"Just an LPN"....does anyone else get discouraged?

Nurses LPN/LVN

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You are reading page 7 of "Just an LPN"....does anyone else get discouraged?

1BlessedRN

167 Posts

Specializes in Case Manager, LTC,Staff Dev/NAT Instr.
My normal responce when I have a RN call me "Low Paid Nurse", yea real low paid, "I made 65K last year, how about yourself." I am agency, and work my butt off. That usally shuts the staff RN up real quick. At one hospital I go to a lot, I am usally on of the only "nurses" wh can read a Tele Strip while the other "Real Nurses" stand around picking thier noses. I am ACLS also, and I usally get the patients with a lot of drips. Not bad for a "Little Pretend Nurse"

Take pride in what you are doing and excel in it...

Tony/PHX :rolleyes:

"Some where in Texas, a village is missing its idiot"

Tony.... HATS OFF TO YOU LOVED YOUR POST :balloons:

mattsmom81

4,516 Posts

When I was a LPN yes I heard that...and its hard sometimes to grit your teeth, smile and use the comment as an opportunity to educate the public about the differing roles in nursing (if the comment is from the general public I tend to think it more innocent)

As far as others putting us down, well it happens...rude people with issues are everywhere and the academic elitists are everywhere. When I became an RN it was "'why didn't you become a doctor, NP, CRNA, etc...you're too smart for this work".

Just consider the source and the intent is my advice. Some are merely questioning, others definitely giving a put down. Choose your response, don't get your blood presure up about ignorant people. :)

blondiii

59 Posts

I am so happy to have been accepted in the extremely competitive program at the local jr. college, and have done very well so far. Right from the start my advisors were adding up my college credits which would apply to entry into the ADN program, when to take the test, and so on, AS IF the LPN program isn't enough! lol It's all been new to me!! Everyone & his brother tells me to "go on." Go on WHAT, I sometimes don't know what I'm studying NOW. I DO NOT WANT TO BE AN RN. READ MY LiPNS. I want to be an LPN. I'm fifty flippin two and am totally satisfied albeit overwhelmed with the amount of studying there is to do. The pharmacology is the SAME ENTIRE program which the RN's will have completed. It is very presumptious to assume that LPN's want to be RN's, like telling a teacher she has to aim to be the principal of the school, or a senator that he has to be the president, and so on. Some of my classmates are going on in the nursing program. Good for them! I have made better grades than most everyone, so it has nothing to do with that. I will be so satisfied if I pass the NCLEX-PN, then apply the complicated knowledge in a hospital, etc. But I see what y'all mean. Rude remarks are annoying. And don't disqualify your profession with "just" a ____, cause that just feeds it.

Sondra Cash

12 Posts

I have been just an LPN for almost 36 years.I never had a problem in LTC about a title I worked my way up to ADON.I retired from LTC and went to work in a ER,about 6 months ago.I was floored at the attitude towards LPN'S.In fact just yesterday the RN'S have us wear big red name tags that say LPN'S or RN'S.I just laughed :chuckle because there are only 3 of us in the ER,the cna's get more respect.I do not pay much attention to all this because I like who I am and what I do.If I had wanted to be an RN I would have years ago.I make good money and don't have the responsibilty the Real Nuts (RN) :uhoh3: have.Just be all you can be and do the best you can.A title is just a title .

Sondra

LPN1974, LPN

879 Posts

My DON made a comment once that I felt she could have kept......

We have student PN's come to our facility during their training, for a few days, to shadow some nurses.

My DON said she wanted to stop the SPNs from coming and get RN students instead, she said the SPNs were "alot of trouble".

That was offensive to me. Every student has to have training.

Some RN students did come last year and all I saw them do was sit in there in the medical records room and look at charts. They didn't go out in the field and see what was going on with the people we serve.

mattsmom81

4,516 Posts

I worked with a wonderful CNA who had been working acute care for decades...she was so sharp, I trusted her implicitly and she was seldom wrong when she alerted me to a problem. Her senses were so in tune with her patients she detected small changes...years of instinct developed. She told me she didn't WANT to be a nurse, she was happy with her role and felt it a valued one. I agreed with her...I loved working with her and respected her contributions. We should all feel this way about our chosen role. :)

In Texas LPN's are not limited in their roles and I worked side by side with many exceptional nurses who were LPN's. One experienced LPN quit RN school when she learned the hospital was going to LOWER her wage if she became an RN. Amazing she would have to work her way up another payscale tier!!.:(

Experienced LPN's are in great demand in the Dallas Fort Worth area as agency, as another poster pointed out. They have the experience most staff nurses appreciate, and the facilities get off cheaper bringing them in instead of RN's. So I know quite a few LPN's who do very well financially in this role. :)

I do get tired of the elitism and lack of solidarity in nursing...it seems its primarily a BSN proponent group who feel its OK to look down on LPNs, (as well as 2 yr and 3 yr RN's) I suspect their schooling promotes this, but I choose not to let it get my BP up any further than it already is. LOL.

One of my best friends and coworkers is a LPN...and she could take care of me or my family anytime. Not all RN's look down on LPN's. Go with that.

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

I think schooling does promote some of the i'm-better-than-you attitude. A local BSN program in this area employs an instructor whom i overheard saying "Remmber, YOU will be the nurse, do not focus on aide work." And unless some of their students have worked in healthcare before coming to that nursing school, they won't know any different when graduating.

I seriously have wondered where the behavior is learned when someone refers to me as "cheap labor" because i'm not an RN (actual words from this board). I mean, i'm aware that my job pays less, therefore considered economical, but the phrase "cheap labor" was not meant as fact, it was clearly meant as an insult.

To which i think to myself "Man, i will strive 200% to keep from acting so bitter towards people!"

RN34TX

1,383 Posts

In Texas LPN's are not limited in their roles and I worked side by side with many exceptional nurses who were LPN's. One experienced LPN quit RN school when she learned the hospital was going to LOWER her wage if she became an RN. Amazing she would have to work her way up another payscale tier!!.:(

Experienced LPN's are in great demand in the Dallas Fort Worth area as agency, as another poster pointed out. They have the experience most staff nurses appreciate, and the facilities get off cheaper bringing them in instead of RN's. So I know quite a few LPN's who do very well financially in this role. :)

I was one of those LVN's in DFW. I pointed out to another poster previously who was looking for an "LPN friendly city" and I told her Dallas. I moved to south Texas when I got my RN and really don't make much more money than I did as an LVN in Dallas. Scope of practice is wide open if you find the right facility there. I could push IV everything except cardiac meds like Digoxin and I can remember working up in Minnesota where I wasn't allowed to start an IV or touch a central line. What a difference.

To address the LVN who quit RN school because she would have been paid less as a new RN:

Every new RN who was an LPN/LVN should demand to be paid for their previous experience. I know that this may not always be possible but I know in Dallas/Ft. Worth there are plenty of hospitals that give credit for LVN experience. Not all, however, which is an insult to be paid the same as a new RN who previously worked in a non-nursing occupation.

As a new grad RN I interviewed at the famous elite Parkland Hospital to see what they would offer. I almost laughed walking out the door when they offered me $19/hr when I was making just under $22/hr at my last LVN job just up the street. I said "no thanks, I'll stay where I'm at. My current employer actually INCREASES an LVN's wage when they become an RN. Parkland might want to think about doing the same if they expect to get experienced people."

She had the nerve to tell me "But you're not experienced, you're a brand new RN."

I told her "That may be true. But I wasn't exactly working at Burger King for the past 6 years of my life. I was a licensed nurse, RN or not."

Specializes in Registered Nurse.

I just was reading some other comments just now and remembered one of the first lectures I had in my RN program...the *old timer* teaching actually said that we would be RNs and that there were plenty of other workers in medical jobs that tried to look and act like RNs, but they were *wannabes*...WE (as RN students) would be the 'real thing". It disturbed me as a LPN (which I was at the time). It's true that some people think that way. It's not very nice or pleasant. Luckily, it isn't all people or all RNs that think that way.

squeeky

4 Posts

Hi I've been an LPN for 20+ years and I am one of 2 LPN's that work first shift in the hospital that I work in. I work with a lot of RN's that don't have the experience that I do and ask me to show them how to do a lot of treatments and proceedures. Not too bad for JUST an LPN. I love my job and my title.

Thunderwolf, MSN, RN

3 Articles; 6,621 Posts

Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatric, Behavioral Health.

As a RN for about 20 years, I have to say one thing...

"You are a nurse" and "cut the crap". :deadhorse

The last LPN that told me "I'm just a LPN" drew a little bit of my wrath. I see the LPNs that I work with as professional and part of the crew....unless one proves otherwise. It ticks me off to no end :angryfirewhen a LPN uses "I'm just a LPN" to self belittle. No...I don't stand for it...not one bit.

So...stop beating yourself down. YOU ARE A NURSE!!!!!...and BE PROUD!!!

Sondra Cash

12 Posts

You go girl.Thanks for the support .We need lots more RN'S with your attitude.:balloons: I to get a lot of asking about different things in the ER,esp.about geris who come through even from the Docs.So yes I am very proud and know my stuff.

Sondra LPN

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