Currently getting my RN, can I get an LPN while going through the motions?

caliotter3 · Jun 15, 2012

You need to find out from the nursing board in you state whether or not this is possible. If allowed in your state, then you have to approach your school and see if they will participate or not. Just because it is allowed in some states, does not mean that one's school will cooperate.

Stephalump · Jun 15, 2012

I think that's something you'd have to ask your school about. Our school has what they call a MEEP program - Multiple Entry, Multiple Exit. After our first year, we can sit for the LVN NCLEX, but we have to spend the summer taking a special class to get the sufficient amount of clinical hours. We don't get enough in that first year alone to qualify to sit.

elkpark · Jun 15, 2012

I would encourage you to think carefully about this path. I taught in an ADN program in which the state BON and the program allowed students to write the NCLEX-PN after they completed the first year of the ADN program (some of the ADN faculty even encouraged students to do this). What I saw was that the students who did it ended up applying for positions at the local LTCs (which were the only places in the area hiring LPNs), which promised them great orientations, lots of support, flexibility working around their school schedules, etc. -- and then did none of those things. The students found themselves, after a very brief orientation, attempting to do med passes on 40 to 50 patients, working alone at night, basically thrown to the wolves. In my experience, the students who were attempting to do this either flunked out of the ADN program (or came very close to doing so) or quit the LPN jobs.

Students underestimate the degree of time and stress involved in adapting to the role of working nurse (whether RN or LPN), even in a part-time position. Either adjusting to being a new LPN or going to nursing school is more than a "full plate" by itself -- trying to do both simultaneously is, IMHO, just asking for trouble.

brillohead, ADN, RN · Jun 15, 2012

It depends on how your program is set up -- you'd have to ask your BON and/or your school.

My ADN program is set up so that students have the necessary classes and clinicals to be able to take the NCLEX-LPN after the end of the first year of programming. (I'm in the part-time program, so it is after the first three semesters that we can test for the LPN license.)

Some of my classmates in the part-time program are working as LPNs now as we finish the RN portion of our program, some of my classmates ended up failing out of Med-Surg II and were glad to have the LPN to fall back on (our program also has an LPN-to-RN bridge program, wherein the students who failed out can work as an LPN for a year, then come back into the program again to complete their RN). Some of the full-time students got their LPN license just for the heck of it, but are only working over the summer, or will only be working part-time until they complete school.

Whether you can get your LPN part-way through your program, though, depends on what is included in your program and what your state's BON requires. FYI, if getting your LPN isn't an option with the way your school is structured, most hospitals will hire you as a "patient care technician" after you've completed your first Med-Surg class/clinical, even without having a CNA license.

msannaa · Jun 30, 2016

So, this is up to the school?

JustBeachyNurse, LPN · Jun 30, 2016

So, this is up to the school?

The state board of nursing (NJ this is not an option) then the school if they choose to participate if the BoN deems it an option

Eiliyah · Aug 20, 2016

Hello,

I am quite impressed with your thorough reply, Can I ask you a couple of questions I mean can I ask you some advice?