I just had to comment..I've read so much about how hospitals don't need/use lpns & how ltc is all they're good for, blah blah blah...my dad has been in the hospital all week after having his prostate removed. I never used to pay any attention to the letters on the nametags, but of course now I do. It was an lpn caring for him 90% of the time. They did initital assesement, meds, messed with his IV, wound care, everything. They didn't have to run & ask the RN before they did something & all I saw of an RN was when he needed a new IV started & morphine pushed. When I was talking to an lpn about starting my program next month, she said "good, this hospital is desperate for lpns" They;re in the OR, ER, peds, & she said they hang blood products, too. After all the "lpns are just glorified aides" crap I've been hearing, it felt so good to see them doing "real nursing". If i hadn;t looked at nametags, I would not have ever known which ones were RN & which were LPN. So, all you current & future lpns.....we are needed & appreciated!!!!!
Not skewed perception. That's the way I have seen it in my clinical rotations in Arkansas. Sorry you disagree. I'm certainly not saying that RNs don't care, just that the job desciption is different.
They use LPNs here in the hospital I work at much as you describe. Of course the RN is ultimately in charge of the care, usually the LPNs I work with are essentially on their own, and as was stated the RN becomes involved if the LPN comes to us with a problem.
Glad your experience with your dad was positive. Good luck in school. I think hospital LPNs have too great a responsibility for the amount of money they are paid. For a little extra schooling, you can make 200 to 300 more a week and essentially do the same thing. :chair:
I think hospital LPNs have too great a responsibility for the amount of money they are paid. For a little extra schooling, you can make 200 to 300 more a week and essentially do the same thing. :chair:
That is what sometimes haunts me when I think about how hard I am working to get in to LPN school especially b/c I have a husband with an injury from when he was in the Navy that is going to sooner than later leave him out of work permanently. But I am comfortable with starting here and moving on when I feel confident with myself as a nurse. RN's do have enormous responsibility. In the end, as long as my future patients will have received the best care I can give them...then that is all that really matters.
Not skewed perception. That's the way I have seen it in my clinical rotations in Arkansas. Sorry you disagree. I'm certainly not saying that RNs don't care, just that the job desciption is different.
And the LPNs 'care' more than the RNs? There are plenty of RNs, LPNs, CNAs, NPs and yes even doctors who don't care. You made a very broad generalization
They use LPNs here in the hospital I work at much as you describe. Of course the RN is ultimately in charge of the care, usually the LPNs I work with are essentially on their own, and as was stated the RN becomes involved if the LPN comes to us with a problem.
Glad your experience with your dad was positive. Good luck in school. I think hospital LPNs have too great a responsibility for the amount of money they are paid. For a little extra schooling, you can make 200 to 300 more a week and essentially do the same thing. :chair:
That is so true and is why I am pursuing my RN degree.Working in the hospital LPN's are getting assigned the same patient loads as the RN.The only difference is that you have to have an RN in charge on floor or at least in house.But honestly it was the reason I became an LPN when I was a CNA.I was working so hard for so little.Now I am going up another notch.
I have worked in two states since licensed and definately know that in both states we did the same hosp.work except for supervisory work.We pushed the same cart for codes.But I am so glad I took this route.I appreciate it so much more than if I would have gone straight to college for RN.I hope one day I can have feelings for those I supervise and keep a humble attitude.I have always appreciated that in quite a few supervisors.
I'm still looking for a job as an LPN. All summer I've been sending resumes to hosptials up to 80 miles to the east of me and 80 miles to the west. Even if there wasn't a position open for an LPN or if they required experience.
I'm beginning to realize that if I was a RN, I'd have no problems getting a job, even with no experience. Maybe they should shut down the PN schools since the hospitals don't need them.
Ok, I'm getting off my soap box now. Long day of job hunting and I'm tired.
I just had to comment..I've read so much about how hospitals don't need/use lpns & how ltc is all they're good for, blah blah blah...my dad has been in the hospital all week after having his prostate removed. I never used to pay any attention to the letters on the nametags, but of course now I do. It was an lpn caring for him 90% of the time. They did initital assesement, meds, messed with his IV, wound care, everything. They didn't have to run & ask the RN before they did something & all I saw of an RN was when he needed a new IV started & morphine pushed. When I was talking to an lpn about starting my program next month, she said "good, this hospital is desperate for lpns" They;re in the OR, ER, peds, & she said they hang blood products, too. After all the "lpns are just glorified aides" crap I've been hearing, it felt so good to see them doing "real nursing". If i hadn;t looked at nametags, I would not have ever known which ones were RN & which were LPN. So, all you current & future lpns.....we are needed & appreciated!!!!!
Take advantage of it while you can. LPN's in Ok are the lowest paid nurse and it seems that they are being slowly phased out. The hospitals here start their LPN's out at 9.50 and not much higher than that. LTC starts out at 15 if you are lucky.
I agree that the role of the LPN is changing, but in my hospital, we use LPN's and they are a very important part of our team! I know that our LPN's function to the extent of their scope of practice and that is a good thing. I am glad you are going to school to be an LPN (to the OP). I was an LPN for 17 years. Yes, it was tough to get hospital jobs as an LPN, but they are out there. Of course, sometimes it really depends on your area. I think that being an LPN can be a wonderful life career decision or it can be a stepping stone to becoming and RN. The choice is really yours. :)
J.Lynn, What part of Louisiana are you from. I am from New Orleans. There are a lot of jobs available in hospitals and including nursing homes if you wanted to work in a nursing home. I graduated in May and recently passed boards. I have a couple of jobs line up. You can go on Nola.com and go on Healthcare jobs. There are alot of hospital jobs available for LPNs for Med Surg, Telemetry, and so forth. It seems like it depends on your area.
Where LPN's can work and what they are allowed to do differs greatly by state, but there are certain things that are the same across the board. When you take your RN boards you are asked questions regarding delegating tasks to an LPN, and the correct answer always entails that you never delegate anything that requires assessment or discharge planning to the LPN. When they ask any questions on the boards about scope of practice, they must be questions that pertain to all 50 states because the NCLEX is identical no matter what state you take the test in. Here in NY, hospitals rarely use LPN's anymore, if they do its usually for a general med surg floor, or sometimes for postpartum, but that becoming more rare nowadays. We only have 1 LPN in our ER, and she is only allowed to work in fast track. She is allowed to start IV's and give PO/IM/SQ meds, but if there is anything beyond that, she must send the patient over the the main ED for treatment. She is an excellent nurse, and its a shame that we cant use her in our main ED, but there are so many things that we do routinely as RN's that are out of the scope of practice in NY for an LPN, that if she took her own assignment the RN's would need to do half of the work for each patient, especially in ER. She would not be able to give half the meds in our MI protocol, or morphine IV push for an abdominal pain, or start a GI bleeder on a protonix drip, ect. Almost any type of patient that was not a low acuity would require interventions that are out of the scope of practice for her. I believe in NYS an LPN is allowed to monitor a patient that is recieving a blood transfusion, but they are not allowed to actually hang it or verify it.
As far as the original poster stating that the LPN was the one in charge of the care, it may appear that way, but at the end of the day the RN is the one responsible. An RN may delegate certain tasks to the LPN such as giving certain meds, or certain dressing changes, ect, and the patient and the family may see the LPN more often then they see the RN, which may give the appearance that the LPN is the one in charge of the care. IMO, if you have a competent RN/LPN team for an assignment of patients and you are seeing the LPN very often, than you can (usually) assume that the patient is doing OK. If I was the RN on an LPN/RN team, I would assign the LPN with the patients that were stable and doing OK, while I cared for patients that were sicker, or required treatments/procedures/assessment that I could not delegate to the LPN.
I am not implying by this post that LPN's are not capable nurses, or that they are not a valuable part of the healthcare team. I was an LPN for 6 years (worked for 2) before I got my RN, and I know that I did an excellent job and that I provided good care for my patients. I had a difficult time finding a job as an LPN, and when I did, it was in LTC. No hospitals would hire me without at least a year of experience, and by the time that I had a year of consecutive experience, I was already in the RN program and could not dedicate 6 weeks to a hospital orientation.
I think as new nurses and as nursing students (I remember as I am only out of school a little over a year), you tend to focus on tasks and procedures. When you gain experience you realize that procedures are the least important part of nursing. You can have a phlebotomist start your IV, or your respiratory therapist administer a treatment/suction a patient. What is important is that you as the nurse (LPN or RN) can look at this patient in front of you and be able to tell if this patient is doing ok, and to quickly recognize when things are not right, and knowing what to do when this happens. You achieve this through education and experience, which you will have when you graduate from LPN school and become an awesome nurse!
Angel, I had two interviews with Ochsner, even shadowed a nurse for a few hours, and they never called me back (how rude). So I found a small 25 bed hospital in Franklin that was very welcoming toward me. I will even be able to work in the nursery.
boxerlewis
6 Posts
Not skewed perception. That's the way I have seen it in my clinical rotations in Arkansas. Sorry you disagree. I'm certainly not saying that RNs don't care, just that the job desciption is different.