I'm a new grad LPN, and I went for an interview today at my local hospital. I got offered the Job
But one thing concerned me. I kept asking the director about whether they provide IV certification (I believe LPNs need this legally to start IVs), and she never said yes. She just kept referring me to the competency based orientation....i.e. one of the competencies states "Complete IV therapy certification as per nursing policy and procedure to include 3 successful venipunctures." Apparently my preceptor will sign off on my competency sheet for each of the 3 IVs I start. However, she didn't ever say, "Yes after you do this, you'll be certified." She said something along the lines of, "LPNs can start IVs if an RN is supervising."
When she took me down to the education center, I even asked the lady there if they provide IV certification, she was like "Uhg..." Then the director jumped in and told me that everything in the competencies packet/list is within the practice of an LPN. Fair enough, but that still didn't answer my question.
The hours are going to be very harsh....nights 7am-7pm 2 days on, two days off. I'm hesitant to take this job now, because I feel like they get new grad LPNs to complete these competencies and think they are getting IV certified when they're not or they just rely on the new grad being ignorant of the fact that they must be certified to perform IVs independently.
Of course it's my responsibility to make sure I'm certified, but I just wanted to know whether I could get certified at this hospital. I would rather she'd have told me, "Look, you gotta sort that out on your own. We don't offer it here," or "Yeah, sure. We do certify you when you complete the competencies."
She did neither, and every time I asked the same question, I got the same rhetoric. I just think if they were providing the IV certification, she would have given me a straight yes, but she didn't.
When ever you ask someone a yes or no question and they just start on about something else then say something like, "Don't worry about it. You'll be comfortable with it," it makes me wonder.
I'm tempted to call the education center at the hospital and ask them about it, but I don't want this director to feel like I've gone behind her back. I could tell already she was getting frustrated at me for asking the same question again and again. Maybe I missed the point and the competency part counts as my certification. I don't know.
any advice?
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