RN and LPN role differentiation is so confusing! In some areas the LPN does almost everything an RN does but in that case why can't an RN take an LPN position if he/she is willing to take the lower pay? Or at least, why can't an RN also take the NCLEX-PN in addition to the NCLEX-RN?
I wanted to work at an inpatient hospice but the only RN positions were as charge nurse, the only RN in the building. As a newbie, I wasn't comfortable with shouldering that much responsibility. But they couldn't hire me into any other nursing position there because those were for LPNs.
Also, if I find team leading with a LPN too difficult to manage along with my own responsibilities, as an RN I don't have the choice of being team-led by another RN.
On the one hand, I can see where LPNs would want to protect their role, but on the other hand, many LPNs insist that they have just as much responsibility as RNs and almost all the same skills. If I'm willing to accept the same pay as an LPN, why can't I work in that role? It's not like a doctor wanting to work as a nurse. They are very different roles. The doctor won't know all that nurses do in a shift.
I do know there are reasons... I guess I'm just looking for sympathy over feeling overwhelmed by RN responsibilities and wishing there were more steps to assuming more responsibility as opposed to pushed to the deep end so quickly.