LVN Vs. RN

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Specializes in ED, ICU/DOU/Tele, M/S, Gero/Psych.

Okay I understand the two programs are very different, but are there any other VN/PN's out there that are noticing that the RN pre-requisites are a bit more in depth than the LVN courses? Just seems to me that in LVN school we were taught certain things, yet not in enough depth to really explain what it was that was being explained. And now that i've completed physiology and now taking pharmacology (again) with a professor that's teaching it like we're going into med school, i'm just wondering if there's anyone else out there that's run into the same thing or if i'm just alone in the dark on this one.

Wayne.

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Specializes in Home Health Care.

In my program, All PN's & ADN's take the first year together, then PN's can exit out or continue on to the 2nd year. Our co-reqs are the same in difficulty, but the more difficult classes are usually taken during the 2nd yr. All of our classes are in the articular agreement university of Iowa. We can enter the U of I with Jr. standing after completing our program. Same for most other universities in our state.

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Specializes in ED, ICU/DOU/Tele, M/S, Gero/Psych.

Yeah but i'm talking about the vocational route vs. the JC, which is what I did, went through vocational, now going through to get my ADN...

Wayne.

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Specializes in Home Health Care.

oops, sorry, (we don't have vocational schools in this particular area.......)

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I attended a private, vo-tech LVN program in Southern California, and now I am enrolled in a community college in Texas. I, too, have noticed that the college-level science prerequisites are much more in-depth and detailed than the crash course A&P I received at the private LVN school.

In the LVN 'quick' A&P we learned nothing about second messenger systems, positive feedback mechanisms, body chemistry, and so forth.

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Specializes in floor to ICU.

my vocational LVN school was too many years ago for me to remember:uhoh3:

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

I attended a new LPN program in a community college that is creating a bridge program. Part of the cirriculum is that we had to take many of the same classes that an RN would take, such as anatomy I and II and such to get into the LPN program. This was to make the transition easier for us in case we wished to bridge into the RN program. I was in for a rude awakening, because I have read LPN books and really didn't think that anatomy would be so difficult, but was not prepared for that sort of science. We dissected cats, cow hearts and cow eyes, etc.... nothing that I ever expected for being an LPN. I would have rather had had the vocational anatomy than that nightmare... but I did do well.

Get an anatomy coloring book. It may save your life...literally...

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Specializes in ED, ICU/DOU/Tele, M/S, Gero/Psych.
I attended a private, vo-tech LVN program in Southern California, and now I am enrolled in a community college in Texas. I, too, have noticed that the college-level science prerequisites are much more in-depth and detailed than the crash course A&P I received at the private LVN school.

In the LVN 'quick' A&P we learned nothing about second messenger systems, positive feedback mechanisms, body chemistry, and so forth.

Yeah I hear ya' commuter... just seems like we didn't get a whole hell of a lot in the vocational portion of training... was just a weird thing I noticed is all, not like i'm complaining or anything, I mean phys taught me the why's that they wouldn't explain back in LVN school that I had... ok why does water follow sodium out of the tubules in renal?? no explanation... we got the whole "it's more than you need to know" lecture...

Wayne.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Yeah I hear ya' commuter... just seems like we didn't get a whole hell of a lot in the vocational portion of training... was just a weird thing I noticed is all, not like i'm complaining or anything, I mean phys taught me the why's that they wouldn't explain back in LVN school that I had... ok why does water follow sodium out of the tubules in renal?? no explanation... we got the whole "it's more than you need to know" lecture...

Wayne.

Yup...Private vocational schools frequently train their pupils to pass the NCLEX. Nothing more, nothing less.

It really bestows quite a bit of meaning upon the saying, "You don't know what you don't know."

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Specializes in ED, ICU/DOU/Tele, M/S, Gero/Psych.
I attended a new LPN program in a community college that is creating a bridge program. Part of the cirriculum is that we had to take many of the same classes that an RN would take, such as anatomy I and II and such to get into the LPN program. This was to make the transition easier for us in case we wished to bridge into the RN program. I was in for a rude awakening, because I have read LPN books and really didn't think that anatomy would be so difficult, but was not prepared for that sort of science. We dissected cats, cow hearts and cow eyes, etc.... nothing that I ever expected for being an LPN. I would have rather had had the vocational anatomy than that nightmare... but I did do well.

Get an anatomy coloring book. It may save your life...literally...

I'm not really concerned with anatomy, i've taken the combo course before, was an EMT and granted it's going to be in more depth but i'm confident that I'll do well. Like as in phys, I think the only time i really opened my book was in class during lecture when he said, please open your book to page such and such and refer to so and so diagram... I missed an A by like 10 points, and hardly studied... phys for me was like adding a bit more to what we were already taught. So it wasn't like trying to learn it all from scratch, which helped, but i'd already had a good grasp on the material to begin with. Just struck me as funny the other day sitting in pharmacology class... we're learning all about these fricken sympathetic/parasympathetic drugs, but we're learning all the receptors, which is which and why this one does this and that one does that, and if you have a parasympathetic antagonist what all the side effects are, and for sympathetic agonists etc etc etc... seems way more in depth, but yet not so much I can't handle it. My friend that I'm taking the class with is lost after every lecture, and i'm catching everything she's saying.

Just struck me as funny is all.. lol...

Wayne.

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Specializes in ED, ICU/DOU/Tele, M/S, Gero/Psych.
Yup...Private vocational schools frequently train their pupils to pass the NCLEX. Nothing more, nothing less.

It really bestows quite a bit of meaning upon the saying, "You don't know what you don't know."

Yeah no kidding, wished i'd not have let the ex-wife delay me taking all these courses, a friend of mine started her LPN program as I was ending mine, and now is an RN licensed and in practice... so that just shows me how much time I wasted by letting my ex keep me poor and out of courses to get my RN done....

Wayne.

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Specializes in Medical Telemetry, LTC,AlF, Skilled care.

One of the RN's I work with told me this once and I really think it's factual in most cases "In LPN school you learn how and when to do nursing skills, bedside care, etc. In RN school you learn more about nursing theory and why you're doing what you're doing." It's logical to me because a lot of times LPN programs do have a ton of clinical hours whereas RN programs have more classroom hours.

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