LVN vs RN clinicals

[amycire]

Will the clinicals differ between LVN school and RN school? I'm looking at going LVN than taking the bridge program to become a RN (faster option) or waiting until I get accepted into a RN school. Just wondering if the clinicals I will have as a LVN will be different than the ones I would have as a RN?

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

Yes, of course. The scope of practice for the two roles is different and the clinical rotations will reflect that.

[amycire]

Thank you, will a RN cover nursing facilities and smaller clinics or will they mainly be in hospitals or how does it work?

[AdobeRN]

Probably depends on the program/school. I did an LVN program then LVN-RN bridge program at the same school - the clinical rotations were basically the same. Both of my programs we had clinicals in a nursing home, school, urgent care type of clinic, jail, home health, state psych hospital and local hospitals. In the hospital most of the clinical experience for both of the programs was on a med/surg type of floor but we also got to spend time in day surgery, OR, Labor/delivery/post partum/nursery & ER. In the ER & day surgery our focus was IV skills, blood draws, catheters plus whatever other skills our teachers could round up for us.

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

In my area, LVN/ LPN clinicals are primarily in nursing homes with some hospital work- while RN clinicals are almost exclusively in hospitals. Also, BSN programs include Community Health and Critical Care which would never be included in an LVN/LPN program.