The majority of doctors in my area refer to their medical assistants as nurses. I feel this is no different than calling a PA a doctor. Most medical offices do not hire LVNs any more, and MAs are used just like LVNs were/are. I recently received a flu shot where the skin was pulled up as with a SQ injection. I did not feel it. I wonder what size needle was used, and most of all, I wonder if the injection will be effective.
My brother was recently told by a MA that the side effect he was experiencing from a new medication had nothing to do with the med. He insisted on an appointment and the med was immediately stopped. MAs are apparently not trained in how to give injections, and they have no educational background for talking to patients about medical issues.
This is going to become a real problem in the future. Most people do not know if they are getting misinformation or getting an injection correctly. I do want to give credit to the MAs who want to learn and do the job correctly. There are some, I am sure. But they should never be called nurse.
Anyone else out there have any stories or opinions on this subject?
Well we've gotten off track once again. To set it straight. LPN's have less education but have a similar skill set. The RN has supervisory roles of all those who are not RN's and also do initial patient assessments and meet requirements of job skills and responsibilities set by each individual state. RN's are paid more, have more possibility of career advancement. LPN's also have the capability to advance, but are limited by state statutes.
People choose vocations based on their ability to devote time and money to levels of education. Each person has the ability to advance to higher levels of education at any time in their lives as situations allow or if driven by personal motivation. No judgement here.
There are a number of threads on AN that discuss the inappropriateness and ILLEGALITY of using the title "nurse" or allowing it to be used for anyone who does not hold a nursing license, and I encourage you to hit that little teeny magnifying glass up top of the page and search them out.
Whether or not there are actual nurses in the practice to notice, anyone who does notice can and should report it to the state Board of Registration in Nursing. I can assure you that in our fair Commonwealth, a letter will go out to that physician office or practice or clinic reminding them nicely that there are consequences if they keep it up.
I recently had occasion to change my PCP and when a nicely-dressed woman with a stethoscope around her neck sat down at the computer and took my intake information, I asked her if she was a nurse. She told me she had been Dr. Soandso's nurse for ten years. I said, "Oh, I'm a nurse too," and asked her if she went to school around here, since we looked like contemporaries. She backpedaled and said she was a medical assistant. When I said, "You know, it's actually illegal to call yourself a nurse if you're not," she backpedaled and left the room. I mentioned it to the doc, who was surprised, but hey. Learning experience all around.
This topic couldn't have come at a better time. I am in a LPN program and we graduate in about a week :) Our teacher was nice enough to have different employers come talk to us about jobs for after graduation. One woman was the head of HR for a major hospital in the area. As LPNs most hospitals won't hire us. It's a sad fact but my class has come to accept it. So this woman tells us about different companies the hospital owns that will hire LPNs. They were a home health company, a durable medical equipment company and a mega specialty doctor's office just built that has at least 6 different practices in it. During her job pitch she used the term MA and LPN interchangeably. EVERYONE in the class including the teacher wasn't happy and mentioned it after she left. I was wondering if she could feel the 20 sets of eyes giving her dirty looks Beside her mix up her whole speech was a waste because the payscales she was talking about was less than what CNAs in the area make so why work for that kind of money as an LPN? Anyway I'm glad to know that we weren't the only people to be offended by someone using LPN and MA interchangeably
This is a subject I have thought about but did not bring up because it opens a whole new can of worms. I am truly wondering if there will be a place for LVNs in the future, and if someone will realize that the education might not get them jobs, and schools start closing down. Despite the fact that there are good MAs, the training is different. They learn good skills, but not as much basis of medicine. Your situation must be very frightening for a class that just worked so hard to get their LVN certification. I sure wish you good luck in finding a good job.
This is a subject I have thought about but did not bring up because it opens a whole new can of worms. I am truly wondering if there will be a place for LVNs in the future, and if someone will realize that the education might not get them jobs, and schools start closing down. Despite the fact that there are good MAs, the training is different. They learn good skills, but not as much basis of medicine. Your situation must be very frightening for a class that just worked so hard to get their LVN certification. I sure wish you good luck in finding a good job.
There will ALWAYS be a place for LPN's. SOMEPLACE! Many work in LTC and many love it there. No hospitals around me hire LPN's and clinics tend to hire MA's, but many here do home health or LTC
There will ALWAYS be a place for LPN's. SOMEPLACE! Many work in LTC and many love it there. No hospitals around me hire LPN's and clinics tend to hire MA's, but many here do home health or LTC
You're very right. Our local LTC facilities and HH agencies love LPNs. The woman who runs our program also runs a BSN program at a large university. She says her RNs are struggling to find jobs while her LPNs are almost immediately employed. I think the biggest factor is pay. You can hire an LPN for $5-10/hr less than an RN. In my state, our scope of practice is quite broad. There is an extremely limited amount of things I would have to ask an RN to do for me. With budgetary concerns in almost all healthcare settings, I can see why employers would be so motivated to hire us. But I will also say I'm not naive, I know if I truly want to be successful in this field I'll eventually need to get my BSN or higher. Only 2 people in my class plan to stay as LPNs. For the rest of us, this was a stepping stone that will greatly prepare us for when it comes time to go back for the RN. In the meantime, I just can't wait to go back to working normal hours without having to worry about scheduling around classes and doing homework :)
Beside her mix up her whole speech was a waste because the payscales she was talking about was less than what CNAs in the area make so why work for that kind of money as an LPN? Anyway I'm glad to know that we weren't the only people to be offended by someone using LPN and MA interchangeably
cdsga
391 Posts
Well we've gotten off track once again. To set it straight. LPN's have less education but have a similar skill set. The RN has supervisory roles of all those who are not RN's and also do initial patient assessments and meet requirements of job skills and responsibilities set by each individual state. RN's are paid more, have more possibility of career advancement. LPN's also have the capability to advance, but are limited by state statutes.
People choose vocations based on their ability to devote time and money to levels of education. Each person has the ability to advance to higher levels of education at any time in their lives as situations allow or if driven by personal motivation. No judgement here.