I ran into a woman who is taking the same LVN course that I took before I got my RN. So, I asked her a few questions.
Seems as though they are teaching the same old useless stuff. I say "useless" because I personally felt so unprepared and under-trained when I started my first LVN job in LTC.
Looking back, I can see how so much of my training was wasted on completely useless "skills". Not that the skills are not important, please don't get me wrong, but when I see the skills that I really should have been taught in order to function on the job in the real world, I would say that the College had their priorities messed up.
For example, we spent days on how to make beds and miter the sheets, how to read a Mercury thermometer :uhoh21:. How to brush a patients teeth and feed them. How to introduce ourselves, etc.....
Minimal time was spent on Pharmacology. No time was spent on how to start IVs or troubleshooting problems with IVs. No training on how to draw blood. We weren't even taught how to do a finger stick, draw up insulin and calibrate the monitors! We were assigned 1 patient for one week during clinicals. That didn't give me any idea how to adequately handle 30 patients when I started my first job. I also could have used some training on how to deal with difficult patients, bossy co-workers, intimidating doctors and controlling families. Maybe some role playing? So, when these situations actually happened, I wasn't standing there looking like an idiot with my jaw dropped open or taking something personally and getting upset. I know some people have a quick response to ANY situation, but I would say that most people in my class of 35 did not.
I felt so incompetent when I first started working. I actually felt that I could have just skipped my year of training and just started working. That is how little I actually learned in the program. I really feel that I could have had all my training on the job as a new LVN....would have saved me time wasted in class and the $$$$ for tuition.
I know there are some excellent LVN/LPN programs out there, but mine was definitely not one of them
I definitely envy those that had great instructors and thorough training!!!!
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
for example, we spent days on how to make beds and miter the sheets, how to read a mercury thermometer :uhoh21:. how to brush a patients teeth and feed them. how to introduce ourselves, etc.....
minimal time was spent on pharmacology. no time was spent on how to start ivs or troubleshooting problems with ivs. no training on how to draw blood. we weren't even taught how to do a finger stick, draw up insulin and calibrate the monitors! we were assigned 1 patient for one week during clinicals. that didn't give me any idea how to adequately handle 30 patients when i started my first job. i also could have used some training on how to deal with difficult patients, bossy co-workers, intimidating doctors and controlling families. maybe some role playing? so, when these situations actually happened, i wasn't standing there looking like an idiot with my jaw dropped open or taking something personally and getting upset. i know some people have a quick response to any situation, but i would say that most people in my class of 35 did not.
you know those things i highlighted in blue. . .they are taught in rn programs not necessarily as priorities in LPN programs. lpns are practical nurses. that means "hands on" take care of patient's physical needs. pharmacology and ivs have only been added to some state lpn duties and not all states or employers allow their lpns to do them either. i never let lpns working with me touch any of my patient's ivs. first of all, i am nationally certified in iv therapy. secondly, unless you can prove to me that you know as much about ivs as i do you're not going near my patient's veins. as for learning how to deal with difficult people, it wasn't taught in my rn course either, so take a continuing education course in it like i did. you know what they taught us? customer service and assertiveness. didn't anyone ever tell you that your learning never stops? that's why there is a continuing education requirement for license renewal in just about every state. and if your state doesn't have one i'm betting that your employer does. you have a responsibility to educate yourself after you are out of school. you have a very wrong idea as to what learning is and what school is supposed to do for you. learning is your responsibility, not the school's.
you know those things i highlighted in blue. . .they are taught in rn programs not necessarily as priorities in lpn programs. lpns are practical nurses. that means "hands on" take care of patient's physical needs. pharmacology and ivs have only been added to some state lpn duties and not all states or employers allow their lpns to do them either. i never let lpns working with me touch any of my patient's ivs. first of all, i am nationally certified in iv therapy. secondly, unless you can prove to me that you know as much about ivs as i do you're not going near my patient's veins. as for learning how to deal with difficult people, it wasn't taught in my rn course either, so take a continuing education course in it like i did. you know what they taught us? customer service and assertiveness. didn't anyone ever tell you that your learning never stops? that's why there is a continuing education requirement for license renewal in just about every state. and if your state doesn't have one i'm betting that your employer does. you have a responsibility to educate yourself after you are out of school. you have a very wrong idea as to what learning is and what school is supposed to do for you. learning is your responsibility, not the school's.
wow, i think what the original poster was trying to say, was she wasn't really prepared by her program even in the 'task' aspect of being an lpn. which is the 'hands on' part that is expected of being an lpn.
my program was pretty great, compared to the complaints she made.
i feel that demonstrating clinical competancy should absolutely be the goal of any nursing school or facility for that matter. they should be able to know that the nurses that they send out to practice are capable and safe. when i orient a new grad, i demonstrate a proceedure and have them do it as well in front of me. you might try it as well with your lpns regarding iv therapy. for example i just finished my nationally accredited iv course (the state of pa allows lpns to administer iv). it is the same class the rns take (with us) and we take the same exam as they. i can assure you that i am safe and competant (esp. since this is recertification, and i've been doing them for years) and know quite a bit about them beyond what is even required to know. so basically don't sell your lpns short because of their title.
i agree with you that every nurse needs to continue to educate themselves on an ongoing basis. i do dispute that an lpn program should focus on 'practical' nursing. the role of an lpn is evolving and lpns should be prepared as such. the name frankly is a misnomer as to what we really do.
You know those things I highlighted in blue. . .they are taught in RN programs not necessarily as priorities in LPN programs.
I know that....(I am an experienced RN) and that was the whole point of my original post. As an employed LPN I was expected to DO many skills because they were still within my scope of practice, but we were NOT trained thoroughly. My point was that since we had to deal with IVs and Pharmacology, more education would have been beneficial.
As for learning how to deal with difficult people, it wasn't taught in my RN course either, so take a continuing education course in it like I did.
Sigh. I REALIZE that. I was just stating that it WOULD have been nice. My original post wasn't saying how it SHOULD be.
You know what they taught us? Customer service and Assertiveness. Didn't anyone ever tell you that your learning never stops? That's why there is a continuing education requirement for license renewal in just about every state. And if your state doesn't have one I'm betting that your employer does. You have a responsibility to educate yourself after you are out of school. You have a very wrong idea as to what learning is and what school is supposed to do for you. Learning is your responsibility, not the school's.
Listen, I didn't post here to be lectured. I am an experienced RN and am all too familiar with CE. OBVIOUSLY, I didn't get here from relying on the system to educate me 100%.
I HAD TO EDUCATE MYSELF TO SURVIVE AND BE SAFE.
The whole point of my post was to show how poor MY training was. I feel that they could have done a waaaay better job.
I actually have a degree in Psychology as well as Nursing, so PLEASE do not berate me like you just did and imply that I somehow I don't have a clue about self-educating.:trout: I know what school is all about. I've had 10 long years of it.
To add: As far as my issue with IVs. Well, in LTC on the evening shifts there were ONLY LVNs working. I remember everyone running around in a panic if IVs were hanging. What would you have recommended that I do when (as a new LPN) I needed to trouble shoot a problem with an IV? Who is suppose to hang the fluids? Continually call in an RN to the facility? I di once and caught hell for it. Had I received the appropriate and thorough training in the first place, IVs would have never been a stresser for me. I could have felt confident with my skills.
As an LPN we had to know pharmacology. We did med passes on 30 -40 patients. I just felt I was short-changed in the program regarding this area. I felt it was unfair to me to spend all of this time and money in school and be inadequately prepared for the "real world".
Funny, I was wondering how many posts there would be before I would be lectured for venting.
Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
you know those things i highlighted in blue. . .they are taught in rn programs not necessarily as priorities in lpn programs. lpns are practical nurses. that means "hands on" take care of patient's physical needs. pharmacology and ivs have only been added to some state lpn duties and not all states or employers allow their lpns to do them either. i never let lpns working with me touch any of my patient's ivs. first of all, i am nationally certified in iv therapy. secondly, unless you can prove to me that you know as much about ivs as i do you're not going near my patient's veins. as for learning how to deal with difficult people, it wasn't taught in my rn course either, so take a continuing education course in it like i did. you know what they taught us? customer service and assertiveness. didn't anyone ever tell you that your learning never stops? that's why there is a continuing education requirement for license renewal in just about every state. and if your state doesn't have one i'm betting that your employer does. you have a responsibility to educate yourself after you are out of school. you have a very wrong idea as to what learning is and what school is supposed to do for you. learning is your responsibility, not the school's.
in my area, lpns also have the option to be nationally certified in iv therapy, so, i obtained the certification myself because many times, there is not an rn immediately present to initiate iv therapy. it was not a requirement for the state, however, the job may require that we do so. and, of course, we should to know pharmacology. in fact, i do not see the sense of even creating an lpn program and training if we cannot administer medications because it would leave us to be glorified cnas (not bashing nursing assistants, folks!). it is true that everyone is responsible for their own learning, but i think that the point of this thread is that many of the schools feel short on basic things that lpns are required to know before entering into the workforce. yes, i know that we are responsible to educate ourselves once finishing school. however, the school is responsible for ensuring that clinical experience includes more than bedmaking, bedbaths, and being allowed to leave early because a clinical instructor does not want to be bothered with teaching their students basic procedures expected of them.
Remember my gripe (from my past post) about how we were taught over and over and over (and quizzed and quizzed and quizzed) regarding the useless, oh, excuse me, correct, procedure when reading an antique MERCURY thermometer?
Well, last week, I opened the L.A. Times and there was a huge article about the illegal immigrants that are receiving training to work in Healthcare to cover all of the problems that are predicted to happen with the Baby Boomers..........
The PICTURE in the newspaper (next to the article) showed A Nurse in training holding up a frigg-in' MERCURY thermometer, trying to read it.
I ran into a woman who is taking the same LVN course that I took before I got my RN. So, I asked her a few questions.
Seems as though they are teaching the same old useless stuff. I say "useless" because I personally felt so unprepared and under-trained when I started my first LVN job in LTC.
Looking back, I can see how so much of my training was wasted on completely useless "skills". Not that the skills are not important, please don't get me wrong, but when I see the skills that I really should have been taught in order to function on the job in the real world, I would say that the College had their priorities messed up.
For example, we spent days on how to make beds and miter the sheets, how to read a Mercury thermometer :uhoh21:. How to brush a patients teeth and feed them. How to introduce ourselves, etc.....
Minimal time was spent on Pharmacology. No time was spent on how to start IVs or troubleshooting problems with IVs. No training on how to draw blood. We weren't even taught how to do a finger stick, draw up insulin and calibrate the monitors! We were assigned 1 patient for one week during clinicals. That didn't give me any idea how to adequately handle 30 patients when I started my first job. I also could have used some training on how to deal with difficult patients, bossy co-workers, intimidating doctors and controlling families. Maybe some role playing? So, when these situations actually happened, I wasn't standing there looking like an idiot with my jaw dropped open or taking something personally and getting upset. I know some people have a quick response to ANY situation, but I would say that most people in my class of 35 did not.
I felt so incompetent when I first started working. I actually felt that I could have just skipped my year of training and just started working. That is how little I actually learned in the program. I really feel that I could have had all my training on the job as a new LVN....would have saved me time wasted in class and the $$$$ for tuition.
I know there are some excellent LVN/LPN programs out there, but mine was definitely not one of them
I definitely envy those that had great instructors and thorough training!!!!
I am completely with you here. I am getting ready to graduate and with the exception of one clinical instructor, I feel like my program wasted my money. I hate to complain all of the time but it has been the laughing stock of my community. We have been written up in the local paper on several occasions. My Pharm class was only 5 weeks and the instructor focused all on cardiac meds. The rest I have made the extra effort to buy books and make med cards of commonly seen meds in LTC and teach myself...and others. My A & P was only 4 weeks part time. They pushed us through and passed people that failed every test all the way through the program. The sad thing is these people were dangerous in clinicals and their time was wasted and they will probably never pass boards and if they do I feel sorry for their patients. I am so scared to take the boards because I feel like I am under educated. I am going to take total advantage to the time I have to study until my boards and go over everything I possibly can. But that is not going to prepare me to manage a full hall of patients....
"Glad to see that the LA Times article was illustrated with a timely and pertinent photo"
:chuckle:chuckle:chuckle
The pic was published in the paper about 6 months after I started the thread. So, I am not sure how "timely" it was. I just couldn't believe that they would even be teaching with mercury thermometers. I haven't seen one used in years.
I don't think mercury thermometers are even made anymore, but I could be wrong.
Funny, I still have one. It has to be at least 30 years old.
As kids, we use to break them open and play with the mercury!!!:grn:
I feel that my training was excellent - we started skills such as Foleys, NGTs, in first semester... IMs, SQ, intradermal, had to learn the different kinds of insulins, onset and duration.. Pharmacology was introduced and built upon depending on which body system or disease process we studied. In school, so far as possible, we passed meds via every route open to our scope of practice, with the instructor close by. IV certification was a separate class, and I took it. Passed NCLEX-PN first try, and feel quite capable of doing my job well in LTC.
Daytonite, BSN, RN
1 Article; 14,604 Posts
you know those things i highlighted in blue. . .they are taught in rn programs not necessarily as priorities in LPN programs. lpns are practical nurses. that means "hands on" take care of patient's physical needs. pharmacology and ivs have only been added to some state lpn duties and not all states or employers allow their lpns to do them either. i never let lpns working with me touch any of my patient's ivs. first of all, i am nationally certified in iv therapy. secondly, unless you can prove to me that you know as much about ivs as i do you're not going near my patient's veins. as for learning how to deal with difficult people, it wasn't taught in my rn course either, so take a continuing education course in it like i did. you know what they taught us? customer service and assertiveness. didn't anyone ever tell you that your learning never stops? that's why there is a continuing education requirement for license renewal in just about every state. and if your state doesn't have one i'm betting that your employer does. you have a responsibility to educate yourself after you are out of school. you have a very wrong idea as to what learning is and what school is supposed to do for you. learning is your responsibility, not the school's.