I work In Iowa at a private owned Hospital and when I transitioned to the role of LPN I was in shock that base pay for LPN was 10.84 and I was "lucky" to start at 11.94 because I had worked at the hospital for a year and a half. The hospital also did away shortly after with LPN's in an active role about 2wks after I got the position. My unit is the only unit in the hospital that still has us in an active role. I later found out that our Nurse manager fought to keep us in that active role. I was given a .5 RN position because my director and nurse manager did not want me to quit and go somewhere else. The down side to that is every year the hospital does a cost of living evaluation, and now because they do not actively hire LPN's, we were not considered for a cost of living raise, and we did not get one, where as the RN's and every other employee did.
Our hospital has also now gone through a "restructuring" and we have lost 30 employees, and 16 positions are left unfilled. I am worried now because i feel I will either lose my job, or when I finish school and hopefully pass boards for my RN in November that I will not transition to the RN position that they gave me. I also have tuition assistance with them and am wondering if I will have to pay that back if they let us LPN's go or there is not a position for me after I finish. I just don't know what to do.
They say they are done "restructuring" and that they will not eliminate any nursing positions, but about 10 of the positions left unfilled ARE nursing positions, and a lot of people aren't sure whether to believe this. What should I do, should I start looking for another job, or just ride out the wave and hope that this fall I will be transitioned into the RN role?
