Not being phased out. But being forced back to our traditional role as Licensed Practical Nurse. This article addresses the LPNs role being phased out of acute care and what future LPNs should know about the practical nursing profession.
I'm a new Nurse. I spend a lot of my time on a nursing home corridor behind a med cart, or more like a rolling Walgreens kiosk. I stay at work 1, 2 sometimes maybe 3 hours after shift change behind a nurses station. After 4pm , I function alone. I'm the one in charge. I'm the one who assesses residents, makes judgements, contacts physicians, contacts family members, sends residents to the hospital, it's all me. It's a big responsibility. It's a big job. I'm a NURSE. I'm the NURSE. But I am not an RN. I'm an LPN.
There's been much debate on not only this website, but around the country; about RNs and LPNs and what's the difference. It seems like around every corner you hear, don't become an LPN, or LPNs can't work in acute care. In my area LPNs can work in acute care and are growing strong in med-surg and ortho/rehab units in acute care. But that's not to be naive to the fact that in many parts of the country this is not the case. But I understand. I understand why LPNs have been phased out of ERs, OBs , ICUs, med surg in some areas, and it really does not come as a shock to me.
The current trend for LPNs is not new. LPNs came about ages ago to assist the RN by tending to stable patients with predictable outcomes. But with today's healthcare costs, and all other modern day alternatives to costly acute care like Rehab, LTAC, LTC/SNFs, Home Health, those patients with predictable outcomes just don't camp out on med surg like they used too.
Hospitals today house highly acute patients. And our skill sets as LPNs just aren't effective in this kind of environment. It does not make us any less of a Nurse, it's just not traditionally our role. Our role has moved with the times outside of hospitals. But that does not mean our role is gone. There's a Home Health Agency, Nursing Home, LTACH, Rehab Hospital hiring LPNs in bulk around every street corner.
So my question to all LPNs? Why would you work in a CNA capacity just to get hospital experience? All prospective LPN students need to understand that an LPN is not an RN. Just like a Podiatrist is not an MD. All are doctors. But different types. RNs and LPNs are both NURSES but different types. RNs are acute care nurses, and nurse managers, made for coding patients, and IV drips, and newborns in distress. As LPNs we are there for Accu Checks, PEG Tubes, Walkers, foleys. We LPNs are Nurses whose expertise is management of long term chronic illnesses. But we are Nurses.
Don't waste your time going through podiatry school if you want to be an MD. You'll be disappointed. Same thing if your dream is to be an RN on a busy NICU but you're sitting at clinicals at your local trade school in an LTC facility. We need to embrace the type of Nurse we are and our role as LPNs. Why go to school to be an LPN to work as a Tech on med surg, when you can use your Nurse smarts and leadership abilities in long term care.
I think the problem with LPN insecurities today is we LPNs try to be something we were traditionally not meant to be. It's not the magnet status talk or the BSN requirements. With shortages of Nurses in LTCs and tough budget cuts to federal programs paying a BSN RN to pass meds in a busy nursing home for $15-17$ dollars an hour is scheduled for the 31st of Never.
So let us embrace the LPN's role in nursing as the "chronic illness stable condition nurses". I'm proud to be a long term care nurse. I don't want to deal with critical drips , titrations, deteriorating newborns and such. I want to provide the best nursing care possible to people in need of long term management for chronic illnesses. If these jobs are outside the hospital, we have to follow them. We have to be proud of the Nurse we chose to be.
Again don't become a family medicine specialist if you want to be a neurosurgeon. Both are physicians both have similar knowledge. But the skills and individual knowledge they have match 2 different types of client populations. It's the same with LPNs and RNs. I know that in a perfect little world the LPN is an assistant to the RN and the RN delegates and supervises every little move and task that an LPN makes. Let's get real now. In small rural nursing homes where the DOC knows the Nurses on a first name basis, the LPN has more autonomy than MSN-RN in a large hospital.
Not knocking anybody's role. RNs have more acuity skills according to the BON, they have a better understanding of the big picture and i understand. But I have a role as a Nurse. I'm a long term care nurse. I manage chronic illnesses. It's what I signed up for. I would suggest anyone who wants to fly on helicopters, and start atropine drips in the ER, or care for an infant in the NICU, do yourself a favor and strive to be an RN. Because I do not have these hopes.
The elderly are a blessing and I'm doing what I love. I'm a NURSE. A long term care LPN and proud of it. It's what I do. You stick an ER RN in my job and it probably won't go well. You stick me in the ER, I know it wont go well! So please prospective LPNs. Consider our tradition. Accept it, or strive for your RN, beause we're not the same. And as an LPN I understand.
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
Well, HazelLPN, I know for myself that although I was an LPN, anything I could get experience in, no matter what it was, I did and was either "checked off" or certified and thereafter it was 'within' my scope of practice!. Not all (or a lot) of LPN's did that.
I was forever hearing how I should go on and get my RN, and I would guess it's been the same for you. But you know what? I just flat out didn't want to! I was happy as I was, without the burden of being an RN.
I don't doubt for a minute that you and I have learned things, procedures, etc. that no future LPN will ever be able to do, simply for the fact that opportunities are very different now.
I have worked so many different kinds of nursing, and put myself into many learning situations that were intimidating just so I wouldn't be scared of it anymore.
But 'our' kind of LPN will pass into history when we do.
I'm not saying the LPN or diploma RN won't be very caring or good at some clinical skills, but that is not a "nurse." You can teach anyone to put in a cath or walk someone to the bathroom. Being a healthcare professional demands higher levels of education.
I am a newly graduated RPN (Ontario) Our program is 2 years with a 320 hour preceptorship at the end. While in clinical and even during consolidation we do try to learn lots of skills. We had to pass a licensing exam to be able to practice in Canada. We are trained in everything from giving a bed bath, walking a patient, inserting catheters, initiating IVs, giving meds by po, INH, sub cut, intramuscular, IV, topical, initiating and monitoring blood transfusions, chest tubes, NG tubes, and so much more. We do our assessments and call the doctors PRN and get critical levels from the lab. As an RPN on a busy surgical unit I am part of a team. The RPNs work alongside the RNs. The nurse with the most experience (34 or 35 years) is an RPN and she is well respected. While the RNs do take the most unstable patients and the ones directly from the OR, we are more than capable of taking our own patient load--often 4 or 5 patients. I am thankful for the team that I work with especially as a new grad who desires to learn and grow as a nurse. I love my job! :)
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
meta091,
Not all "higher levels of education" come from a brick and mortar institution with a tuition debt attached to it.
While it is true that for some, once they've graduated and got their job, they are happy to sit around with their thumb up their patoot.
But a lot of us LPN's know how to read, ask questions, look stuff up, and even learn the sciences at a deeper level. Imagine this: some of us do it just for fun, because it is interesting to us! Advancing one's knowledge doesn't require enrollment in a program.
Of course, if you want different letters after your name and/or a bigger paycheck, you do have to go to school .
Anybody can be dumb as a bucket of rocks, even the ones with advanced education. Wait 'til you meet up with someone like that; it'll blow your mind.
Anybody can be dumb as a bucket of rocks, even the ones with advanced education. Wait 'til you meet up with someone like that; it'll blow your mind.
I'd double or triple like this if I could. I've met more than a few; lots of alphabet soup behind the name, but not a lick of common sense, dumb as a fence post and lazy as the day is long.
I never asserted the fact that someone with more "alphabet soup" was better instantly than someone else, but it does make a difference. Being a nurse is not soley some inborn talent, but rather a combination of skill, hard work, and education.
We, as nurses, need to accept this and move forward in order to be respected in the same vein as physicians, lawyers, etc. But this is lost when people say all additional education is used for is more letters after a name and a pay raise. You don't see physicians saying these things.
I, for one, am glad LPN's and ADN RN's are being forced out. In order to be respected as a the professionals we need to be - we have to be better educated. You can argue all you want, and say, "oh I'm a better nurse than you cause I have 50 years experience," or that education is only adding letters to your name and nothing more, but the healthcare world disagrees.
I never asserted the fact that someone with more "alphabet soup" was better instantly than someone else, but it does make a difference. Being a nurse is not soley some inborn talent, but rather a combination of skill, hard work, and education.
We, as nurses, need to accept this and move forward in order to be respected in the same vein as physicians, lawyers, etc. But this is lost when people say all additional education is used for is more letters after a name and a pay raise. You don't see physicians saying these things.
I, for one, am glad LPN's and ADN RN's are being forced out. In order to be respected as a the professionals we need to be - we have to be better educated. You can argue all you want, and say, "oh I'm a better nurse than you cause I have 50 years experience," or that education is only adding letters to your name and nothing more, but the healthcare world disagrees.
Go back to school.
Oh boy, so glad I do not work with people who speak to others like this. It really is a reflection of character.
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
I can say this in utmost sincerity--
Your reading comprehension is lacking if that is all you got from previous posts on this thread. I absolutely garner respect....and admiration.....from the docs I've worked with.
Your reading comprehension is lacking if that is all you got from previous posts on this thread. I absolutely garner respect....and admiration.....from the docs I've worked with.
sooooo:
Ah, so it's only about the doctors. You don't care about your nurse colleagues? Interesting.
I, for one, am glad LPN's and ADN RN's are being forced out. In order to be respected as a the professionals we need to be - we have to be better educated. You can argue all you want, and say, "oh I'm a better nurse than you cause I have 50 years experience," or that education is only adding letters to your name and nothing more, but the healthcare world disagrees.
Go back to school.
No doubt those god-awful LPNs and those horrific ADN RNs will all go the way of the do-do bird soon enough, but forced out? That seems like a stretch.
As for school, well this debate is never ending. That's right. Let's all go back to school. More college = debt = a better life. Really? Says who? Paying that college debt for 10, 15, 20 years or more. No thanks. I'll pass on that. But for those of you so obsessed I say enjoy.
What's really telling is how disparate our views are considering we are all nurses and health care professionals. It would seem that having more of a united front would be better for nursing than all the constant bickering about LPNs vs ADN RNs vs BSN RNs vs MSNs vs DNP, et al. Lots of tacky behavior, nasty sniping and backbiting that seems more appropriate for a hair salon than coming from health care professionals.
If the BSN and above educated RNs are so sure that anyone educated below that level is inferior, I say let them unite. Get the minimum standards changed so that all nursing programs below that level are gone. Poof! Problem solved. Oh and while you're at it, make it a National Standard instead of state regulated. This would go a long way toward professional recognition. All that would be left would be the BSN's and above. Let the bickering begin over who will answer the next call light!
I am an LPN and I am 53 years old and an empty nester. I have decided to go back to school after 30 years to get my BSN and I am scared to death. I got my LPN because I just had gotten married and needed to get a degree quickly so I could get a job. My friends ask why I am going back to school my dream was always to be an RN and after three kids I now have the time. Not sure what I'm going to do but I will have options. I currently have been employed in the same family practice office for 28 years and love it but if I want a change other doors will now be open.
No Stars In My Eyes
5,633 Posts
Well, HazelLPN, I know for myself that although I was an LPN, anything I could get experience in, no matter what it was, I did and was either "checked off" or certified and thereafter it was 'within' my scope of practice!. Not all (or a lot) of LPN's did that.
I was forever hearing how I should go on and get my RN, and I would guess it's been the same for you. But you know what? I just flat out didn't want to! I was happy as I was, without the burden of being an RN.
I don't doubt for a minute that you and I have learned things, procedures, etc. that no future LPN will ever be able to do, simply for the fact that opportunities are very different now.
I have worked so many different kinds of nursing, and put myself into many learning situations that were intimidating just so I wouldn't be scared of it anymore.
But 'our' kind of LPN will pass into history when we do.
Meanwhile,
"Gitt'er done!"