Any LVNs/ LPNs in med surg? Any advice on med surg?

Fiona59 · Nov 9, 2013

I work in Canada and can honestly tell you there are no plans to phase LPNs out of acute care. America is a different story. You are in either Texas or California, which has different job markets.

The duties are just the same as they were in college. Report, start work, prioritize which patient is needing what first. We can carry upto five patients on a day shift but most days they try to give each nurse only three.

Vitals, pain meds, am care if required, routine meds, wound care, charting, answer questions, get ready any patients that need to go for xray, CT, whatever. Find charts if there are students on the unit or the porter didn't bring them back from wherever.

The RNs that I know went to ICU found that they were over prepared for it. Our unit is the one ICU discharges to and trainwrecks were our specialty. Several said they found that the doctors spoke down to them as they were used to new hires going to ICU not experienced staff. They did enjoy having fewer patients.

Several hospitals in my authority are introducing LPNs to their ICUs.

Robins19, LVN · Nov 10, 2013

I work in Canada and can honestly tell you there are no plans to phase LPNs out of acute care. America is a different story. You are in either Texas or California, which has different job markets.
The duties are just the same as they were in college. Report, start work, prioritize which patient is needing what first. We can carry upto five patients on a day shift but most days they try to give each nurse only three.
Vitals, pain meds, am care if required, routine meds, wound care, charting, answer questions, get ready any patients that need to go for xray, CT, whatever. Find charts if there are students on the unit or the porter didn't bring them back from wherever.
The RNs that I know went to ICU found that they were over prepared for it. Our unit is the one ICU discharges to and trainwrecks were our specialty. Several said they found that the doctors spoke down to them as they were used to new hires going to ICU not experienced staff. They did enjoy having fewer patients.
Several hospitals in my authority are introducing LPNs to their ICUs.

You guessed right. I'm in California and it is so hard to find and hospital work as an LVN unless you know the right people. I'm not sure if the states run the ICU's the way Canada does, but it sounds like Canada is the place to be.

SquishyRN, BSN, RN · Nov 10, 2013

There is more than one way to reach your goal. Even if hospitals are no longer hiring LVNs, it's not like that's where you have to start right out of the door.

I currently work at an LTACH which has several Med-Surg units and an ICU. The Med-Surg patients are not that different from Med-Surg patients at an acute hospital. In fact, when I was in clinicals for my RN program, I already had some credibility with the nurses on the floor when I told them where I worked because they are familiar with the patient population we receive. My clinical site is a feeder hospital for my workplace and many of the patients that I had in clinicals that were considered the "hard" patients at the hospital became my patients at work. Many of our patients are on telemetry, drips, vents, have central lines, GT tubes, chest tubes, trachs, and have multiple comorbidities. Codes occur more often than I wished they did, but these patients are very sick. Physicians round daily, we have our own lab and radiology departments, and surgeries can be performed on site. There is no shortage of opportunities to gain experience that will contribute to becoming an ICU nurse.

I started there as an LVN and was recently absorbed as an RN. Other co-workers started out this way too and now work in traditional acute care hospitals on Med-Surg and even ICU because of the experience they gained at the LTACH. My workplace will cross train Med-Surg RNs in our ICU if they are interested, which helped those co-workers get into the bigger hospitals. I even have a couple friends that got into ICU as new grad RNs with ADNs because they worked in SNFs with sub-acute units and had experience with vents. I live and work in Southern California (LA County) as well. So don't count yourself out yet just because LVNs are no longer being hired into hospitals.