DO LVNs GET RESPECT?

pagandeva2000, LPN · Feb 20, 2007

I just got my LPN last month, people such as friends and family will ask me how schools going and I tell them Ive finished the LPN, they often respond with "So how long wil it take you to be a nurse?"

Isn't it utterly amazing how a person with any higher level of education can come to that conclusion?? I make it my business to bring that out every now and then. I told an arrogant person once that they need to behave according to the amount of years spent in school rather than their shoe size. It didn't elicit positive feelings between me and that idiot, but it sure felt good...:monkeydance:

postmortem_cowboy · Feb 20, 2007

^5 to pagan!!!! It's like when you tell someone who has no clue what an LVN is, they ask... "so are you a nurse?" then you have to go through and explain what the difference is between 'em. Being a guy I get the whole "doctor" thing all the time, and I have to keep correcting the patients over and over... it's like ok people just cuz i'm a guy doesn't mean i'm a doctor.

Wayne.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Feb 22, 2007

Below is a very recent post from a popular member of these forums who regularly bashes LPNs/LVNs, ADNs, and diploma RNs.

I have said it before and I will say it again. Nurses are shooting themselves in the foot by refusing/fighting increasing the educational leval for entry into practice. We are lumped in with minimally trained individuals, because THE PUBLIC CANNOT SEE WHAT ARE EDUCATION CONSISTED OF, AND THE RESPONSIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY THAT WE HAVE. The public looks at how long we are in school, and they see LPN/LVNs coming out of school after just one year of post HS education, and most RNs coming out of school after a two year ADN. While I know that most ADNs end up in school longer than that with pre-requisites, what matters at the end of the day is the Associates Degree, which is only considered a two year degree, regardless of how long it took you to accomplish it. THAT IS WHAT THE PUBLIC SEES, AND WHAT HOSPITALS THROW AT US (what do you girls expect? You only went to school for two years?)!!
When hospitals look to cut $$$, we look like an easy mark and career to de-skill. What is the difference between a nurses aide with six weeks of OJT, and an LPN/LVN with just a few months more. The public doesn't know or care what kind of classes you took, they look at the finished product.
Same with ADNs. Most careers that are community college based, are blue collar non professional careers.
We will always be a a line- item on the balance sheet, because we don't bill for or services like other departments. We will alway be thrown in with the room rate, housekeeping, and the complimentary roll of toilet paper.
Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington

postmortem_cowboy · Feb 22, 2007

Gee, with nurses like that who needs enemies? Ok, we're overglorified CNA's now? how so I ask? When it too me 12 months of straight no breaks 8-5 didactic and 6-3 clinical for a YEAR to even get the ABILITY to sit for boards does that compare with a CNA's schooling? Let's see, I'll pick that claim apart... meds or any type of pharmacology? CNA, no, LVN alot. Do CNA's do head to toe assessments, nope, do they even know what a homan's sign is, or what a DVT is? ok some may, but it's not part of their training, and if they do, they've learned it on the job and most likely from an LVN. People such as this and their "too good for everyone else" attitudes really should get a clue. LVN's serve a purpose, we're a bedside nurse. Where it isn't clinically necessary for an RN to be there, we're the middle ground, and we also serve as help to RN's.

I'd love to pose this question and i'm going to. If by some act of congress all LVN/LPN licenses were revoked, and I mean all of them, where would all the RN's be? You think there's a nursing shortage now? I really hate when some people cannot see that everything has it's meaning and place. And apparently this person seems to think they're better than everyone else. No room for the little guy huh? I'd like to see how much you like your job if all the VN/PN's of the world just up and got their licenses taken away because of nonsense opinion like this. It's hard enough to get people into nursing, and even more difficult to keep people in it with attitudes such as this. You should be glad we're all here to help, and carry some of the patient load, and be beconing more in at the same time to help the rest of us out that are tired and working our hands to the bone to try and make a difference. Seems to me that this person is in it for one thing and one thing only... money. Poor pitiful me the lower licenses are taking money out of my pocket because they possess a license and are dragging the wages down. No, your wrong. It's the broken system that's taking money out of your pocket. If you really want to do something for your profession, do something for the rest of us as well as yourself, and stop putting us, the work horses that do alot of the work down RN/ADN and LVN/LPN's included. Seems to me that a person with a high and mighty BSN is doing paper shuffling. If that's the case, maybe you should be back in the trenches doing what you should be doing, instead of knocking down those that are trying to provide a better life for their own, and make patients lives better. Just because you have a BSN, doesn't make you a good nurse, just makes you more educated, and with that said, it's pretty shameful that with all that knowledge and education you have under your belt that your so narrow minded and don't appreciate what others are capable of, even on a "little more than a CNA's education." You must not have ever been an VN/PN, cause if you had been, things such as this wouldn't be falling out of your high and mighty mouth.

Thanks Commuter for the ability to vent on that one.

Wayne.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Feb 22, 2007

Gee, with nurses like that who needs enemies?

Click on the link below to browse through her previous posts. You'll notice that virtually all of this individual's posts have a common theme: the denigration of LPNs/LVNs, ADN-RNs, and diploma RNs. I shall mention that this woman was a diploma RN in the 1970s!

https://allnurses.com/forums/members/20036.html

Fiona59 · Feb 22, 2007

I just ignore that poster. For a while I thought she was a troll and would get herself banned but it never happened.

Education is a wonderful thing and for many it is becoming harder to achieve. I was listening to a talk radio show the other day and a retired nurse called in. She was really upset with the need for nurses to have a university degree nowadays. As she put it "there are lots of girls out of high school that would love to be nurses but just don't have the Grade 12 marks to get in, bring back the hospital training programmes and that will help with this nursing shortage".

This is a theme I hear more and more from nurses that are 50+. They trained in hospitals and many admit that they wouldn't make it into a BScN programme today. The competitiveness of local RN programmes are making it so that only those with the highest marks in maths and sciences are admitted and these bright pupils are not always the best choices for a career that involves caring for their fellow human beings. Most don't want to do bedside care, they see themselves as the leaders of nursing. A scary thought indeed.

I work with LPNs every day that have degrees in other areas. When they applied to attend the RN programmes there was no accelerated pathway for degree holders, and bridges to RN have only arrived in the last five years in my province. It's only the under 40s planning to go this route. Those of us pushing 50 are just marking our time until we get to 60 or click with service years to retire.

I feel sorry for someone who ties her entire sense of being into her education and her perceived battle to gain the respect of other professions. Respect for your skills are earned not bought by an eduational qualification.

postmortem_cowboy · Feb 23, 2007

I just ignore that poster. For a while I thought she was a troll and would get herself banned but it never happened.
Education is a wonderful thing and for many it is becoming harder to achieve. I was listening to a talk radio show the other day and a retired nurse called in. She was really upset with the need for nurses to have a university degree nowadays. As she put it "there are lots of girls out of high school that would love to be nurses but just don't have the Grade 12 marks to get in, bring back the hospital training programmes and that will help with this nursing shortage".
This is a theme I hear more and more from nurses that are 50+. They trained in hospitals and many admit that they wouldn't make it into a BScN programme today. The competitiveness of local RN programmes are making it so that only those with the highest marks in maths and sciences are admitted and these bright pupils are not always the best choices for a career that involves caring for their fellow human beings. Most don't want to do bedside care, they see themselves as the leaders of nursing. A scary thought indeed.
I work with LPNs every day that have degrees in other areas. When they applied to attend the RN programmes there was no accelerated pathway for degree holders, and bridges to RN have only arrived in the last five years in my province. It's only the under 40s planning to go this route. Those of us pushing 50 are just marking our time until we get to 60 or click with service years to retire.
I feel sorry for someone who ties her entire sense of being into her education and her perceived battle to gain the respect of other professions. Respect for your skills are earned not bought by an eduational qualification.

Bravo Fiona! Thank you for so eloguently stating that. As a degree holder in another area, a veteran of the US armed services I appreciate it. I spent three years in the Army, got out, decided I wanted to be a cop, pursued my education in that direction, got the degree, and found the medical field after taking the EMT course over the summer after graduation. Two years later, started taking my LVN course through vocational training, and am now finishing up all the bridge requirements for the last half of my RN.

I plan not to stop there, once my ADN is done, i'm not even going to wait for boards to start in at the university for my bachelors degree. I don't want to be an administrator, never ever ever. I got into this to be a patient's nurse. This might sound weird, but i'm not happy if i'm not knee deep in blood and guts, and elbow deep in feces and urine, it's just me. I'd never want to sit at a desk and watch others doing the job I love doing while I wave my finger around and stomp my foot. My education has been spread over a great deal of time. I've exhausted all my veterans benefits, but i'm still trudging through it all and maintaining a 3.0 average or better. I'm applying for any/all scholarships I can.

What a person such as this needs to understand is.... where she came from. It was okay for her to go through and get the ability to provide a good income for herself back in the 70's, but now it's not okay for the rest of us because her pocket book might feel the strain of another nurse coming into practice. Too much emphasis is put on the fact that our licenses are only an LVN license. Too many times i've heard a couple of RN's say, oh... he's JUST an LVN, as if achieving my license was any less difficult bar the amount of time I've spent getting mine compared to theirs. I had a difficult program, one that was very stringent and had very meticulous instructors. 80% was passing for my school and they wouldn't pass a mediocre nursing student.

Wayne.

JMM · Feb 25, 2007

In my experience, I have encountered all types. I used to work for a registry as an LVN and was their busiest employee, because I worked MS,ER,Pediatrics, with some hospitals booking me a onth in advance.

I worked at one SoCal hospital almost evry day for more than two years. Their fourth floor was a zoo, and I refused to work because of incompetent RN's and too many sets of keys for the narcotics, with only the LVN held responsible for the count. After I chased an RN into the parking lot to recover a vial from her, "Gee, I must have forgot!", shortly after that I was set up and got a do not return, with no explanation to date from the hospital or the registry.

Working at a county hospital that employs many re-entry RNs, I was respected and did a lot of teaching to new and re-entry RNs. Lots of respect. Worked ER at another, was given the most critical patients to hande with confidence of the RN manager.

Just watch your back!!!

I am now a young retiree because of cardiac trouble, but am completing BSN program.

BigB · Feb 27, 2007

I have run into many RN's that had a higher than mighter attitude and claim to be so educated with their all might AS degree in nursing. An AS degree is really not much to brag about. I am a proud LVN that is entering graduate school next year. At this time , I don't have the desire to pursue an RN. It should be noted that LVN;s that don't try to get their RN are not lazy or "not smart enough." If we dont have the drive, it won't happen, add to that the difficulty of getting into RN programs that are driven by a lottery system.

yvette7719 · Feb 27, 2007

Yes, they get respect. Sometimes you have to demand it. Be respectful to everyone and show them your strengths. Maybe I am from the old school but I just believe everyone is due respect. It should be a commom courtesy. Educational level should not determine how much respect a person recieves.

pagandeva2000, LPN · Feb 28, 2007

i have run into many rn's that had a higher than mighter attitude and claim to be so educated with their all might as degree in nursing. an as degree is really not much to brag about. i am a proud lvn that is entering graduate school next year. at this time , i don't have the desire to pursue an rn. it should be noted that lvn;s that don't try to get their rn are not lazy or "not smart enough." if we dont have the drive, it won't happen, add to that the difficulty of getting into rn programs that are driven by a lottery system.

excellent statements! i have encountered that alot. i entered into one of the first lpn programs that has a bridge program. we had to take many of the pre-requisites that the rns took in order to make the transition easier. i had a high gpa, but did not wish to become an rn and will not be pressured into doing it to keep up with the majority. when i returned back to work, many have asked me when i will return for my rn and cannot believe that i won't do it. and it is not because i am anti-rn...i am just against it for myself. i am having a hard time dealing with the politics and bull as an lpn. i see the rns are totally overwhelmed. i do not want to repeat that disgusting rat race to enter into an rn program, nclex stress and then hate the new responsibility that i'd incur. at this moment, while i cannot practice independently, i am still responsible for myself and my own actions, not worrying about other staff members threatening my license and, yet, not being present or knowledgable about the mistakes that they made. i have to hand my hat to the rn, though for taking that all on. i can admit, i would not do it.

Fiona59 · Feb 28, 2007

I know what you mean. I have no desire to return to school full time and deal with class politics.

My co-workers were speechless when they found out I'm finishing my BA part time. I enjoy my classes, pick the ones I want, and feel absolutely zero stress in my midterms and papers. I might not be the brightest or youngest in the room, but I'm one of the few that are there for the love of the subject, to listen and relax during the lecture, and don't have to answer to anyone on my grades...