Nursing Shortage? Yeah right...

Nurses New Nurse

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there is supposed to be this huge nursing shortage but i surely can't tell. i am in the rn program at my school and after the first year of clinicals, you qualify to sit for the pn examination and they give you the diploma (actually you earned it). i thought it would be a good idea to get the lpn to try to get some experience over the summer and continuing through the rn program.

after almost giving myself an ulcer stressing over the nclex-pn and getting the license, i have now found that i am not able to get a job in our area as an lpn. we have 1 hospital in my area and a smaller one 25 miles away (both owned by the same entity) but both are no longer hiring lpns as they are trying to acquire "magnet" status. the next closest hospital is 55 miles away. the local long term facilities and agencies want at least one year of experience. from where?

at this point, i am so very discouraged. i am in the night/weekend nursing program and was looking forward to working as an lpn and gaining some experience before adn graduation. i feel like i wasted $291....along with my 15 other classmates who are in the same boat...

is anyone else experiencing the same thing? :angryfire

Specializes in Cardiac Stepdown and CVSICU.
and not all areas have nursing shortages, that is just how things are. areas where more wish to work do not have the shortages like other areas have. just supply and demand. and if an area that has a large number of nursing programs, you may find it harder to get work in that area.

that's a thought. we only have 5 acute hospitals in our state, besides a few rehab, long term, and mental health facilites...and there are 5 schools cranking out rns and an additional 4 places cranking out lpns.

oh well...

Specializes in Geriatrics/Family Practice.

Where I live in Illinois we have 3 RN BSN programs, 1 RN ASN program and 1 LPN program and we have a shortage of nursing. I'm not sure but most of our RN, BSN's must disappear. Our hospitals (3) do not hire LPN's and are always hiring RN's. I work at a clinic affiliated with one of the hospitals and sometimes look at the jobs for RN's and I wonder how the hospital operates with such a shortage. I also look on the internet at the other hospitals and they are just as short and one has it's own RN, BSN program. I can't quite figure out where all the RN's go, but they aren't here. I am a LPN and of course could get a job at 20 LTC facilities tomorrow but not a one of our hospitals, go figure. Oh well, all I know is I hope I stick to what I said originally when and if I get my RN, any facility that would not hire me as a LPN, can kiss my b__t when I get my RN, because if I wasn't good enough as a LPN, then they won't get me as a RN. Well back to the post, here in Rockford, Illinois there is a nursing shortage.

Specializes in ER.

I'm with my Florida colleague, I work as an LPN at a level 1 trauma ER(unheard of in the northeast right?) and currently in the RN transition. I think you set your own expectations and then surpass everybody elses. Once I graduated from PN I had more clinical experience than ADN graduates who've never been on a hospital. If any of you is having a hard time finding a job as an RN,move to Florida. Florida hospital is building expansions at all their hospitals. If you want to be a LPN and work at a long term facility, you can do that. If you want to go on to a transition, you can do that as well. Is all how much you want to learn and excel. Whatever you decide to do, break a leg! good luck!

Even if the place says they want one year of experience, go apply anyway. When you talk to human resources, be up front about your issue--how can you get experience if you can't get a job? Ask for suggestions on how to look more appealing, application wise. Continue calling (without being annoying) because frankly, they need the help and if you seem very interested, they will hire you in an instant even without the one year experience.

Many hospitals will not hire LPNs (ours still will, but I see the writing on the wall, eventually it will happen that they do not), but they will hire you in another role. Surgical tech, for example, where your LPN skills will be put to work, but you will be working under a different "name". So keep looking at the hospitals, just don't look under LPN.

Good luck!

BTW, I agree that you did not waste the money. Even just the experience of sitting for the PN boards was worth it, I believe.

Specializes in LTC, med-surg, critial care.
This is not anything new, we have been stating that here for sometime. And I have actually not been a fan of getting the LPN license while you are working on your RN. You are severely limited as to where you can find work, usually not in a hospital setting. I much favor getting the experience as a nurse tech and then you are in a hospital and able to do more procedures and will get better experience if that is what you are looking for.

In my part of California it pays to be an LVN. I got my license and was being paid $18/hr straight out of LVN school. No hospital in my area could touch that.

Throughout my two years of being an LVN I've jumped up to $21.75/hr not because of seniority but because LTC makes a point to pay more than an acute care hospital. When I was in RN school there is no way I could make it on $9/hr only working part time as an RN-intern or SNI (student nurse intern) at the hospital. That extra $12/hour let me work part-time and not kill myself in school.

I am a LPN and of course could get a job at 20 LTC facilities tomorrow but not a one of our hospitals, go figure. Oh well, all I know is I hope I stick to what I said originally when and if I get my RN, any facility that would not hire me as a LPN, can kiss my b__t when I get my RN, because if I wasn't good enough as a LPN, then they won't get me as a RN. Well back to the post, here in Rockford, Illinois there is a nursing shortage.

For what it's worth, my hospital values its LPNs (the ones it does have; hirings are rare). It's absolutely NOT that the hospitals think you "aren't good enough", but rather, that the scope of practice for an LPN is limited enough to make the hiring of RNs MUCH more desirable. The fact of the matter, no matter how great a nurse any LPN is, in most hospital settings their license does not allow them to do the daily procedures the RNs need to do.

If you let the attitude that "they didn't think I was good enough as an LPN" hold you back, you'll deprive yourself of some really good job opportunities, and that would be a shame. Particularly since it's not them thinking you're not good enough, but that your LICENSE is not what they need to operate smoothly. The two aren't equal, they have different scopes of practice, and the fact seems to be that the hospitals in your area need the skillset of the RN, not the LPN. They aren't saying you're not good enough. They're saying they need someone with a different license, that's all.

Get an RN license, and watch how fast you will be snapped up!

Specializes in Med surg, telemetry, LTC.

Where I live ( Westchester County, NY ) LPN's are still hired in some of the local community hospitals. I worked in one ( Med surg and telemetry ) for 6 yrs. Don't get too discouraged.

LTC/rehab is also a great place to get very good and very real hands on experience. And the money as an LPN is much better than a tech.

Specializes in Oncology.

In one of the hospitals that I had been previously employeed, an LPN program was piloted, as they had previously not employed any LPN's at all. The program was piloted on one of the medical-surgical units and I think that it has since dissolved. The LPN's of course could administer meds, but no IV push meds, and could not do assessments. This actually was found to burden the RN's, as the RN staff had been cut, with the assumption that with the LPN's, less RN's would be needed. The remaining RN's thus had to still assess patients, with a much increased patient load (up to 10 pts compared to their previous 5) and still were required to give the IVP medications, including pain meds. Then whenever a patient would "go bad" the RN was still responsible for the emergency treatment and plan, all with a much increased nurse-patient ratio.

There are absolutely places where LPNs are used and highly appreciated! Most LPNs I know have a fantastic work ethic and desire to learn! I think that this is why LPNs are used so often in long-term care; the patient conditions tend to remain a bit more stable and IVP meds are more rare. This provides great opportunity for LPNs...it just doesn't seem to work well in the hospital setting.

Specializes in Cardiac Stepdown and CVSICU.

here is something that i do not understand: knowing that our local hospital has an rn shortage and knowing that a few of the local school allow students to graduate & get their lpn after the first year of clinicals, why not hire some lpns that are in the rn program? that way, they may have a better chance of not only getting the rns they need when these students graduate from the rn programs, but also they will have gn students and new rns with hospital experience and can implement a short preceptorship time. just a thought...:idea:

Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.
For what it's worth, my hospital values its LPNs (the ones it does have; hirings are rare). It's absolutely NOT that the hospitals think you "aren't good enough", but rather, that the scope of practice for an LPN is limited enough to make the hiring of RNs MUCH more desirable. The fact of the matter, no matter how great a nurse any LPN is, in most hospital settings their license does not allow them to do the daily procedures the RNs need to do.

QUOTE]

Well said! Sometimes, people assume the worst and get offended when in reality, the reasons for certain decisions are legitimate and not malicious.

llg

Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.
here is something that i do not understand: knowing that our local hospital has an rn shortage and knowing that a few of the local school allow students to graduate & get their lpn after the first year of clinicals, why not hire some lpns that are in the rn program? that way, they may have a better chance of not only getting the rns they need when these students graduate from the rn programs, but also they will have gn students and new rns with hospital experience and can implement a short preceptorship time. just a thought...:idea:

while that might work in some cases -- particularly if the lpn/rn student signs a contract -- it can cause a lot of problems, complications, and expense in the short run. for example:

1. the staffing ratios are "fouled up" on those shifts when the lpn's work. the usual staffing mix determines how the work is organized. if the staffing mix is not the same every day, then the work flow has to be reorganized every day and that causes confusion among the staff and increases the likelihood that mistakes will be made. a staff runs best (more efficiently and with fewer mistakes) when it has a consistent skill mix.

2. if the staffing matrix (and work flow processes) is set to include the lpn's, then what happens when that lpn graduates? what happens if there is not an rn vacancy on that particular unit at that particular time?

3. what happens if the lpn doesn't graduate? or can't pass nclex-rn in a timely fashion? this "temporary" arrangement now starts becoming long term.

4. what happens if the lpn graduates, but chooses to go elsewhere for an rn job? that negates the hospital's investment.

so ... yes, i can see that in some cases, your idea might work. but hospitals are understandably skittish about creating temporary positions for lpn's and take on the expense and the risks that go with that approach. they are more comfortable creating nursing student tech/extern positions that accomplish the same thing -- but that are clearly not nurses and therefore cause less role confusion, less disruption in the staffing matrix and work flow designs, and cost less.

Specializes in Cardiac Stepdown and CVSICU.
while that might work in some cases -- particularly if the lpn/rn student signs a contract -- it can cause a lot of problems, complications, and expense in the short run. for example:

1. the staffing ratios are "fouled up" on those shifts when the lpn's work. the usual staffing mix determines how the work is organized. if the staffing mix is not the same every day, then the work flow has to be reorganized every day and that causes confusion among the staff and increases the likelihood that mistakes will be made. a staff runs best (more efficiently and with fewer mistakes) when it has a consistent skill mix.

2. if the staffing matrix (and work flow processes) is set to include the lpn's, then what happens when that lpn graduates? what happens if there is not an rn vacancy on that particular unit at that particular time?

3. what happens if the lpn doesn't graduate? or can't pass nclex-rn in a timely fashion? this "temporary" arrangement now starts becoming long term.

4. what happens if the lpn graduates, but chooses to go elsewhere for an rn job? that negates the hospital's investment.

so ... yes, i can see that in some cases, your idea might work. but hospitals are understandably skittish about creating temporary positions for lpn's and take on the expense and the risks that go with that approach. they are more comfortable creating nursing student tech/extern positions that accomplish the same thing -- but that are clearly not nurses and therefore cause less role confusion, less disruption in the staffing matrix and work flow designs, and cost less.

now that you explain it that way, it makes a little more sense to me.

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