Albertan LPNs

I enjoy my job most days. I know people who went to Bow Valley and haven't heard anything negative about it.

Our training in Alberta is some of the best in Canada. However our scope of practice is limited by our employers. Many of the things you may be used to doing, an LPN cannot. We cannot initiate blood transfusions (only monitor). Depending on where we work we cannot hang IV medications, we cannot start an IV or administer an IM injection.

Our scope of practice is limited facility to facility and to a certain extent by the protectionism of the UNA. It can be extremely frustrating. When I worked LTC only an RN could administer insulin. PNs could do nothing via injection but its changing.

With the health regions becoming more budget aware, we are being allowed to practice to full scopel. Additional training/certification is available in dialysis, orthopedics or in the OR.

If you are unsure about nursing, PN is the way to go because its only four semesters, the waitlists aren't as long as for the BScN, and if you find out that nursing isn't for you, you haven't got massive student loans behind you.

Have you thought about xray type work. I don't know what your physical limitations are but you have to be able to move and assist in transfers just to make it through clinicals? Once you graduate, you can find work where there is little physical strength demanded but you have to make it through first.

Yup, you can. Dialysis is employer funded, so basically two to three months full time paid employment, irregardless of the size of your position. OR Tech runs around $3K at Grant MacEwan, and ortho tech is done via Norquest (maybe BV does it as well and I don't know the cost).

Capital Health has in the past paid for their LPNs to take the OR course in return for a certain period of employment with them.

The only problem with the specialties is you get very little in return for the certification. Dialysis PNs make about 65CENTS an hour more and its about the same for the other two. However, these positions do have certain perks-- Dialysis in satelitte units=no nights or Sundays, and ortho techs do a lot of clinic hours.

Anything else, just PM me and I'll answer.

Does anyone know what the starting wage for an LPN is at Foothills Hospital? Thanks in advance.

AUPE starting rate is $17 something/hr. That's at step one for a new grad or someone who doesn't have portable hours.

Just check their website.

You have to remember to factor in shift, weekend, and weeknight premiums. Capital Health rates are $1.75/hr for evenings and weekends and we get both if we work Fr, Sat, or Sun evenings.

It's actually getting to be quite interesting right now with the labour shortage and private places offering higher wages in LTC and signing bonuses. The AUPE contract expires next year and it should be interesting to watch the negotiations. There are a lot of unhappy PNs in AUPE since the last contract.

Thanks Fiona59. I was thinking of relocating to Alberta, but I'm better off staying in Ontario.

I'm in the Okanagan in BC and Interior Health starts LPN's at just over $21/h. Coastal Health in Vancouver is even more I believe.

Some nursing homes and LTC are even higher than that due to severe nursing shortages. There was one particular private nursing home in Kelowna that ran an ad in the paper about 6 months ago offering LPN's $35/h and RN's $65/h! No joke. I think those wages were just for a short term contract (to get them back on their feet after a massive turnover), but still, that is HIGH!!

Another thing on wages, I know a woman who just moved here from Alberta who was making $17 as an LPN. That shocked me since I know LPN's here make at least $21. I was always under the impression that Alberta's wages were higher. She is happy now to be making much more. She works at a private nursing home, so I'm nto sure what her wage is.

Alberta is a hard to unionize province. AUPE is the wrong union for PNs and many are unhappy with the last contract. We were holding out for more but told to take what we were offered because it was a "good contract for everyone else in the bargaining unit".

PNs max out at around $21.90. Five step scale based on number of hours worked.

Private nursing homes are paying more and even they are having a hard time holding onto staff.