I'm a real nurse!!! Thank you!

workingharder · Jan 28, 2012

I'm a BSN. In my short time as a nurse I've never paid ANY mind to the alphabet soup following a nurses' name. If I needed help with a situation I've gone for the experienced nurse, the one who knew how to get something done. LVN, BSN, MSN; I don't care. When I need advice or a guiding hand, I go for experience and knowledge.

My mom was an LVN for 30+ years, and she was a darn good nurse. Could go toe to toe with MDs and knew her stuff. I've worked with some really great LVNs and I've learned a thing or two from them. A couple of the best nurses I've encountered are LVNs and if the time came for someone to care for me, I'd point to them and say, "These are the ones to do it".

To me education is fine and dandy but, give me skills every time.

pinaytoh · Jun 18, 2012

:twocents:Im working as a tech in a hospital here in AZ where they phase out LPN's years ago..when I start school last year to become an LPN...everybody ask me why and says "dont do that, just get in line for the RN", you cant get anywhere with LPN...It was discouraging, but after a year--I got my License and got a job offer the next day!!!now everybody is telling me that it's not good for a new nurse to work as a home health nurse!!!!I just want to tell them that I will get there in time...for now let me be the NURSE that I want to be!!! :nurse:

FutureNurseBee · Jun 19, 2012

I honestly could careless if people feel like being a LPN is a real nurse or not! because I know and its legally known that "I'M A NURSE" everyone do things at their own pace and have their own path to follow I worked hard and busted my butt as a practical nursing student and unless you allow it no one can ever take that away from you. Becoming a nurse and part of the medical field is a honorable calling which ever way you put it. I have no desire to defend being an Lpn because its a honest and legal profession. if you go on to be a RN in the future do it for the cause and sake of climbing up the ladder of education not for the approval or applause of others. people will put you down regardless what you do and will most likely be no where to be found when the bills need to be paid :) I'm glad i went the lpn route first for nursing it reassured me that nursing is my calling and i feel alot more proud of myself compared to when I was a lost college drop out with a dead end job earning mininum wage!

MySonIsAdorable · Jun 19, 2012

Yeah, just the other day I was talking to my uncle about coming to my graduation...he said exactly "I will come when you are graduating real nursing school" and man, that really hurt.

But you know, I feel like I am going to be a great nurse, almost all of my instructors were LVNs first and some of them have their masters and still wish to teach VN school over RN classes because they feel like we are the true front line of nursing. And the ones who weren't LVNs first wish they would have been. I am not knocking RNs of course, because I am going on to be one but I am certainly proud of what I am about to become and I will be an LVN with pride :nurse:

amygarside · Jun 19, 2012

People can be really mean. It also doesn't help that some RNs themselves think that they are better or smarter than LPNs.

To all the LPNs, continue to do what you're doing.

ruthalittle · Jun 19, 2012

Good luck to you :) ..but please don't think as I did (& was told by many, many people) after completing over half of an RN program & dropping out due to my sons illness; The Practical Nursing Program will be "a breeze" for you." On day one we were welcomed to the program with a statement "You will learn over 90% of what the RN students learn, in half of the time." I saw grown men cry. I cried myself. Most of the time I feel as though it was worth it.

I loved the Flight RN's comment on bed side nursing. If everyone went on to management, who on earth would provide hands on care?

Brokenthings · Jul 30, 2016

Hey there.

4th year BScN student from Canada. I want to chime in here but i do not mean to insult anyone's chosen career. However i would like to shine some light on some of the tension between LPNs and RNs that exists where I live. In early nursing education in Canada, students were exploited in apprentice-like, hospital-based, diploma nursing programs. Having a nursing school attached to a hospital was a financially beneficial arrangement because it provided the hospital with a large unpaid workforce. At that time in Canada, nurses were female, doctors were male, with few exceptions. Doctors were considered the brains and the decision makers, nurses the helpers simply carrying out orders. It was actually a variety of women's rights associations that highlighted that the system of health care and nursing education that existed in those days placed a low priority on the education of women in society. This drive for social equality is a huge part of what has made nursing a regulated and respected profession with an independent body of knowledge. The creation of a baccalaureate degree took a long time, and mandatory baccalaureate entry to practice took even longer. In canada our national nursing association (CNA) endorsed that nurses should have university degrees in order to practice in the 1970s. It wasnt until 2000 that it actually became mandatory to have a degree to practice, the lag kinda further highlights how little our government cared about women's education. Baccalaureate entry to practice for nurses was considered a symbol for the struggle of women to have there knowledge and experience validated and legitimized.

Despite the struggle, and the amazing changes to social equality.

Individuals are trained and employed in 2 years with an emphasis on practical skills, primarily because laws only protect the title of "registered nurse." not other forms of non-registered nursing.

So LPNs emerge, quicker to train, cheaper to pay, no university degree required.

One step forward for operating budget.

two steps backward for social equality and legitimizing the profession.

That's where some of the tension comes from anyways, sorry if you hate it.

thanks for reading

all the best

Brokenthings

4th year BScN student (that is also a man)

Fiona59 · Jul 30, 2016

Broken, some of what you have written is true.

In my province, the degree became entry to practice in 2009.

Many of the issues that divide RNs and LPNs are created by CARNA and UNA. The rhetoric of 'safe, quality care can only be provided by an RN' is spouted by these groups at every opportunity.

Do you suggest that RN who were hospital trained or did the 2.5 year course (which is now the basis for the PN course) be demote to LPN status?

The degree was never intended for bedside nurses. It was aimed at creating management level nurses for administration and researchers. I had friends who chose hospital based education in the 1970s over the university programme because they wanted hands on work.

Many American programmes are still less than a year long for LPNs. Comparing the American education to Canadian is the old apple / orange debate.

Brokenthings · Jul 30, 2016

CNA spouts the same rhetoric. And no i never suggested that existing RNs that did not require a degree should be demoted. Again the Baccalaureate entry to practice is a positive thing for the progression of the profession and body of knowledge. And the idea that the degree is not hands on and is only meant for management level nurses, administration, and researchers is not correct. Early programs that could be possible I have no idea. You really don't conduct research at an undergrad level unless you are in an honors program. throughout my whole program, we have done a total of 3 credits on a nursing research course, and another 3 in a nursing leadership course. Perhaps a better definition of bedside nursing should be provided. Which bedside? ive actually never been on a single unit where RNs were not working at the bedside. What about the bedside of a patient in ICU? Labour and delivery? Mental health? you will only find RNs (and RPNs) at those bedsides. So how are they just management, administration and researchers again?

vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN · Jul 31, 2016

what a jerk.
At my pinning ceremony last summer the faculty talked about how we should keep going to our RN and beyond etc...
my sister was in the audience is an LPN and has NO plans to get her RN degree. She is happy...
Sad but this was nurses insulting nurses

This may be because the teachers in LVN / PN programs are RN/MSNs who often weren't LVN/PNs 1st.

Then again, maybe they were. SMH.

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vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN · Jul 31, 2016

We could all learn a lot by valuing all of the members of the health care team. CNAs have helped me. Some LVNs/PNs have helped me, as well. Experience and critical thinking are indeed good teachers.

And if a person has those qualifications, they have it, regardless of the letters after their name.

Put some respeck on their names!! (Paraphrasing Birdman) [emoji23][emoji41]

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quitor1moretry · Feb 18, 2017

Me too! But as soon as you make a co-worker mad, the first thing out of her mouth will be, "Are you an RN." Not all RN's are this way. Now that the 2 year RN is fastly becoming the new LPN. Hospitals do not want to hire a nurse with an A.S. degree. Because studies show patients have better outcomes when they receive care from a nurse with their bachelors degree, Insurance companies will pay higher reimbursement for hospitals with pilot status. This means 90% of the nurses performing patient care need their BSN. The sad thing is if a nurse received her R.N. from a school like Argossy for example, their degree will not transfer to a four year program. I guess I'd be pissed too. But they are not rude, it is the LPN who is thin skinned, and has a chip on her shoulder...so I have been told. Doctors in the clinic love LPN's. and not because we are cheap. If an R.N. walks in they expect you to know your stuff, but they are much kinder to LPN's and even teach us things that are not taught in many nursing programs. Recently I told a R.N. that the patient was a nurse her self, and we needed to use her medical knowledge to explain why we wanted her to be compliant with a treatment. Her response was well she's not an R.N. ANYMORE, now she is a patient, and she needs to listen to us. Being a patient in this nursing home did not define her. Of coorifice she is still a nurse, not licensed, but she was a nurse. Thanks for letting me rant!