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.
Thanks for any replies. You know how hard it is to get those repeating mother tapes out of your head. :chuckle
Of course LVNs are nurses. There is no need to be so defensive about it, as some posters have been. There are always going to be those pateints/RNs/administrators that do not think LVNs are 'real' nurses. It is better to be professional, not defensive.
I was an LVN for 10 years and am now am RN.
I don't know how it is in other states, but in Texas LVNs do 95% of the same thing. Yesterday I initiated a blood transfusion on a patient - that was the first thing I've done since being an RN that I couldn't do before.
I'm currently in school to be an LPN and started clinicals a few weeks ago. I've found that some RN's seem to look down on us where others appreciate us more than they do the other nursing students from other schools. My instructors are all RN's and they consistantly pound into our heads that we are just as good and skilled as RN's are and that a nurse is a nurse regardless of what comes before the N in your title. I intend to eventually go for my RN but I feel that I won't be any better with that title than I will be as an LPN I just want to get it so that I'm able to work in a higher capacity at a Mental hospital. I always tell people who ask me why I don't become a "real nurse" that I am becoming a real nurse because if I wasn't I wouldn't be getting a degree, a license, or a title.
Of course LPN's are nurses, depending on where you work, LPN vs. RN duties are different, I think that RN's do deserve higher pay, due to education, responsibilities etc. I have been a LPN for 7 years now, I really have no intention on ever going back to school. I work as a consultant and make probably more $$ than most RN's. But I am being paid for my experience, I am a paper push nurse, I just like it better. No one ever asks my title, sometimes people will openly discuss in front of me how LPN"s are not as smart etc. Then I am always proud to say that I am a LPN, then let them feel stupid. It is a very general statement to say all LPN's or all RN's, I think every career has their lazy people, including nursing, wheter it be a RN, LPN, or CNA.
I think the ever expanding scope of practice for the LPN is the problem here, and the fact that healthcare is being forced to do more with less cash.
I've worked the same units as RN's with same patient load as an RN and the only difference in duties were the IV's. When hired the RN and LPN are given exactly the same orientation to their specialties. We both report to the charge nurse, we both have the same patient ratios, we are both required to be licensed and insured by our respective professional associations.
At one time LPNs were not allowed to work in Public Health and the only RN's allowed to work there were BScN. Now the BScN role is becoming increasing administrative, while it is the LPN who is responsible for the hands on care and vaccinations in the school health programmes, geriatrics in my area is LPN driven, with LPN's running the floor, doing the admission, meds, wound care, family conferences. LPNs who work in Dialysis units receive the same orientation in the same classroom setting as an RN who is hired at the same time, the only difference is the RN is the one who pushes the Eprex, same patient and acuity level.
Again, it is the wage differential, roughly $12/hour in my region. Both are well respected levels of professional nursing by administrative levels, it is only on the floor that the title bickering starts. The BScN degree is still fairly new in this area, so it can be a nightmare at times. The new university grads have less idea of what an LPN is capable of than the older experienced diploma RN.
It's an educational issue. The RN students need to be educated in regards to the LPN role. The public needs to be educated about the skills and competencies of an LPN. The LPN needs to be educated in negotiating skills, so that their union will become more proactive in negotiating the LPN's value in contract renewals.
I disagree with LPNs who say they do the same thing as RNs for less money. It may seem that way and often the LPN's job is physically more demanding than the RNs, but RNs do deserve more money. Often, people are hired and paid for what they KNOW not for what they do. I'm not saying that LPNs are stupid or anything, but the RNs should be paid more...they went to school for a lot longer, they have more responsibility, and their licensing exam is more extensive. It is just like CNAs who think they should be paid as much as LPNs since they "do more." Their job may be more physically demanding, but they don't have the education or lknowledge base that LPNs do.
I look at patient care as a team effort...there is no RN work or LPN work or CNA work...all of it is patient care...there are things that I can't do as an LPN, there are things that CNAs can't do, there are things that RNs can't do, but in the overall scheme of things, the patient gets what they need...
Thumbs up to you! That is what it is all about! What the patient needs
A person can be a licensed nurse or registered nurse but I think you are a nurse ONLY if you operate as a nurse.
Whenever an RN asks me as an LPN how to do something, or asks me to do something for them, I am reminded that no matter what your ticket shows, it is what you do and know that makes you a nurse. Not the title.
Oh dont take me wrong, that is ONLY most RN's, not all :)
(that ask how to do stuff)
:rotfl:
Oh, funny thing, had a duragesic patch from another shift placed, We use tegaderm on this pt because she tends to remove it. Anywhoo, the nurse who placed it, actually wrote on the patch, in Sharpie marker, the location of the patch. On it, it said, "upper right shoulder".
Strange thing though, this RN did in fact place it on the upper left shoulder!!!
True Dat
I respect RN's and LPN's alike. Arrogant docs do make me laugh tho.
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I was honestly hoping this thread would continue to steadily creep toward the nameless bottom of the forum instead of being bumped to the top of the pile once again. This argument is tiring and doesn't seem worth it.
Hello! How are you? Ok, as a new graduate LPN, I am currently making 16.35 here in the good ole' state of West Virginia. I work 64 hour weeks, work my butt off, sending patients to the hospital, suctioning, passing meds, doing admissions, assessing patients. How could anyone not call me a "real nurse?" I am very proud of what I am doing. I remember someone telling me (on one of my first clinical days) whenever I commented to another LPN that was training me....I thought you were an RN, you're just an LPN and you're that good? That LPN stopped me right there in my tracks, and said, "First things first, you're not JUST an LPN." I am a very importan part of this hospital. I've been called everything from a low paid nurse, to a licensed practical nut, but I'll tell you what. I am highly respected. Thanks! :)
I justed signed up at a gym today and the lady was like so do u work or go to school. I"m like on I'm an LPN at continuing care and she's like oh your a nures in training, so do u think you'll finish your nursing. I"m like ummm I am a nurse..........
There is no need to be so defensive about it, as some posters have been. There are always going to be those pateints/RNs/administrators that do not think LVNs are 'real' nurses. It is better to be professional, not defensive.
z's playa
2,056 Posts
Pardon me :) ?
Z