Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) who want to become Registered Nurses (RNs) have an avenue at Cleveland State Community College. The college offers a three-term LPN to AAS (Associate of Applied Sciences) Bridge Program that starts each spring term.
LPNs who pursue their RN license expand their clinical knowledge and scope of practice, positioning themselves to take on greater responsibility in patient care and opening doors to leadership and specialized roles.
Two students have followed a similar path to the program and have become friends and supporters during their journey.
Chasity McGinnis spent time in foster care homes as a child and knew that she wanted to be a positive role model for people. She started at Cleveland State after graduating from Meigs County High School in 2007. McGinnis was taking prerequisites for the nursing program when she became pregnant and left school. When her daughter was three months old, she returned to school and earned her LPN license at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT) Athens.
For the past 16 years, McGinnis has been working full-time as an LPN in long term and skilled care settings. In 2021, her mother passed away, and she went through a divorce the same month. With two children at home, she knew that she needed to broaden her career opportunities.
McGinnis started the LPN to AAS Bridge Program at Cleveland State in January 2025; she takes classes and clinicals Monday through Thursday and works as an LPN Friday through Sunday. She is a member of the Beta Omicron Nursing Honor Society and will graduate in May. During the program’s eight-week preceptorship, McGinnis will work in an emergency room (ER) and hopes to be an ER nurse after graduation.
Shiasia Lightfoot has wanted to be a nurse since she was 10 years old and living with her grandmother who was on dialysis. She enrolled in a four-year university to pursue nursing after graduating from Howard High School in Chattanooga in 2009. After three years, she returned home. Her path changed when she became pregnant, then her grandmother passed away.
While raising her daughter, Lightfoot earned her Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) license and worked at skilled care facilities, then earned her LPN license at TCAT Chattanooga in 2022. Now, she works in pediatric home health while completing the bridge program at the college.
“Taking care of my grandmother, I knew that nursing was a calling for me,” said Lightfoot. “This program has really helped with my endurance. I feel like it is preparing us for the demand of things and giving us the time management skills we need.”
Lightfoot selected the medical surgery floor for her preceptorship. She hopes to work at a hospital on the surgery floor after graduation and continue working with her pediatric and geriatric patients.
Ashley McEwen, Associate Professor of Nursing, said, “As students, Chasity and Shiasia exemplify the qualities and ethical standards that guide nursing practice including compassion and respect for others, practicing advocacy and collaboration. These qualities are lived out not only in their work as LPNs, but also as nursing students, parents, and members of the community. Chasity and Shiasia have worked hard to balance nursing school along with their complex adult lives, and their stories shine a light of hope and love in our world.”
Both students want to inspire their children to continue to college.
McGinnis said, “I tell my daughter, ‘I don’t care what you choose to do in life as long as you get an associate degree after high school to fall back on. You want that foundation of success at the beginning; it sets you up for life. You don’t want to have to be working a full-time job and going to school and raising kids and trying to run a household and doing all these things that you’ve watched me struggle to do.’”
She added, “It has been tough, but it is doable. It’s made me resilient.”
“Cleveland State offers LPNs the opportunity to advance professionally and expand their career opportunities, by building on the LPN’s existing scope of practice through its robust LPN Transitions Pathway,” Maureen Baksh-Griffin, Director of Nursing, said. “Our students are given the chance to level up/step up through a strong focus on refining and augmenting their skill set that prepares them for additional professionally licensed responsibilities, which leads to increased earning opportunities. Our LPN Transition’s Pathway students have consistently earned a 100% first-time pass rate on NCLEX-RN, and we are proud of the contributions they have made to nursing both prior to entering our program, and well after they graduate from our program.”
For more information about the LPN Transitions Pathway, contact Richard Gamble, Healthcare Department Assistant, at richard.gamble@cscctn.edu or (423) 478-6228.