Interesting Article

txspadequeenRN, BSN, RN · Mar 22, 2008

who wrote this junk? someone that has probably never stepped into a nursing home. i just don't have time right now to pick this apart and boy i wish i did. i am just about ready to go mental over all this negativity towards lvn's i have encountered lately.

JeanineLPN1984 · Mar 22, 2008

The good DR. hasn't a clue. My program was a 2 year one with an 8 week, 8 hr. a day during the summer rotation. Geriatrics? Well- on any of the med-surg floors the charge nurses would assign all the elderly ones to the student nurses!

I saw more tubes coming out of these patients, then any others that were on the units. And meds- they had twice as many due to chronic conditions before they were hospitalized. The care plans also had all the acute problems and about 7 more problems than the general "young" patient.

Some people will write anything just to get published, instead of the truth. This article is better suited to the fiction section, then reality. Good Day.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Mar 22, 2008

who wrote this junk? someone that has probably never stepped into a nursing home.

he claims to be the medical director of a nursing home in missouri.

eldragon · Mar 22, 2008

BS.

For one thing, a year in an LPN program is like two years in a regular college program. I went a solid year, without a summer vacation, full-time.

We had geriatrics as part of our LPN program. It was a class in itself. What was less important, was that maternal child class. We can't work in L&D, but yet we had an entire class, complete with L&D clinicals, covering it.

Granted - it's all interesting, but still.

I don't think of LPN's as half an RN. More like 3/4.

mrsevans2055 · Mar 22, 2008

hello nurses...i'm a newbie from st.louis missouri....

I just had to comment on this article because i am in complete AWWWW..

The Doctor that wrote this article is the MEDICAL Director of Delmar Gardens here in St.Louis and Delmar Gardens uses Primarly all LPN'S on their floors. I did my clinical rotation at 3 of the many Delmar Gardens Homes and I have a couple of collegues that work for this company now and i know that they would be displeased with the comments of this so called Medical Director! As a LPN myself i break my back day in and day out to ensure that i give the best care to all my patients. I am a new nurse also but i have learned and still learning from some the best LPN'S AND RN and i think this person is a complete and total HYPOCRITE

kat7ap · Mar 22, 2008

Wow....

1. This guy needs to get his research right. Geriatrics IS taught in LPN school. In fact I had a course on that and spent a whole quarter of clinicals in a nursing home.

2. It's not just simply one year a education after high school. Many schools require prereq's and go all year long with only short breaks. That would be like saying an ADN has only 2 years of post high school, when we know it's more like 3-4.

3. Maybe if LTC facilities gave more than 3 days or orientation (mine was actually 2 days as a new grad!) for LPNs, they would be much better prepared! Oh and how about lessening the resident load too. In most cases it is close to dangerous and nurses are completely overworked and overwhelmed.

maestrotee · Mar 23, 2008

That was just crazy talk. I don't know what school he researched but the last two years of my life would have been a whole lot easier if I would have gone there! First of all, our classes start off right along with the RN students ... Pharmacology, MedSurg 1, 2, and 3, Mother/Baby, Pediatrics, AND Geriatrics! With 16 weeks of the whole lost year (going all year long I might add) in TWO different nursing homes. The ONLY classes I have to finish in the 'transition' program is critical care (MedSurg 4), some kind of community mursing, and Psych Nursing (and I've worked in Psych for 14 years so I could do without it). If I was unprepared at all for the job that I'm in at a LTCF, it wasn't because I was under-educated, it's because I only got TWO days of orientation before I was kicked out to the floor on my own! RN's in the hospital here get THREE MONTHS! And THAT, good DR., is why some LPN's appear ill-prepared. Because LTCF's like yours put them out too quick and make them responsible for too many people at once. One of the RN's worked to fill in on our floor when we were short-staffed and she had the same exact complaints about the situations we are unhappy about ... and it wasn't the 'uneducated LPN's' ... this kinda stuff makes me so angry! :angryfire

bluegeegoo2, LPN · Mar 23, 2008

Are you kidding me? What school is he talking about? We thoroughly covered EVERYTHING he thinks we're short on except the MDS stuff, which we have 4 nurses assigned to each unit for. I assess residents and implement solutions everyday. I know disease processes, otherwise I would not have known to send out a res the other day with gallbladder symptoms. GRRRRRRRR!!!!! I am really, REALLY tired of hearing how my education is not good enough to do anything other than pass meds. And I've only been a nurse for 4 months!! People like him that writes crap like that is why we have it as hard as we do. No matter how hard we try to be the best nurse we can, there seems to be someone there to shoot us down. God forbid any families read that article. Imagine the fun we'll have then! Sorry for ranting, but things like that just get in my crawl.

Jules A, MSN · Mar 23, 2008

"LPNs receive about one year of training after high school and are licensed by individual states. Thereafter they receive no geriatric or specific long-term care training. Instead they usually undergo an apprenticeship of sorts at a nursing home."

What an insulting article. When I started LPN school I had 45 college credits, a 4.0 gpa and although I'm sure I looked like I was fresh out of high school, lol, I was nearly 40.

FWIW I'm now 8 weeks away from graduating from the RN program, knock wood/antijinx, and I can say for sure that my LPN education was top notch. My grades are among the top in the class and already 25% of the second year RN students have failed out of the program. In LPN school I had plenty of experience in geriatrics with two nursing home rotations and also the geriatric med/surg unit of two hospitals. I guess what I'm saying is that this author has no clue about LPN education or skills.

gentlegiver, ASN, LPN, RN · Mar 28, 2008

I got the impression that the article was meant to point out that additional courses should be opened to LPN's for additional training. But it was stated in such an insulting manner! :banghead:

I guess the good Dr will learn just what LPN's do when he has the good fortune to placed under our care. :saint: