My best friend has been an LPN for about 6 years now, and she currently works in psych. Her program was of the intense, year-long variety, prerequisites and all. I have listened to her on and on tell me that RN's don't do anything, don't know anything, don't have as much patient contact, and don't have the pharmacological experience.
I am a semester away from starting my RN clinicals; I'm currently a CNA as required by my school. I have taken 8 credits of A&P, 4 credit Microbio, 4 credit Organic Chemistry, 4 credit Biochemistry, 6 credits of English, 3 credits of Sociology, 8 credits of Algebra and 12 nursing prerequisites. I have four full semesters of RN clinicals that must be completed.
I asked "I'm a CNA now, and after two semesters of clinicals will be eligible to be a LPN while I complete my RN degree, then on to grad school for my APNP.....and you're still not going to respect what I do and think you know more than I do?" She replied that she would with great confidence.
You guys, this is a really nice girl and she says all her coworkers feel the same way. I don't get it. If LVN's know so darn much more and RN's are idiots, why am I spending all this time and money and study effort? Do all LVN's feel this way??
I work 3rds on a skilled unit, and a RN follows me on 1st. No matter what I bring to her attention about our residents, I get the response "He/she is always like that", or "He/she doesn't do that during the day" thereby negating my assessments of these residents. Rarely does anything get done by her unless I hound her to death about them. (Which I do!). I have been hearing from other 1st shift people that she is just lazy and does as little as possible throughout the day. I have had to fight my first instinct to look at the badge and think "Uh-huh. RN". I have come to the conclusion that it's just her, not her title. I really can't explain why I wanted to blame the title instead of the person. Perhaps it's because I want to feel like my education is valid, and I feel "less than" when discussing residents with a RN, especially when they just look at me and blink. But, if I think about it, I have CNA's that do the same thing. It's the people, not the title, who have a problem. Some people are just difficult to get along with, and some feel they are better than others regardless of their title. Moral of the story? Remember we are dealing with PEOPLE, not titles. A bad attitude is a bad attitude, no matter where it comes from.
It sounds like your friend has some issues, maybe insecure or something. In the health care field, there are so many hierarchies, depending on education, experience, etc. You have physician, physician assistant, nurse practitioner (uh, right, they all can prescribe meds in most states); you have RN, RN-BSN, RN dipoma, and LPN, who are all "nurses". It all depends on education level (and in part experience) as to the role of each.
Just as there are some insecure nurse practitioners who may dislike physicians, there are going to be some insecure LPNs who dislike RNs. In the end, it's all about the patients and the overall quality of care, so I'm with low tolerance for the handful of people in health care who are busy ranking themselves, even if they are "nice". It really gets in the way, this way of thinking.
take2dskye
21 Posts
That is so true!