A Day In the Life of a LPN

Nurses LPN/LVN

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I'm a new lpn student and love hearing/reading what other ppl go through as a nurse and see what i have to look forward to good, bad, and ugly. Please describe a typical work day for you as an lpn. Feel free to add special experiences too. Please also include what setting you work in i.e. hospital, ltc, etc.. And if you don't mind salary and state.

Anymore lpns out there?

Specializes in Step-Down.

Arrive on my unit 15 min early. First thing I do is count the narcs, lock them up and recieve a horrible report from the regular nurse I am relieving which usually consists of "everyone is fine".....well guess what if they were "fine" they wouldn't be here!!! Review who is on the 24 hour report. Do my rounds make sure everyone has a pulse and no one is in pain or distress. Give report to my aids or explain certain aspects of specific patient care if I have CNAs that are floating. Admin my 12 am meds, pegs dressings, DU dressings and treatments. Clean/organizethe med cart. Prepare and review monthly MAR/TARs for DR days. Take my break. Start my morning med pass which means I run around like a chicken without a head for 2 hours. Do my progress notes, give report and pray I get out on time. That's a "normal night" I do the 11p. To 7am. Usually there is a fall, distress, send someone to hospital, acute psychotic episodes ect the list goes on and on!!!

Arrive around 0650. Do narcotic count.

Shift starts 0700 go to report and promise not to kill annoying RN who wants to know everything about her stable patient which she could find if she looks at the Kardex.

0715, print med sheet, round patients, vitals, pain meds, assist to toilet.

0745, try and chart vitals for residents on rounds, look for changes to meds

0800 meds, wash, hang tube feeds (if any)

0830, pray breakfast starts soon. Cover my three patients and coworkers three while they go on break. Desist from smacking resident who pulls of patients dressing and walks off without telling me. Start complex dressing change while answering questions the resident didn't bother to.

0930 breakfast of which 20 minutes are spent in a line up. Resolve to start bringing thermos.

1000 meds, iv bags, beds to make, patients to shower, dressings.

1115 try and chart something, pick up three patients so coworker can go to lunch.

1200 lunch, give report on six patients (alive and well, drugged and gone to xray, you've got a post op coming)

1235 meds, blood sugars, family questions

1400 big mad charting dash. One patient finally returns for a procedure off unit and needs meds, fresh bed linen, washing, etc (coworkers help) Kardex

1455, try and get someone from oncoming shift to count narcotics.

1515 shift officially ends, but evenings are hanging out in the report room

1525, leave unit to be trapped in corridor by demented daughter of a patient.

1530 finally free.

Oh, I work acute care in Canada and am at the top of my payscale at $33/hr. (shift diffs are $5/hr for nights, $3.25/hr for weekends and they piggyback)

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Do you guys love this career that you have chosen?

Great post, I feel like I'm getting prepared for the real world on this site

Specializes in Psych, Skilled Nursing.

I work in skilled nursing facility, 3-11 shift. 16.52 with 2.71 shift diff.

Come in 30 minutes early (the only way I can leave at a decent time later that night) and make shift assignment/vitals list. Review 24 hour report and wait patiently to count my narcs/receive report. Notice the stack of orders to input or admissions conviently scheduled to come in at 3:15 and sigh inwardly. Finally get a half-assed report from day shift, count, stock cart. Begin preparing for my 12 blood sugars. Gather their Meds to pass as I give coverage, then begin everyone else's Meds. (30 pts to 1 nurse, everyone gets 5 pm Meds, half get HS Meds) This doesn't even begin to cover all the interruptions (phone calls, family members, needy patients). Barely finish 5pm pass before the next one starts, maybe shovel something into my stomach and get one chart done. Repeat med pass. Chart chart chart. Go home.

I work 3-11 in ltc in central pa.

I get to work at 14:45. Count narcs and check prns. Get a good report from my day shift nurse

Write down who my chem sticks and who I need vitals for.

Start my 4 o'clock med pass which I usually start around 3, 3:15 ish and finish by 4.

Pour my creams and other treatments that the aides do with care.

Take off orders while listening for alarms and call bells. Between 4 and 5 almost all the aides are in the dining room. So it's pretty much me on the floor by myself.

Go to lunch at 5.

Come back at 5:30. Get my vitals for the next med pass and put the creams in the residents rooms.

Take more orders off until 630,645 when I start my 8 o'clock med pass.

Do my med pass and any body checks that need done. Usually finish around 9, 9:30

Do any wound treatments that the aides can't do.

Chart behaviors and mds

Make sure I do my i&os.

Take off the rest of the orders.

Give report to supervisor.

Then give report and count narcs with night nurse.

-Usually come in around 15-30 minutes early depending if I'm mentoring a new LPN.

-Get at assignments and ADL sheets ready for the incoming CNA's notation any FYI's such as behaviors or family concerns as well as any samples I need along with contact precautions if any.

- Count narcotics

- Bye 1500 We would do walking rounds checking for cleanliness of rooms, shower, and to make sure all patients were accounted for and alive. Check status of pumps for feedings and IV's

-1510 Making VS, TX, specimen lists printing shift reports for intake, hydration, and behaviors all of which help fill in the blanks if you follow a horrible lpn.

-1515 Do VS for my focus charting and abx patients, followed by specimen collection.

-1530 Preparing for 1600 medpass, such as juice, water, pudding, applesauce etc.

-1540 Prime feeding bags and prepare IV medications to be hung that medpass

-1600 Get Blood Glucose levels

-1615 Start need pass, taking VS prior to administering certain meds that have parameters such as your cardiac and diuretic meds finishing around 1730-1745 depending on how many interruptions you get.

-1800 Assist with meal pass, and then start on charting, taking orders off, calling families with changes in status, medications, and lab results.

-1900 Doing another walking round with the CNA and verifying showers, creams, catheter care, and HS care was planned out and began.

-1945 Obtain HS blood glucose levels.

-2000 Start HS medication pass and hand out HS snacks. Finishing around 2045-2100

-2100 Finish charting and then assist in finishing up putting residents to bed. From time to time I would have to watch 2-3 residents which were up all night walking about the unit.

I worked on a 29 bed alzheimers / dementia unit. I was lucky to have a solid team on my shift as well as the one that preceded me. So me and my partner LPN in the morning as well as the CNA's on both shifts knew the residents and thier idiosyncrasies very well so most nights the evenings flowed very well. Full moons and new behaviors kept it interesting. The RN's were useless most of the time.

Specializes in Ambulatory Care-Family Medicine.

I work at a family med clinic in Texas as one of the phone nurses. My day consists of completing messages, doing refills, and calling patients to answer their questions or give lab results. If I get pulled to the floor I room patients, take their vitals, give shots that ate ordered, and help with procedures if their are any. It is very boring, the pay is low for the area, but the hours are great (mon-Friday 8-5). Plan on finding a new job in the next two years but for now the clinic is alright. I love the doctors I work with so that helps.

I come in, get an incomplete report from the 6-2 nurse who invariably "forgets" to take off orders/process labs. (I find those later in the shift.) My CNA's will tell me that so-and-so has been running a temp with emesis all day. (Funny, I didn't get THAT in report...) I feebly attempt to gather VS's for my MCR/focus charting residents only to be interrupted by the pharmacy calling incessantly asking questions like, "was that lisinopril order for Mr. X p.o.?". No. It's topical. Sheesh. Moving on, it seems the 6-2 people failed to report a skin tear on Mrs. Y, so I have to write the Incident Report, make the proper notifications, dress the wound, etc. Now, back to those VS's. But wait! There's a very angry family member who wants to know why her Mom, (Dx: Alzheimer's) is saying she hasn't eaten all day! I hunt for the never-can-be-found Meal Intake Book and point out that yes, "Mom" ate, very well in fact and has had snacks. Well, that's not good enough "cuz Mom said she hasn't eaten!" I try to explain for the millionth time that Alzheimer's resident's have a hard time remembering things...Now I'm behind. Naturally. I give up on VS's for the time being because I have meds and blood sugar checks to get done before supper. That being done, (not without another host of interruptions), I can finally sit and try to get some charting done. Oh! What's this? Well, I'll be! It's a stack of labs left over from...oh let's check the time stamp...1 p.m.! Perfect. So I call on the labs, get the orders, blah blah blah. Where was I? Oh! Charting! Oh well now look at the time. I have to take lunch. It's now or never. So then I take lunch in my car for the solitude where I quietly whimper to myself and attempt to regroup for the remainder of the shift. I steel myself as I head back in, with a "plan" to get the rest of my duties completed when I hear, "Oh! There you are! Mrs. Z fell out of bed a few minutes ago." The "plan" goes right out the window, another Incident Report to write, phone calls, etc. I blast through the HS med pass and scribble illegibly in the charts to finish those up hoping to get an "E" for effort. I give report at breakneck speed, barely pausing to take a breath. I count the carts and make a mad dash for the time clock then to my car, taking care not to look back as I fear I'll turn into a pillar of salt. I decompress on my commute home, attempt to shake the day so that I can relax and enjoy the company of my husband when I get home without visions of charts/meds/Incident Reports/angry people stealing my "happy thoughts".

I work in Texas, LTC. $21.00/hr + $1.00 shift diff.

(As a side note, it's not always bad. I have to find humor in my job, otherwise it will consume my soul. :yes:)

I second this except I'm in TN make 20.29/hr with my $3 extra added in for being PRN. Also, since I'm PRN I never really get to know my pts as well as the full time nurses know their's. This means I am always behind and usually always leave an hour or so past the end of my shift. I usually never know what is going on with the pts unless I get a really good report from the previous nurse. I'll get questions from family members and be completely clueless as to what is going on so I have to get the supervisor or unit manager to speak with the family. I'll finally sit down to chart at the end of my shift only to find a lab req laying at the nurses station saying ms. jane needs her 2nd c-diff stool sample sent off (She had a BM an hour ago but its too late now since I just found out). Things like that happen quite often. One of my pts I haven't worked with in over a month (since I'm PRN) and in report I tell the regular nurse how long its been and she says well absolutly nothing has changed with that pt. Then when I bring that pt her meds the CNT stops me and says that the pt can't swallow well anymore and now needs the meds crushed. I'm sure glad I didn't pour them in her mouth whole like I used to!

Just a few examples. :-)

Anyone else

Great post I feel like I'm getting prepared for the real world on this site[/quote']

I agree

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