Are LPN's/LVN's real nurses?

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Specializes in med/surg/tele/neuro/rehab/corrections.

Here is a question I have been pondering. Is someone who has their license as a LPN/LVN considered to be a real nurse? How do most Helthcare professionals view LPN/LVN? When I get my LVN license will I be a nurse?

I know it says nurse in the title... licensed vocational nurse..... but are you considered by your colleagues to be a nurse? Does hospital administration consider the LPN/LVN to be a nurse? When you go out in public and someone asks what you are, do you say your're a nurse? Or do you say your an LPN/LVN?

Just thought I'd get it straight from the horses mouth :)

I'm attending school right now where they have a LVN program and I am so excited about it. Everyone in my class is striving to get into the program next year. But I keep hearing my mother say about someone else..... "Oh shes just a PRACTICAL nurse." As if the job the woman was doing wasn't important. :o

Thanks for any replies. You know how hard it is to get those repeating mother tapes out of your head. :chuckle

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
But I keep hearing my mother say about someone else..... "Oh shes just a PRACTICAL nurse.

And that happens a lot.

Is someone who has their license as a LPN/LVN considered to be a real nurse?

Yes, they are "real" nurses.

How do most Helthcare professionals view LPN/LVN?

Depends on the area.

When I get my LVN license will I be a nurse?

Licensed Practical Nurse, the name says it. The state board agrees with it.

If the co-workers have a problem with it, then it is their problem.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho.

I spent 8 years as a LPN,, and yes i was a real nurse. I was out there and putting myself on the line everyday. I had the same ability to be sued as any RN i just had different responsibilities.

Now im a RN,, and im still just as much a real nurse as i was. With the same liability risk, just different responsiblities.

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Specializes in LTC, Hospice, Case Management.

LPN's are REAL NURSES and don't ever let anyone make you think your not, but boy will they try. I was an LPN for 19 years and finally completed my RN just this year. Thought I would severely hurt those around me that tried to congratulate me with " After all this time your FINALLY a nurse". What the H*ll ya think I been doing for the past 19 years :angryfire . Good luck and go for it

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

" After all this time your FINALLY a nurse".

I feel sorry for any idiot's outcome who would ever say this to me. It will not go over well.

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It is just a title. I know some LPNs that can run circles around a RN. On the other hand, there are some LPNs that could not run circles around a tree. I felt very pressured to return to school to become a RN, which I am currently doing. I did it because I wanted to learn more and be able to have more job opportunities. I am almost done with this program, now I realize that my core nursing knowledge was learned in my PN program. There is always a time and place for advancement when you are ready. In the meantime, don't let ANYBODY tell you that you are "just" a LPN. :angryfire Just the thought makes me cringe....

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

And let's hope this doesn't turn into another RN vs. LPN thread like some of them do.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

There have been many threads (some nice and some not so productive). Please do a search for them. Thanks and good luck.

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LPN's and LVN's are nurses. I have been an LPN for 20 years. We have to pay our so called dues and we have to stay on top of all the newest topics.We have to do what we love and I love being an LPN. When someone ask what I do for a living I tell the I AM AN LPN, I AM THE DON OF A 60 BED ASSISTED LIVING AND I HAVE BEEN AN LPN FOR 20 YEARS.

YOU GO GIRL BE A GREAT LVN

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Specializes in OB (with a history of cardiac).

I've been wondering this lately...our teachers make it seem like we're nothing but CNA's who can pass meds, that we're all going to work in a nursing home and continue to be CNA's who pass meds. It's really frusterating you know...not a think wrong with CNA's, but if we're paying about 2000 dollars more and taking several classes more than CNA's then how is it that we're going to be shadowing them on our clinical, and having them teach us what they do?

I have done volunteer work in a nursing home, as well as my own CNA clinical and I can say with absalute certainty that I DO NOT want to work in a nursing home! Yet our teachers seem to be trying to tell us that that's pretty much where we're headed come graduation. In addition to the fact that many hospitals in MN don't hire LPN's- they want RN's, and not just RN's they want BSN's or MSN's...it's VERY disheartening right now- we have to take the NCLEX and that makes us nurses, but what are we getting for all that money and time?

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Wow I have hardly never worked in a nursing home.I have done hospital,

rehab,home health and now correctional nursing.A few times I have done pt time in a nice retirement center.But not a nursing home.I tried it once and its not for me.:nurse:

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As a new grad RN, I was told by at a couple of interviews that I'd be starting at the bottom of the pay scale because I "don't have any experience."

I'd been an LPN/LVN for almost 7 years at that point and worked in various settings. When I'd remind them of this they would say:

"But you weren't working as an RN at that time so we don't consider that to be valid "nursing" experience."

Well that may have been true but I wasn't exactly working at the Gap or Burger King over the past 7 years.

I realize that it's little more than an excuse for employers to pay less but I found it quite insulting that I was considered to be at the same skill/experience level as a new grad RN who never had a job in healthcare or maybe was even a CNA. It's not the same.

Fortunately most hospitals gave credit for LPN experience but i think that it all adds into the "LPN's aren't real nurses" baloney.

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