LPN vs. RN

[Pneumothorax]

I learned in class yesterday the scope of practice of LPN's and it seems to me very limited. Is there a reason one would chose to become an LPN over an RN?

(i know some do it bc of $ or as a step to RN) but some stay at LPN for 20+ years.

Clarification please. Id like to understand their use and scope a little bit better :)

Thanks in advance.

[Merlyn]

As long as Nurses are Human, there are going to be fights, superior attitudes, Excellent Nurses,and idiots. The thing that I have learn in the centuries that I have been a LPN is : Come in, do your job, get paid and go home. I try not to take the job home with me or let the Kings /Queens of Nursing bother me. RNs, LPNs, they are all the same to me We are nurses.

[Fiona59]

I'm from Alberta, and while the LPNs and RNs do have different scopes, I find they are still quite similar. I have been on many clinical placements where we were buddied with LPNs even though I'm an RN student.

Here they are allowed to do complete assessments, teach patients and families, initiate and and maintain IVs, give every type of injection and medication (except they need an RN co-sign before giving narcotics), and, well, almost anything an RN can do.

The only things (so far) that I've noticed they can't do is be the charge nurse on the floor, spike a blood product, and the narcotics without the co-sign. I've heard that "LPNs do the work, RNs do the paperwork" thing before - NOT true (unless you're a manager or a charge or work in community, where there is always more paperwork) - but they both have the same amount of signing and charting to do no matter what your title is!

In the end, I do believe we get taught more initially about the rationale behind why we do what we do - but much of the time, I'm going to trust a 10+ year LPN over my brand-new grad ideas. It seems like RNs have more of an opening to get their masters, doctorates, NPs, etc, and they push that here if you plan on becoming an RN. The government is trying to phase out RNs and hire LPNs with the rationale that they're the same thing. Instead, they want to RNs to go into NP roles to relieve the physician shortage here or focus on teaching.

I personally know a lot of people who were trying to get into the RN programs but didn't make the marks, so they went for LPN or RPN instead. A lot of them were still happy they could do what they wanted, be done sooner, have a stable career, provide for their families, etc. And for others, it was probably a good thing they only spent the 2 years in school for LPN, since they worked for a few months and found out that hated it.

The only down-fall here, though, is that you get no recognition if you're an LPN and want to become an RN - they make you start the 4 years from scratch!

I went for RN because I knew it was what I wanted, and I wanted to have the masters and NP options open for me when I finished.[/quote

Uhm, I work in Alberta as an LPN. The only time I need a co-sign on a narcotic is to witness a waste, which an RN also requires. True, we can't pierce the blood or travisol bag.

The current education programme for PN students in Alberta is the old RN diploma programme.

The Registered Psychiatric Nurse (RPN) programme is due to become a Bachelors course in the near future.

I know more than a few RNs who are stuck there because their degree only allows them to be nurses and would love to get out of the profession but sstudent loans keep them there. CNE positions are now requiring Masters and there are only a limited number of NP seats in university.

[Fiona59]

Basic assessment/data collection all just different names for the same thing IMHO so far as what I'm expected to do on the job.. From what my NCLEX reviewer told us about issue was the key difference is LVN's can't assess bowel sounds. For the NCLEX you call it data collection but in reality it's assessing..

That's a joke, right????

Bowel Sounds??? I guess my hospital's colo-rectal and GI units would be that person's worst nightmare. They're staffed 50/50 RN/LPN.