LPN's aren't Real Nurses? (Whaa...)

T-Bird78 · Sep 17, 2018

We are real nurses but there are some people, both laypersons and in the field, who only consider RNs nurses. I work in ambulatory care with several MA's, so I'm all the time getting the "are you really a nurse, and why do you work here instead of a hospital?" Then you have the opposite, where people call everybody in scrubs 'nurse', whether it's a CNA, MA, environmental services, rad tech, etc. Just remember what the N in LPN stands for--NURSE!! :)

Aunt Slappy · Sep 17, 2018

Worked with a couple RNs over the years who had really bad issues with pulling rank and being disrespectful towards LPNs, but they were generally crappy people. I've had members of the general public discount my advice because I'm a LPN and not a RN. But you just gotta let that crap roll off you, unless it becomes bad enough at work that management needs to step in. People are going to be awful, just ignore them as much as you can.

darkbeauty · Sep 17, 2018

I don't mind who thinks what, my W2s and 1099s speak for themselves whether I'm a valued skilled nurse or not.

quiltynurse56, LPN, LVN · Sep 19, 2018

You will meet people who say that. Don't let it get to you. You know otherwise.

When people casually ask me what I do, I just tell them that I am a nurse.

Lauren LPN · Nov 2, 2018

Personally I feel like I am not a nurse until I become a RN but I keep telling myself, "No, I'm a nurse. I'm a nurse."

Kooky Korky, BSN, RN · Nov 2, 2018

I have worked with some great LPN's. Of course they are nurses.

MissDiagnosis, LPN · Nov 2, 2018

I've been told this, by random people and close friends. A select few think I'm not a real nurse bc I don't hold a degree in nursing and my LPN program was 11 months long. I quickly remind them that the BON says I am a real nurse. I have a license to prove it and quantity of education doesn't equate to the quality of my education.

As another poster said some people assume anyone in scrubs is a nurse. Many CMA's in my area refer to themselves as nurses and truly think they are since many of them hold associate degrees.

Some people are just just ignorant and feel so badly about themselves, that they try to knock down anyone around them.

Is a LPN the same as a R.N.? No, but we are both real nurses. Different scopes of practices, but still nurses.

When people ask what I am, I tell them I'm a nurse because that's what I am.

dianadRN · Nov 12, 2018

I was an LPN for 4 years before becoming an RN and before i went back to school i worked in a clinic. I seriously got SO fed up with the MDs asking me to "ask a nurse" to do something. How freaking rude-I WAS A NURSE. Was then, am now. Proud to say that I am a NURSE of almost 10 years, just as any LPN or RN should be. But yeah, the stigma is real and it sucks. The woman who I credit the most for shaping me into the nurse I am today is an amazing LPN.