Acknowledgment of the different levels of nursing

Recently My class and I went to the ARNA and NSNA state convention in Hot Springs. The Keynote speaker was Doctorate prepared and an advocate of geriatric nursing. Her focus was susposed to be in the implementation of a program, within the next 5 years, called geriatric excellence in Nursing, focusing on nursing homes. She wants the nursing homes to become magnet status as some hospitals are. During her speech, ( I guess she was unaware that there were ASN RN's and LPN's in the crowd), she bashed the ASN RN, and LPN role in the nursing home, and praised the Med Tech role. Her statement was to the effect of ' I would like to see all nursing homes have only BSN nurses, and Med techs, because LPN's are not competent to perform basic care nor do they have any management experience.... Our patients have pressure sores because the LPN's are not turning them'.

Needless to say my class, who are all LPN's that will graduate as RN in december, got up and walked out. We were not the only school to do this.

My points are as follows,

1) The nursing field is composed of many levels of education, and we all depend on each other.

2) Med techs are dangerous, and their skills and level of education is questionable, being do they assess heart rate and BP before giving digoxin and other medications that can alter vital signs?

3) The nursing shortage is real enough as it is, do we need to futher compromise patient safety by deleting the ASN RN and the LPN?.Not everyone has the time or money to become a BSN.

4) In a perfect world all nurses could be BSN and above, but then in a perfect world no one would be ill.

I have since learned that a northern state has deleted the LPN programs all together, and is replacing LPN's with Med tech's or RN's.

Although I plan to go on to the Master Degree program, I will always be a LPN and ASN RN advocate.