Why the Prejudice against LPNs

Nurses LPN/LVN

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I am an LPN and due to health reasons I have to give up RN transition hopefully for a short time. I fail to understand why RNs and LPNs can't work together without the bickering.I know that med techs and uaps are being used in hospitals in my area and I had a particularly bad experience with a med tech, she had 4 weeks experience and she was going to change my IV, I demanded a nurse,I refused to let her touch the IV. I hear that RNs are refusing to work with LPNs who have training and did sit for the state boards,are licensed as such when med techs and uaps have as little as 4 weeks training.I feel that it is not a lack of intelligence but opportunity that many of us are LPNs.I would prefer to work with nurses that have skills and not leave something as important as an IV to someone who flipped hambergers before changing IVs.

Dear KRS: I started out as an LPN also and every stage of nursing has its educational goals. This is the same in many types of professions and trades not related to nursing either. You are LPN because it was what YOU chose to do and you are proud and very well SHOULD be! I received more bedside experience in my LPN program (which was hospital-based) then I have in my ADN program and I feel it was an excellent base to build upon. Your last statement about standing toe-toe...right on!

Yes, you can stand toe to toe, but without the education you may not get the chance!

Good God Ladies! (and gents)What an outpouring of feelings!!

On my unit, a small ob/gyn, we have LPNs doing post-partum care and post-surgical care. We, the RNs, take care of the Laboring patients and do assessments on the others. Our LPNs are wonderful. They have Iv training, scrub in for c/s, and can watch a labor if our staffing sucks and we are in doing an epidural. But, these women get pulled throughout hspital and are required to work any unit! They are treated badly by the RN staff on other units. They are there to lighten the load, and yet, these RNs don't apprieciate them at all. We RNs on my unit also get pulled to other units. They seem to think that we can do anything! When I go somewhere where I have never been or don't feel qualified to be there, I rely heavily on the LPN staff to help me out. They know the ropes and the patients. The RNs are hateful to us, too!! I was told when I started that nurses eat their young. I find that to be very true. To all the new grads...Watch and learn, from everyone! Don't take the attitude that you have more education, therefore, you are the better nurse. Experience counts alot in this field. To the LPNs, I love and apprieciate you greatly. Keep up the good work!

Waaaay back in this discussion, i think someone mentioned something about all of us being NURSES...in it for patient care, and we should stick together...(if not, I just did!)

I want to say that I truly believe that there is something to be learned about patient care from EVERYONE...a good CNA can make your patient the most comfortable they can be, a good LPN is sooo dependable when you are tied up with charts, the phone, etc. A good RN listens to her co-workers and never, ever belittles them, because they worked hard to get where they are too. And of course she listens to her/his patient because the best ideas come from them. Bad employees are just that, whether they are nurses or not. There are know-it-alls and God's gift-type people in every walk of life.

And having been all three(cna, lpn and rn) I feel as though i can see the irreplaceability of each..let's remember that. And as far as LPN's not knowing pathophysiology and the sort, you must never have met one who has worked med surgical for 25 yrs or so..she will teach any RN a thing or two...BSN,MSN or whatever. I guarantee it!

Amen to mirn! WE ARE ALL NURSES! We are all in this together for the sake of the patient. With all this bickering going on I'm amazed the work even gets done. I am a travel nurse which has given me many experiences. I have worked with LPNs (and Techs for that matter) that are smarter and have more common sense than some of the RNs and BSNs out there. As with anything, there are good nurses and bad nurses regardless of title and we all have to put up with them. I chose to go straight through school to RN and never experienced the degredation that some higher-than-thou RNs feel necessary to dish out but I want you to know some of us do feel you are valued. Keep your chin up!

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