Does LPN spend more time with patient than RN?

[JBirdAngel]

Hello,

My understanding is that CNA's spend the most time with a patient and thus have the biggest affect on patients in that way, which is one reason to choose CNAing over RNing, are there any other reasons? (i do realize the difference in pay)

Also is an LPN kind of in the middle between a CNA and an RN, do they spend more time with the patient then the RN? or how does that kinda work.

thanks - jason

[all4schwa]

it all depends on the job....

mostly lpn's and rn's if in the same job position (ie. hospital), spend the same amount of time at the bedside. where i work, i have half as many patients as the cna's and i bet i'm there more than they are.

when i worked in long term care as a cna, i spent more time with the patients than the nurses as they has 2 or 3 times as many patients as me...

[lorster]

We use the team leading approach. RN's and LPN's get the same number of patients, then we have two CNA's for 35 to 38 patients. So you can see that our CNA's are spread pretty thin. The nurses have the most contact with their patients because we do the baths, beds, assessments, vital signs, I/O, glucometers, meds, assist with procedures. The aides answer lights and fill water pitchers. So, you can guess who spends the majority of time with the patients at our hospital.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

In my hospital, I don't think any of us have the opportunity to spend quality time with our patients, to be honest. We're spread too thin.

[marilynmom, LPN, NP]

I'm a CNA in a hospital and I don't spend anymore time with the patients than the RN does.