LPN vs. Massage Therapy school?

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hello i am curious about the lpn course. i am in canada and im not sure the difference between our lpn course (2 years at community college) and your lpn course. anyway, i took massage therapy in school and found it very difficult. a lot of memorizing muscle insertions and origins..and everything else to do with the human body. i ended up quitting after 1st term was over as i found it overwhelmingly hard and i also found going to school with an infant rather hard. for those of you who do not know about a massage therapy course and think it is easy, that information is so wrong. we needed to know anatomy, pathology, physiology, neurology..etc. in depth. we needed to know all the muscles in the body, what they did, what they were attatched to, which ones were synergist and antagonist to each other...etc. a ton of information to memorize.. now i really want to persue a career as an lpn. a lot of my friends from high school have gone to rn school ( 4 years here) and loved it but said it was a ton of work and very hard to pass. i know lpn would be less difficult but im wondering if anyone has gone from mt to lpn or vice versa..or who knows anyone who has? i dont want to get in over my head again like i did with massage therapy but i know i would love a career as an lpn.

any advice would be great, thanks!:o

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Specializes in Community Health.

LPN programs are NOT "less difficult" than RN programs, just shorter.. I can't speak to the similarity to a MT program but I can tell you that every RN I know who has bridged from their LPN has said that the LPN program was harder-the curriculum is virtually the same, you just have to learn it all in 1 year (give or take) instead of 2.

I'm not trying to discourage you, just make sure you know what you are getting yourself into! It's doable, but anyone who says an LPN program isn't challenging has obviously never been through one...

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I have to disagree with the above answer. Sorry..I also am in Canada and here there is a HUGE difference in lpn and rn courses. You cannot bridge from lpn to rn here. LPN is 2 years at college, and after that if you want to become an RN you have to still take the 4 years at university. I was an LPN for 3 years and then went to University and completed the RN degree. RN is MUCH harder than the LPn course and there is a LOT more information..LPN's don't do near as much here as RN's do.. LPN is not easy, but its not extremely hard either. If you study and put time into it, it is very doable.

As for Massage therapy, my daughter took it and said the same thing, it was very difficult and she didn't finish either. 60% of her class failed. She just started her first year of practical nursing at the community college in september and she is finding it easier than massage therapy was. She also had a hard time memorizing all the muscle information. LPN course doesn't go into as much detail of the muscles and such as Massage Therapy does. I wish you luck if you choose to take the practical nursing course!

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I was in A&P 1 today and we were just chatting about how how hard the Lab exam was for muscles. A lot of us failed the questions that had to do with actions. Not just to know the major actions, but all the minor ones for each mucscle was hard to remember.

Im just doing a pre-req for the nursing program. What makes you think that A&P for nursing is going to be easier? Just the one aspect of knowing insertions and origins? If you didnt have to know that one thing, do you think if would have made a difference for finishing the massage therapy program?

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By the way, Im in Michigan and a dear friend of mine graduated from the massage therapy program last semester, but I had to help her so that she just barely passed Microbiology. She was pulling a D most of the semester. My point is that massage therapy cant be that hard if you are allowed to barely pass Micro. To get into the LPN program here you better get an A. I know people taking it over again this semester because they got B's.

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I think its rude for you to say massage therapy cant be that hard..Especially since you didn't take it and things are different here than in the states. I'm not even sure if it is a regulated healthcare profession in the states, but it is here (in some provinces, not all) First of all, pass mark for everything for MT is 80%, You cannot "barely" pass..You either get the 80% and move on, or you dont. Even a 79.9 is a fail. That is an 80 in regional anatomy 1 & 2, anatomy & physiology 1,2 & 3, neurology 1 & 2, kinesiology, pathology 1,2 and 3, orthopedic physical assessment, palpation 1,2 & 3...and so on. You literally have to know everything about the body. So I guess your friends school is a lot different than our schools. Pass mark for Practical Nursing here is a 70% . To get into the LPN course here you need grade 12 math, english and biology. Once yu are in the program you only have one course of anatomy & physiology instead of 3 courses of it in MT..the course outline is a lot different for both programs and they are both 2 year programs. I had a girl who graduated from the LPN course in my pathology class and she said she found massage therapy much harder and more in depth. But Im asking because everyone is different.

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you know whats funny, here in nova scotia you need a 70% to pass lpn. but at university level you only need a 50% to pass the rn course. you need an 80% to pass massage therapy. how does that marking system work?? lol

i was interested in your post and talked with my daughter about what she thought and she did say the lpn course is difficult but its not as stressful as massage therapy. here are the reasons; the pass mark is lower. you do not go in depth with knowledge of anatomy and physiology since it is a 15 week class for lpn and a 36 week class for massage therapy. that is a huge difference. she also said with massage school you would have 7 classes going at once, not leaving enough study time for each class, she had tests almost everyday and when exam time rolled around she would have 2 on the same day at times. also they do regional anatomy in massage school where as in practical nursing you do not. regional anatomy is what most people struggle with. with her lpn course she has tests about once a week, exams are seperated and she only has 4 classes going at a time so she has lots of time to study. she disliked massage for the same reason you did actually. the origins and insertion points of muscles (for those who dont know, certain muscles like iliocostalis, have 3 origins and 3 insertions that are noewhere near each other) and you have to know all of those in massage therapy. lpn's dont touch that. i didnt have to know all of that and i am a (new) rn. yes, you do need to know things about muscles but its not even close to what massage therapists need to know, thats how they make their money. knowing that if someone has a sore neck it could be something to do with a problem in the foot. its very hard, i'm sorry some poster who is uneducated about the program said it cant be that hard. i would talk to the shcool you are looking at and disscuss your questions with them, someone in admissions would be happy to help with your decision. pm me and i can give you my daughters email address and she can also help with questions you have.

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Im sorry, I'm sure it is hard where you go to school. I was just saying what I have seen at my school. Its sounds like applying for the LPN program is a lot easier where you are.

Like Canada, even some schools here in the US have different standards and requirements for their programs, it just depends on where you go.

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For my A&P class, we have to know the actions, origins and insertions of muscles...and this is for an RN program. I'm sure we don't need to know as many as you do for MT, but it's still a lot. We have an entire lab practical devoted to it, and then another half a lab practical devoted to it as well.

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