LPN...not good enough??

Nurses LPN/LVN

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So, I have been an LPN for the last 5 years and I love what I do. But one of my patients that I've had last week was an RN. Now I do not have anything against RN's at all, but she asked me if I was a nurse, and of course I say yes I am, and the next question was LPN or RN and I answer LPN and she said why are you wasting your time..... I thought that I must have misunderstood what she said and asked her to repeat it again, and the same question came out of her mouth. I never thought an LPN was not good enough, I feel confident in what I do and I feel that the title nurse applies to me too but she had me questioning is this what everyone thinks? The whole time I was doing her lab work, EKG, and instructions, she made sure I knew she was a nurse and she knew more than me and wanted the PA to come and go over some additional questions she had about the instructions I gave her, because apparently I sure could not know what I was talking about... WHY???? I have felt so down about this whole situation, I am proud of what I've accomplished even if it's not what others may want, but honestly she ruined my week....

So, I have been an LPN for the last 5 years and I love what I do. But one of my patients that I've had last week was an RN. Now I do not have anything against RN's at all, but she asked me if I was a nurse, and of course I say yes I am, and the next question was LPN or RN and I answer LPN and she said why are you wasting your time..... I thought that I must have misunderstood what she said and asked her to repeat it again, and the same question came out of her mouth. I never thought an LPN was not good enough, I feel confident in what I do and I feel that the title nurse applies to me too but she had me questioning is this what everyone thinks? The whole time I was doing her lab work, EKG, and instructions, she made sure I knew she was a nurse and she knew more than me and wanted the PA to come and go over some additional questions she had about the instructions I gave her, because apparently I sure could not know what I was talking about... WHY???? I have felt so down about this whole situation, I am proud of what I've accomplished even if it's not what others may want, but honestly she ruined my week....

WOW. She's the ignorant one. Not you. Its very easy to say, but if you are confident in your skills, brush it off your shoulders, chalk it up to HER ignorance, and move on. And NO!!!!! We do NOT, I repeat, NOT, all believe that about LPNs.

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Lot's of RNs look down their noses at LPNs, but usually they are new grad RNs that are intimidated by the practical skills LPNs might posses. This stuff happens in any occupation. Other than that-here's a related cute one, that's happened to me 100's of times: "Hi, I'm David- I'm going to be your nurse for this shift". Silence. Then?:"Oh, so you're a MALE nurse?". "Yes- and I'm REAL glad you noticed!"

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I was at the grocery store one day and I had just got off work and the clerk asked me if i were a nurse and I said yes and then she asked if I was a LPN or RN...to which I replied. "Does it matter?" she replied with "well No I guess it doesn't, I was just wondering". I never did tell her.

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I was at the grocery store one day and I had just got off work and the clerk asked me if i were a nurse and I said yes and then she asked if I was a LPN or RN...to which I replied. "Does it matter?" she replied with "well No I guess it doesn't I was just wondering". I never did tell her.[/quote']

Lmao!!

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I was at the grocery store one day and I had just got off work and the clerk asked me if i were a nurse and I said yes and then she asked if I was a LPN or RN...to which I replied. "Does it matter?" she replied with "well No I guess it doesn't I was just wondering". I never did tell her.[/quote']

This happens to me all the time. It shouldn't matter whether I'm an LPN or RN. I worked hard for this title it wasn't given to me. I'm 24 years old with two kids and I am proud of my achievement. I do plan on becoming an RN one day but I decided to go for a LPN because of things going on in my life. No one knows your situation but you. An I did what was best for me no matter how others may feel about it. At the end of the day I'm a nurse and that's all that matters.

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I'm an LPN and damn proud of it. Bring me an RN into my LTC facility and I guarantee us LPN's will run circles around them! We are the ones who make the place run. Our RN's sit behind a desk and do not have any idea what it takes to be a floor nurse with 30+ residents. I do more hands on then they have ever done. Plus I have to deal with the families, Doctors, and Hospice Companies. The only complaint I have is I make way less money for doing twice the Job that Our RN's do!

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I have been an LPN for 20 years and am currently back in school. I am working towards my RN but hope to make it as far as I can take it! Lol. Anyway I work with some nurse aides who are currently in an RN program. About 3 weeks ago one of the aides was discussing with me a problem he had with another LPN I work with and he said "she needs to back off because before very much longer I will outrank her" I have heard things like this and "just an LPN" more times than I would like to count! I have seen many LPN's that it would be darn hard to "outrank" even if you had a masters in nursing! The one thing this CNA nursing student doesn't have is experience and the LPN he was talking about has lost of it and happens to be one of the best nurses I have met and far better than most RN's I have met. I think this guy has a lot to learn about being a nurse! I can't wait till he meets an old LPN that has to teach him a thing or two when he messes up!

I was in a LTC place one day, the new supervisor, an MSN, asked me if there were any treatments that she could do, because she wanted to expand her basic skill set. I told her a catheter needed a routine flushing, and gave her everything she needed to do that. Later, she asked me to come into the room, there was a problem she couldn't figure out. What she was trying to do was, with the syringe inserted into the drain tube on the bag, try to force the saline into the bag, which would then enter the tubing, and finally, irrigate the catheter, itself. She told me no matter how much saline she injected, she couldn't get it up into the cather. No lie.

It's common that an LPN might graduate without having irrigated a cather, for example, due to lack of opportunity in clinicals. But to get to the point of MSN, blows my mind. I've also met more than few RNs that told me they have never started an IV.

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The ability to start an IV isn't a defining characteristic of a nurse to me.

I'll admit it, I suck at it. I can practice on every victim (erm, patient) around and I still remain lousy. Now wound vacs, that's a different story!

Depending on where you work you may never need to start an iv. Many nursing schools don't do iv initiation as parat of the programme because it's a skill that has to be tested and re-certified every time you change facilities (at least in my area)

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.
Our RN's sit behind a desk and do not have any idea what it takes to be a floor nurse with 30+ residents

Conversely, I am sure you have 110% understanding what they do.

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RNs in LTC process and enter orders, take verbal orders from the doctors. Look at the lab values. Renews rx (but every LTC I've worked in had their own pharmacy who did it). Take flack from the families.

The unit clerk makes the appointments, is first line of fire from the families. Every unit clerk I ever worked with passed the family onto the first nurse walking past the desk to get rid of them.

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The ability to start an IV isn't a defining characteristic of a nurse to me.

I'll admit it, I suck at it. I can practice on every victim (erm, patient) around and I still remain lousy. Now wound vacs, that's a different story!

Depending on where you work you may never need to start an iv. Many nursing schools don't do iv initiation as parat of the programme because it's a skill that has to be tested and re-certified every time you change facilities (at least in my area)

Starting an IV can be the first step in saving a life, as one example. If such a basic technical ability is not defining of an RN (professional nurse), versus a PN (practical nurse), I'd like to hear your reasons for more and more nursing jobs requiring higher, and higher levels of educations, and advanced degrees, with less and less hands-on practicality? Do you want your nurse to be able to construct a theoretical care plan, or to be able to possibly save your life? Thanks, and by the the way: I am by 'no' means being facetious, or disrespectful.

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.

Starting an IV can be the first step in saving a life, as one example. If such a basic technical ability is not defining of an RN (professional nurse), versus a PN (practical nurse), I'd like to hear your reasons for more and more nursing jobs requiring higher, and higher levels of educations, and advanced degrees, with less and less hands-on practicality? Do you want your nurse to be able to construct a theoretical care plan, or to be able to possibly save your life? Thanks, and by the the way: I am by 'no' means being facetious, or disrespectful.

Do you need 2-4 years of education to start an IV? Can only nurses perform that task?

Simple tasks should not define the profession.

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