Do Away with LPN's What will LPN's Do?

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I enjoyed the thread about getting rid of LPN's BUT what would a LPN then become. Would they have to return to college to become RN's of just be displaced?

Specializes in LTC.

if my place ever phases us out (lpns) all i can say is they better pay for school lol....thats the only way i could even go back but in my ltc facility its dominated by lpns....we do more than the rn's do as far as workload goes....they would just curl up and die if they had to replace us with all rn's b/c of the cost factor. I work 2nd shift with no rn in the bldg...Id love to have one though to do charge...man that would be nice....less paperwork for me!

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

Ohmeowzer RN brought up a good point. Hospitals are not the only facilities who need nurses. Our hospital will not hire LVN's (called that in TX and CA) for most departments, but we do have some in the general med/surg area. But there are many LVN's in MD offices and elsewhere. If I were you I would consider the RN so you would feel more secure and have more options.

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Specializes in psych. rehab nursing, float pool.

Ah yes, the doing away with LPN"s how many times have I heard this in 30 years. It must be why we just hired 3 LPN's on our unit, and they have posted 5 openings including one on tele.

Keep your chins up LPN's , I do think one should further education getting your RN will never be futile. Do remember however there are places, hospitals which do still hire us.

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Specializes in Pediatric Emergency, Hematology/Oncology.
I live in St.Louis Missouri Whats the difference in LPN and RN's here. I am currently a pre-Nursing student and I have a friend who went to LPN school and none of the colleges accept the credits earned there because it's one of those trade programs st.louis college of health careers not really accreditted I suppose, the program cost like $20,000.00..Now he may be losing his job and canot go to Nursing school without starting from scratch. And I was wondering have they phased out LPNs from Missouri hospitals?

No, they have no phased out LPN's in Missouri hospitals. Im a LPN working in a pediatric ER, I am working on my RN, not because I have to but because I want to.

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So just because some hospitals don't hire LPNs means we have been phased out? Oh yeah I forgot the hopsital is the ONLY place on earth to work at. :rolleyes:

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Yeah, they've been saying that forever. I am in AZ and believe me, they can't get rid of us, especially here. As a matter of fact, I am a school nurse and they are probably changing their format to hire only LPNs with an RN as a supervisor due to the budget cuts and such. But LPNs can only care for "stable" patients, which is why they aren't so useful in the hospital settings. But school settings, hospice, home health---we can definitely be used. I am definitely getting my RN just because of what I want to do in the future. But don't get discouraged, they neeeeeeed us. They need ALL of us.

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Specializes in 1 day correctional and military nursing.

i doubt that they will ever totally phase out lvns but i do think it will become harder to find quality work and decent pay

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Specializes in A myriad of specialties.
i guess if they bump all of us lpn's......we can just go into housekeeping !

praiser :heartbeat

no--we'd be considered overqualified! it is very sad. at our pysch hospital, we lpn's number between 20 and 30. rns and cnas by far outnumber us; they also have many more opportunities for mobility(i.e., a variety of wards to transfer into) than do the lpn's.

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The big hospital in my area has pretty much phased out LPN's. There are still a few employed there, but they are all in transition programs. The hospital offered to pay for the transition program & set a time limit to complete it.

The smaller hospitals in the area still have LPN's, but only on Med/Surg, none in specialty areas. The LTC facilities, however, are filled with LPN's.

Due to the current trend, the local Nursing School has altered the LPN

curriculum to include more LTC & geriatrics in lecture & clinical and less clinical time at the hospital.

Phasing out of one area can mean a boom for another area. I think there will always be a place for LPN's in healthcare.

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Specializes in EMS, ER, GI, PCU/Telemetry.

good question.

they really do need to make LPN-RN bridging programs more accessable for working LPN's for those of us who do want to continue our education. i also think that testing current LPNs knowledge and allowing us to do transition courses instead of repeating all nursing coursework (like many programs require) would be a plus.

i know many LPNs have not returned to school r/t financial obligations or what not and because many colleges do not give LPNs credit for nursing courses they are required to sit in sometimes as full time students also.

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Specializes in Urgent Care.

:deadhorse:deadhorse:deadhorse

yes.....that is whipping a dead horse x3

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Specializes in nursing home.
Yeah, yeah , yeah thats what THEY all say. LPNs will never EVER be phased out of the nursing career. They whoever THEY is been saying this for the longest time. LPNs don't get discourage you will also be in demand !

u r right, with the nursing shortage the way it is now, and how much worser it will be in the future lpn's will never be phased out.

like my teacher says, pretty soon hospitals will be hiring lpn's soon, there arent enough rn's, and most of them will be retiring soon.

:up:

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