LPN course Canada is 2 years...

[emt... rn student]

I was just thinking about the lpn course in Canada being 2 years long, but in the US I believe you can get your RN (ADN) in 2 years and 1 year for LPN there, so I was just wondering how Canadian LPN's compare to their American counterparts? I'm not trying to start a debate or anything, I was just curious is all :)

[loriangel14, RN]

I looked after a patient for a whole shift and then at the end of the shift they decide to send the patient to the ICU.

[brithoover]

You are basing your knowledge on what?

I pack wounds, do wound vac dressings, pretty much everything the RN working alongside me does. Oh, wait, I can't pierce a bag of blood or TPN. It's a two nurse procedure and we all know we've done it.

As for getting "stable" patients? In an ideal setting. I've been given unstable patients and not allowed to refuse the assignment because "It's you or a new grad. I want the patient looked after" direct quote from my unit manager. I spent the better part of that shift running my gluteal muscles off, monitoring his blood, getting pain meds increased, and telling the charge to get my patient into ICU. The new grad RN got to look after the fresh appis.

I want to work in your world where LPNs have such restrictions placed on them.

Based on the hospital I work at. Those are the restrictions, they aren't necessarily followed. I put stable in "" because that's an ideal not always the case. I have seen plenty of RPNs refuse an assignment which then got passed on to an RN which then overloaded the RN to an extra pt. I'm not saying it happens everywhere that's just my experiences.

I think there should be some restrictions.

[Bringonthenight]

I think the word stable is too vague, there should be actual restrictions of practice not just saying "the patient must be stable for an LPN to look after them" I mean, define stable.

In Aus, ENs have scope restrictions kind of like the US LPN. It differs state by state and facility by facility. Only in the past few years have they started educating ENs in administering IV medication through peripheral IVs. It's still causing an outrage with some old school RNs. The same RNs we're outraged when they started teaching ENs how to administer orals and injectables. Rolls eyes.

[CanadianGirl79]

Actually, RPNs can push meds, depending on the med and institutional policy.

[AngelicDarkness]

This post confuses me. So why have RNs in Canada if the job opportunities, scope etc seem to be identical for RPN/LPNs?

Sorry for the confusion, as the scope expands, it does get very complicated. We are not identical - but we are similar.

Basically RPN/LPNs look after stable clients. These clients can be in any field of the health care sector. Director of Care RPNs can be found in Retirement home settings, while RNs are in the LTC sector because of the stable vs unstable clients.

In a majority of hospital settings that have not been so open to the RPN/LPN scope of practice, they work in teams with the RN.

My understanding is that we are the "old" RN program. The RN is now the BSCN program with added components from the NP program (some RNs can now prescribe medication).

[AngelicDarkness]

Based on the hospital I work at. Those are the restrictions, they aren't necessarily followed. I put stable in "" because that's an ideal not always the case. I have seen plenty of RPNs refuse an assignment which then got passed on to an RN which then overloaded the RN to an extra pt. I'm not saying it happens everywhere that's just my experiences.

I think there should be some restrictions.

That would describe the scope of practice based on the employer though. I prefer the CNO description because a lot of employers are still stuck in the "dark ages" thinking that RPNs are nursing assistants.

[Fiona59]

Angelic Darkness, Alberta and Saskatchewan (from what I've been told by LPNs from that province) have very few restrictions on where they can work. In AB, we are in NICU, ICU, ER, OR,Diagnostic Imaging, Dialysis (same patient load as an R), Community Health/School Programmes, Cross Cancer.

I think it would be better to determine where we aren't. We are cost effective. Think of it this way, on the average medicine or surgical unit how often is blood or TPN hung? In dialysis the line that LPNs can't cross is the IV push of one drug on blood return (and even that may be changing). I once asked an LPN who worked rural dialysis how she handled this if the R is on break. Her reply, "it goes subq, just like you'd do it on a unit".

Off the top of my head, I can only think of PICU and the Cath Lab. as all RN.