Do Rn's miss having Lpn's in the hospital setting?

[Finestnurse, Lpn]

In my area all hospitals have gotten rid of their LPN staff and have all RN nurses and CNA's performing all pt care. Im curious as an LPN who always wanted to work in a hospital setting if this has affected pt care at all? Opinions from experienced nurses that worked alongside LPN's greatly appreciated!

[8-ball, BSN]

Yes I miss them however my experience with them was different than most. I was on the back end of hospitals getting rid of LPNs. So what my hospital did rather than fire them all it just stopped hiring them. Then they changed their role so that they were not doing direct patient care. They were wound nurses, IV therapy, PT/OT assist, break nurses and help all nurses, Things of that sort. Basically they were there to help us out, so I loved them.

p.s How do I vote

[llg, PhD, RN]

I'm actually surprised not many want LPN's. As an example, last night it was my RN and I assigned a group of 5. One patient started going downhill, so while my RN and Charge were getting things taking care of in there, I was able to do all midnight rounds, plus pain, IV, and meds due, plus 2am rounds. That allowed the RN to do the charting on that one patient, and everything else was taken care of. If it was just her, the other patients would still have midnight VS to do at 2am, and all those medications would have been late on the MAR. I don't understand the dislike of LPN's on here. I am also able to do most IV meds, oral narcotics, and hang antibiotics. Plus I was able to assist patients with all their other needs like bathroom breaks, snacks, water etc...

A lot of us who responded to this thread last year did not really "hate" LPN's or not appreciate what they can do. It's just that ... in the scenario described in your post, we would rather have a 2nd RN in that position. Or perhaps a good CNA to help with the routine tasks and an RN available to help if needed (like a Charge Nurse or RN Team Leader.)

[MilliePieRN]

I'm actually surprised not many want LPN's. As an example, last night it was my RN and I assigned a group of 5. One patient started going downhill, so while my RN and Charge were getting things taking care of in there, I was able to do all midnight rounds, plus pain, IV, and meds due, plus 2am rounds. That allowed the RN to do the charting on that one patient, and everything else was taken care of. If it was just her, the other patients would still have midnight VS to do at 2am, and all those medications would have been late on the MAR. I don't understand the dislike of LPN's on here. I am also able to do most IV meds, oral narcotics, and hang antibiotics. Plus I was able to assist patients with all their other needs like bathroom breaks, snacks, water etc...

If that's how Lpn's were utilized in my hospital, I'd love it. In our hospital (med surg) lpn's are treated the same as rn's with the same individual pt loads. (5-6 pts) Except, the rn's on the floor were required to do the work that lpn's couldn't do for their pts; charge nurses had their own pt load (they sign after the lpn's' even though there is no oversight). Assignments weren't made with lpn/rn roles considered So, if I had 6 pts, I was responsible for the total care of all (no tech) and whatever else the lpn was unable to do... and I was expected to drop anything I was working on to do it. Not fun... I much prefer to work with rn's.

[Jane Fore]

Sour Lemon said:

Honestly, no. I like most of the LPNs I've worked with on a personal level, but working with them always creates more work for me. A lot of patients have an ungodly amount of piggy backs and PRN IV meds. And on one small unit, we only had two nurses staffed ...so if the second nurse happened to be an LPN, it often felt like I had the whole unit alone. Rarely did any LPN offer to help me out with anything in exchange for the IVs. If they had, that would have made a big difference.

Maybe you  never worked with a good Lvn. As a patient , the patient care has suffered since lpn forced out.