Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.
Kimmee-You can like it or not but the regulations are the regulations. The education we receive is different as is our scope of practice. Bed baths and foley insertion are not the basis of good nursing any more. Certainly foley insertion is a necessary and important skill but that's it. Good nurses, especially in LTC and most especially on a subacute unit, need to be able to assess a patient and pick up on changes in condition which require intervention.
It's preposterous to think the LPNs can't do admission paper work but it has to be called fact finding to satisfy the regs. In Massachusetts one facility I worked on allowed LPNs to hang IVs but not to do a dental assessment which consisted of looking a mucous membranes and counting teeth! It has since changed but that's the way it was. You sound very bitter when you speak about the almighty RN. WE didn't write the scope of practice.
I don't belittle anyone's skills and we are all (including, I might add, the CNAs who are invaluable) part of the nursing team and we each have our part to play.
Actually, and correct me if I am wrong. RN's do write the LPN scope of practice . While there might be an LPN which sits on the board of nursing of a particular state non the less as I said it is not LPN's who write our scope of practice.
Actually, and correct me if I am wrong. RN's do write the LPN scope of practice . While there might be an LPN which sits on the board of nursing of a particular state non the less as I said it is not LPN's who write our scope of practice.
Specializes in Hem/Onc, LTC, AL, Homecare, Mgmt, Psych.
Our Admit Assessments or Quarterly Review Assessments were changed to "Observations" so that the RN's don't have to do 'em all. LPNs can do all the observations and the RN's are supposed to follow up with any assessments.
In the facility I work at the admission assessment is called Initial Data Collection Sheet. Of course LPN's do it or it wouldn't get done. I also am back in school because I do the exact same job as the RN on the med cart, charting, data collecting but the RN is getting paid more. That really frosts my you-know-what. I LPNs that are sharp and not and RNs that are sharp and not so sharp. You can't tell by the letters after the name.
CapeCodMermaid, RN
6,092 Posts
Kimmee-You can like it or not but the regulations are the regulations. The education we receive is different as is our scope of practice. Bed baths and foley insertion are not the basis of good nursing any more. Certainly foley insertion is a necessary and important skill but that's it. Good nurses, especially in LTC and most especially on a subacute unit, need to be able to assess a patient and pick up on changes in condition which require intervention.
It's preposterous to think the LPNs can't do admission paper work but it has to be called fact finding to satisfy the regs. In Massachusetts one facility I worked on allowed LPNs to hang IVs but not to do a dental assessment which consisted of looking a mucous membranes and counting teeth! It has since changed but that's the way it was. You sound very bitter when you speak about the almighty RN. WE didn't write the scope of practice.
I don't belittle anyone's skills and we are all (including, I might add, the CNAs who are invaluable) part of the nursing team and we each have our part to play.