canadian lpn not a "nurse"?

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Hello all,

let me begin by saying I am in the lpn program and loving it. The other day, I was told by a presently employed lpn that lpns are just NOT nurses. She firmly told me that the world "nurse" was protected by the resgistered nurse and was NOT to be used to describe an lpn. I was really surprised and hurt by this. All that I am putting into this I won't even be recondnized as a "nurse"? If this isn't correct, does anyone have some kind of legal document that I could read that tells me that I will be able to identify myself as a NURSE and not feel like I'm pretending to be someone I am not?

Oh, and I'm in New-Brunswick.

Thanks so much in advance.

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Specializes in Intensive Care.

Hi,

I'm a degreed nurse. I believe LPNs are nurses and I believe the CLPNA states the same. The LPNs are a great help and definately lighten the workload. Most are clever and perfectly capable of caring for semi-complex patients. To avoid stuffing my foot in my mouth, I will stop there.

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Uhm, yup. My workload consists of five patients just like the RN's on my unit. I do all meds except IV for my five and the RN does her five. In the last week, I've had one patient on IV meds, so I don't think I increased the RN on my side of the units workload (she did my IV med, I did her bloodsugar and insulin).

So, no LPNs on the unit and the RNs would be looking at 10 patients or the health authority would be looking at a much higher salary cost to keep the patient ratio as it stands now.

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Again, sorry for my ignorance, but if there is such a small difference why would anyone choose to do 4 years vs 4 semesters? (or 5). I am assuming that although the pay difference is about $10/hr-the pay is still okay.

Are the roles and responisbilities the same? Is there room for extended scope as an LPN? Room for promotion? I DO NOT WANT TO START AN ARGUEMENT!!!! I just want information.Thank you

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Specializes in med surg,telemetry, Psych, ICU.
:sofahider Please excuse my ignorance and not wishing to offend anyone, but please could someone explain to me what is the difference between LPN/LVN and RN?

Thank you

An LPN (licensed practical nurse) and LVN (licensed vocational nurse) are used interchangably, i think there used to be some sort of difference, I think the vocational nurses were trained on the job, and the LPNs were taught traditionally, with therory and clinicals. RNs are Registered nurses who have completed more schooling, and have a full scope of practice, including starting IVs, hanging piggybacks on IVs, giving IV pushes, and other skills. In the US, many LPNs can be IV certified, which enables them to start and maintain IVs and hang piggybacks, but not to give IV pushes or hang blood. New RNs in Canada now must be educated with a Bachelor of Science-Nursing education, while in the US, i believe the only state to demand BSN nurses is South Dakota.

Hope that helped.

corificenurse.

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hi,

I personally believe that LPN, RPN, RN, LVN are all "nurses"..

In school, we are taught that we are also called 'nurses', and I believe so.

By the way, I'm a graduating practical nursing student here in Philippines. I plan to work there in Canada (hoping we (my family) will be given a VISA this year or early next year). My question is - where am I going to take the NCLEX exam? Can I take it in Hongkong? (it's the nearest country here giving NCLEX exam) or should I take it there in Canada? I heard that if I take nclex in hongkong or saipan, Canada might not honor my license.

Kindly help me and englighten me on what to do.

Thank you very much.

God bless :wink2:

ella

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Specializes in med/surg.
Again, sorry for my ignorance, but if there is such a small difference why would anyone choose to do 4 years vs 4 semesters? (or 5). I am assuming that although the pay difference is about $10/hr-the pay is still okay.

Are the roles and responisbilities the same? Is there room for extended scope as an LPN? Room for promotion? I DO NOT WANT TO START AN ARGUEMENT!!!! I just want information.Thank you

I noticed you were from the UK so I'll give you an explanation that will make sense to you.

Basically the LPN/LVN is what we used to call an enrolled nurse. That training no longer exists but I'm sure you remember them. They used to train for 2 years not 3 & had a more limited scope of practice, & were termed "C" grades under the old pay system.

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I'm going to be flamed for this, but I think the very fact that no one seemed to know a) that they were nurses and b) where to go to prove this shows why LPN's SHOULDN'T be considered nurses. As does the fact that a practicing LPN doesn't know why there's an age restriction on who LPN's can give injections to.

The program is just too short, with people graduating from it as young as 19. I personally think nurses would get more credibility as professionals without graduates of an 18 month program sharing our title.

If you're going to be licensed, you should know something about the College licensing you. The College (in Ontario at least) is very clear on who is and isn't a nurse, and I can't believe they don't teach you that...in the RN program, we are choked with College documents. That's a failing of the program, I guess. But I think it shows a lack of wherewithal that you come to a forum, instead of looking up the easily accessible info yourself.

You can't give an injection to a five year old because LPN's are only licensed to care for stable patients, and kids are not considered stable.

I'm going to cut you some slack because you are still a student and sound very young and inexperienced. This thread was started over a year ago by someone who was looking into PN education. There are RN's and LPNs who have their prejudices and lack knowledge into their roles in the workplace. Many PN's I work with refuse to do any vaccinations at all because it is additional training at our own expense to learn the skill and we receive no upgrade in pay for it. The employer gets a more valuable PN without any additional cost.

Some areas of the country are very restrictive in their scope of practice for PN while other provinces utilize us to our full training and knowledge base.

The PN programme I attended fully educated us in our scope of practice and our legal requirements. It also included a session in interpersonal skills and how to deal with "dinosaur" RNs with pre-existing prejudices towards us. The programme had a waitlist of up to two years, and we graduated no graduates of 19. Currently its two years to be a PN and the average age in my area is 30.

If you complete your degree and become a working nurse, I hope you learn tolerance and during your clinicals you will respect that nurse working with you to teach you your skills, because many times you will find out that that nurse is a PN graduate. Our nametags aren't a different colour, we don't have tattoos on our foreheads, we just slog along doing our jobs.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.
hi,

I plan to work there in Canada (hoping we (my family) will be given a VISA this year or early next year). My question is - where am I going to take the NCLEX exam? Can I take it in Hongkong? (it's the nearest country here giving NCLEX exam) or should I take it there in Canada? I heard that if I take nclex in hongkong or saipan, Canada might not honor my license.

Kindly help me and englighten me on what to do.

ella

I am compelled to ask why you are talking about working in Canada in one breath and taking the NCLEX in the next. If you plan to work in Canada, you will have to take the Canadian Practical Registered Nurse exam (CPRNE). As far as I can tell, nurses trained outside Canada, no matter where, must take this exam. And also as far as I can tell, there are no foreign testing sites, it would have to be written in Canada. The NCLEX is for nurses planning to work in the US.

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I'm going to be flamed for this, but I think the very fact that no one seemed to know a) that they were nurses and b) where to go to prove this shows why LPN's SHOULDN'T be considered nurses. As does the fact that a practicing LPN doesn't know why there's an age restriction on who LPN's can give injections to.

You can't give an injection to a five year old because LPN's are only licensed to care for stable patients, and kids are not considered stable.

I guess you need to notify the Children's Hospitals out west that children aren't considered stable, LPN's staff these units and care for children who are fresh post-ops....

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
Originally Posted by gaijingal

I'm going to be flamed for this, but I think the very fact that no one seemed to know a) that they were nurses and b) where to go to prove this shows why LPN's SHOULDN'T be considered nurses.

Do you have ACTUAL PROOF that NO ONE knows that LPNs are nurses? LOL

There's quite a few people out there that do not know what an RN's job consist of. Using your rationale, well heck, RNs shouldn't be nurses either :rolleyes:

Thanks for the laugh, i needed it LOL. (after a long hard day at work as a licensed practical nurse)

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Specializes in LTC, Community.

on my unit our RPN's and RN's work side by side... and pretty much do the same thing... only difference is that our RPN's cannot push an IV drug and hang certain drugs (that we hardly use)...

I asked my coworkers how they felt about this issue.. and they both feel both types of nurses are vital to the team...

The CNO identifies RPN's as nurses.. It is actually in the Professional Standards. It states "in Ontario, nursing is one profession with two categories - RN and RPN" and in their little footer it states "the term nurse refers to both RN and RPN"

sounds to me like an RPN is a nurse...

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Hello..

I find this question very interesting! I'm a new graduate nurse (not yet registered..waiting for those results to come in). With my short experience i've learned how necessary it is to learn to work and communicate efficiently with all members of staff in a health care Center. There are registered nurses, lpn's, rpn's, etc. I believe there are different kinds of nurses, wich may sometimes be confusing to our patients. They may wonder, *Which nurse is it that is going to bring my pills? Who's going to bathe me this morning?* etc... No matter what *kind of nurse* we are, our goals and priorities remain the same: the well being of our clients! And i believe that we should recognize each and every role we play in the care plans of our clients, and its important that they know who we are and what each one of us has to do with their health care.

I don't know if I've even answered the question but I felt i could reply somehow to this forum because it is something that I myself have been wondering, so I figured I could present my opinion. I hope also that I haven't offended anybody! By the way cool site I love it

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