important outcome of a successful post-RN program is the ability of its graduates to see familiar situations in different ways and to demonstrate these changes in new and different approaches to patient care. This shift in the way nurses see themselves and their worlds can be described and explained by Mezirow's Theory of Perspective Transformation. This article discusses perspective transformation related to post-RN students in nursing programs; describes teaching-learning models that assists perspective transformation to take place; identifies conditions that promote perspective transformation; and suggests some strategies to facilitate the process.