I'm a recent military retiree, working as a PCT (cna) hourly rate $9.25 with $1.15 night diff + 20% for no benefits, I'm making close to $12 an hour. According to the LPN's on my Cardiac care floor, they only make around $11 an hour, with nurse externs making close to $12 an hour.
My question, is it even worth the hassle of going to school for a long year, to have a very stressful job and only make $11 to $14 an hour? I mean the county starts the street sweepers for that kind of money here in TN. There are easier ways to make low wages, no??
I have 3 years of college money left to spend and I'm slated to start LPN school in the fall, RN school would be for next year anyway due to pre-req, etc. Plus if I graduate LPN and don't like nursing or the low pay, I've only wasted a year of life.
Any thoughts on the issue of pay versus stress and/or bang for the buck of working in health care??
Tony
(retired military)
p.s. If you had 3 years of college money to spend, what would you do with it??
I'm kind of with you there, I feel like I might as well finish my prereqs and go on to an ADN program. But some money is better than no money & I can bridge after I get the rest of my prereqs & afford to support my young child at the same time. That's not everywhere you might have to look around but you can get more than that. & just bridge to your RN afterwards. Its a good opportunity to start working so you have some experience on your belt when you are an RN new grad. & its not all about the rate per hour, you get great benefits in a lot of LPN/LVN jobs.
LPN's who work at hospitals are not GENERALLY well paid, and in some cases, you cannot even use your title. You're called a "clinical asst." I've done much research and spoken to people personally. If you work for an agency or nursing home, you can make $25/hr+ right out of school. If you want experience, go with hospital, Money? go with the nursing home/ agency.
I am an LPN in the Emergency Room. I've been out of school for approximately 8 months. My past experience as an LPN was a fast paced, trauma-filled prison. People were beating each other up left and right when not breaking a bone somewhere during recreation. As the doc says, "it wouldn't be rec without a wreck".
I originally went into prison nursing because i was terrified of a nursing home. I was started out full-time at 14.69/hr with 1.50 shift diff after 4pm. Weekends paid $1 more on base rate. Needless to say, i was disappointed. I eventually wisened up and realized how short staffed the prison was that i could work PRN for 18.50/hr base and still get full-time hours (36 hours/week). Not bad.
Then I managed to impress a large hospital network's ER managers with my skill, enthusiasm, and short but useful past nursing experience. I am now in the ER making $13.63 / hr. Shift diff is $2.50 after 2:30pm and an additional 20% more on base pay during weekends. It was a nice pay-cut compared to the PRN rate I had, but def more experience.
In my hospital LPNs will take their own patient load with the supervision of the RN. The RN must do the initial assessment for the new admit and the LPN will take over until it is time for the RN to discharge and present final teachings. The LPN in my hospital may hang blood and push most meds. We are not allowed to push cardiac meds that require immediate evaluation like beta-blockers or digoxin (although, we can push digoxin as long as the patient does not require a heart monitor).
LPNs are mandated to become PALS, ACLS, and CPI certified. The hospital pays for the certifications and pays you for each hour you in attendance of the class. This is pretty kick-ass. LPNs do not strictly perform "tech-work", we have techs and volunteers to do that in the ER. (However, everyone, more or less, helps each other).
to sum my stuff up... Gawd, I hate my payrate but my experience and certifications will follow into my RN and immediately after getting that RN I will become CEN certified and brag to future employers how after just 1-2 months of RN licensure I hit a supreme certification (all thanks to a few years working ER as an LPN).
I live in Bucks County, PA,,, and I am halfway through LPN program at community College. The req here to bridge to RN is you must have pre req's(you get nutrition and communications while in LPN, the rest you have to get yourself before applying to ADN), you must work for one year as an LPN, this allows you to have the option to "Test Out" of Nursing I and II. That leaves you with only two nursing classes to complete... Not too bad.... Plus, if you were a good student, it makes it easier to get accepted to nursing school there... Not too bad... Also, there are plenty of Jobs for LPN's out there, There is a nursing home that I am doing my clinical rotation at now, and they start LPN's at 26.00 hr.... My husband's aunt has been an LPN for about 11 years, she makes way more than my mother in law who is an RN.... Its all about searching around and getting experience under your belt!!!!
$26/hr? Your cost of living is way higher than down south where it starts $13/hr, but that is good. And LPN's do make good if you dedicate a portion of your life to it. The bottom line in my book though having pondered it is 1) will LPN job make it impossible to get ADN due to job time requirements? (its hard mainly because its the most desired and competitive degree in the world) 2) will LPN prepare you knowledge-wise to protect yourself from nosocomial diseases, the 4th leading killer in the USA? Do you feel lucky? No doubt if you spend 12 years busting your LPN buns, you can do competitive to a RN with greater hours or living in a big city in PA up north, if that is what you want and call success. Just be sure you are not rationalizing a reason to skirt a hard academic battle competing with brilliant nursing students. It never gets easier in no way, and the knowledge does have a shelf life, like LPNs with all the available RNs. RN's have more clout, and LPN's are a long shot gamble probability wise. Good luck.
Are you an RN or an LPN? Or if not either, what is your course of study? .... I find some of your comments a bit disturbing and I find you to be very disparaging of the people that have chosen to get their LPN. Especially your statement about "what you want and call sucess".... True success is never defined only by what you do for a living or what you make.. I myself did not enter the LPN program to "skirt" a hard academic battle, it was a personal choice to be able to enter the job market as soon as possible while then being able to further my nursing degree, and as for RN's having more clout? Yeah, maybe in the healthcare field, RN's have more variety in job oppurtunities, and are allowed to do much more within their scope of practice, but I have heard plenty of times, and have seen it myself some LPNs that can run circles around the RN's...and thats nothing against RN;s just fact....
Mine is not an overbearing opinion, its a positive statement countering your somewhat disparaging remarks that you call "The truth"...... You are correct in saying that no one is right or wrong, and I do not claim to be correct, nor do I agree that you are, I may however be a tad more positive. ....... I do not wish to argue over this post, only to say I have no idea why my statement would "deeply offend your intelligence". Lets just agree to disagree.
for someone whose intelligence is "insulted" you don't seem to able to make your point in a very succinct way.
though having read some of your past posts it seems you talent lies in throwing out a controversial statement and waiting for the replied to come in.
skye614, i suggest you just ignore baldee. as a rn student he really can't have anything to add since he has neither been then nor done that in regards to becoming an lpn since obviously he has no idea that they teach most of the same things including infection control protocols so lpn's can protect themselves against nosocomial infections ( that means hospital acquired btw for all you uneducated lpns
as to the op actual question. yes for me it has been worth it.
MySonIsAdorable
137 Posts
I'm kind of with you there, I feel like I might as well finish my prereqs and go on to an ADN program. But some money is better than no money & I can bridge after I get the rest of my prereqs & afford to support my young child at the same time. That's not everywhere you might have to look around but you can get more than that. & just bridge to your RN afterwards. Its a good opportunity to start working so you have some experience on your belt when you are an RN new grad. & its not all about the rate per hour, you get great benefits in a lot of LPN/LVN jobs.