LPN's Role in the ICU?

Yes it can and does differ widely from state to state and many of you here are forgetting that.
CV LVN is in TX where there are very few restrictions on LVN practice, so titrating drips and IV push meds are everyday practice for LVN's in TX.

Blanket statements such as LVN's creating an unsafe environment in the ICU, particularly from those of you who have admitted to have never worked with LVN's, need to get some experience actually working with them before making statements about things you've never experienced yourself.
Many RN's I've worked with create an unsafe environment as well and yet they continue to work in ICU and really shouldn't be there.


I worked in ICU as an LVN and it was overall a good experience and the RN and LVN worked well together.
But for states that have a relatively restricted LVN/LPN practice act, I too would question LVN's working in ICU.
After all, how many PO meds or drips that don't need to be titrated does the average ICU patient have? Probably next to none in most cases.

Now that the tables have turned and I'm now the RN, my hospital does not use LVN's in any critical care area so I really don't know what it would be like to have the role in reverse.
But I often wish that my hospital would change this policy as I've spent many shifts babysitting clueless RN's who I'd gladly trade for a solid ICU trained LVN any day.

RN34TX has some good points. Here in Texas LVN's are not as limited in their practice. And an RN who knows nothing about what they are doing in an ICU setting is a scary thing. But I do say, and I practiced as an LVN for 3 years, that LVNs should not practice in an ICU setting. I don't know if things have changed in the past years but when I was in school at the LVN level they did not teach us critical drips, vents, swans, etc which are common every day things in the unit. LVNs are being phased out here in Central Texas, where I work now they don't even hire them. The last hospital I worked at in West Texas informed the few LVNs that they had working in the ICU that they had like 12 months in which to obtain their RN or they would be transfered to a non-critical area even if they had been working in the unit for years.

RN's don't come out of school being able to manage drips, vents, and swans either.
That's why they have internships and preceptorships for new grads in ICU that often last 3 months or longer. They need the additional training that goes beyond the basic RN cirriculum.

But they are at least exposed to them. In my critical care rotaion (last semester of my ADN) we had extensive hemodynamic teachings as well as some major pharmacology including critical drips.

Ok, I'm going to get on my soap box here.....

I am an LVN, and have worked in ICU/CCU...taking my OWN patient load and doing my own IV pushes, IV meds, drips, calling docs, everything. I had no RN working with my patient's and sure never had an RN display an attitude towards me. It is VERY stereotypical to be making these comments about LVN's. Excuse me, but I know how to assess my patient's and was responsible for a full head to toe shift assessment on each patient. FYI - I'll run circles around some RN's and leave them spinning, and I'm guessing me and some other LVN's could do the same for some of you with your attitudes. Get over your BSn (b*llsh*t nurse) if you're going to have an attitude like that. RN's are technically considered Professional Nurses, but in your cases, I would have to beg to differ. Now, don't get me wrong, there are some LVN's who lack critical care skills, but HELLO - there are RN's that lack critical care skills also!

You're nursing degree does not testify to what type of a nurse you are, how good you are, how crisp your assessment skills are or anything, it just states how long you went to school. I know everyone can attest that nursing school does not define a person as what type of nurse they will be. That's my 2 cents, some of your attitudes just FLOOR me!

True.
However, given the minimal amount of info that seems to be retained by most that I've worked with, I have to question whether this clinical experience really makes a big difference in the long run.
I've never oriented LVN's to ICU so I can't compare, but it seems that I'm starting from scratch when explaining the concepts of vents and drips to newbies at the same level I was taught as an LVN going to ICU.
I guess I figured that an RN grad would already have some of this down to a greater extent than I did as an LVN in learning these things but that doesn't seem to be the case in my experience.
And I'm not sure just how extensive your program was, but I have yet to run across a new grad who comes out of school able to read a strip even on a 101 level (brady vs. tachy vs. v-tach) unless they were previously paramedics or telemetry LVN's or something along those lines.

Well by the time I graduated, I had already read Dubin and knew how to interpret 12 leads. Maybe we could stop making generalizations and take each nurse on a case by case basis.