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Discussion

Options for LPN's?

Hello,

I will be graduating from LPN school in a few months and am very disappointed at the job opportunities that seem to be available. Before starting school all I heard was that there was a huge shortage and my school informed me that I would graduate with a job making $25 per hour right after graduating.

Unfortunately, the only positions I am hearing about are in the $17 range. I feel I was not told the truth. The hospitals are not even hiring LPN's and it seems the only options are the LTC facilities. :cry:

If anyone has any advice, I would truly appreciate it. I am seriously considering dropping out of school. Are there any options? Thank you

Featured Replies

  • Experts

It appears your school wasn't telling the truth. New grad RNs make around $25/hr to start, not LPNs. And like you found, most, if not all LPN jobs are no longer in hospitals but offices, clinics and nursing homes.

Depending on where you live is where you'll get to work. In Illinois LPN's can work in nursing homes, homecare, hospice, clinics, plasma center, blood banks, and at some dialysis units like DaVita. There are options, but if your dream is to work in hospital, in most states, dream on. I work prn for a family practice clinic makine 17.92/hr, a nursing home making 23.00/hr and for hospice making 17.00/hr with .44cents per mile when traveling. The wages vary from place to place. Since I work prn between the three jobs, I'm guaranteed not to get burned out. If you don't have to carry insurance or need benefits, I suggest that you pick up several prn jobs to see what you do or don't like and also to avoid burn out. If none of the above sound good to you, go back and get your RN. But as the U.S. looks now, R.N. ASN will not be good enough so make sure you get your BSN. If you have the time, energy and money that is a good route, but I don't, so I won't.

  • Author

Hello and thanks for your advice. How would I go about doing PRN, would that be working for an agency such as Bayada? I have heard the money is better but it is difficult for a new nurse to be thrown into many different situations unless VERY confident of ones skills. I would appreciate any thoughts you might have on this.

One more thing, I have been looking into the RN program at Ocean County College. I'm a little confused, my school is trying to get OCC to accept 12 credits for A&P and such, but there has been no decisions made yet if this will happen. I would love to find somewhere to work which offers tuition reimbursement (again very hard to find) and my accelerated LPN class has just about killed me and I've had no life. I am told that going for RN will be an easier pace and less difficult, but I'm not so sure. I am not currently working and school is taking every spare second I have. I don't know if I can handle college while working full time as a brand new nurse. I guess I just need a little guidance. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks so much for taking the time to respond. :innerconf

  • Author

Hello,

Yes I do feel I've been misled. I can't seem to find any information on the average pay for an LPN in a doctors office in Ocean County area. I know it will be much less than what I was "promised", but the hours are easy and I will have time to devote on weekends and nights to study for my RN. Any input on salaries? Thanks so much.

:rcgtku:

Hello and thanks for your advice. How would I go about doing PRN, would that be working for an agency such as Bayada?
You won't be able to work for Bayada until you have 1 or 2 years experience, depending on the position. Most agencies want that much experience. But if you search for Bayada or "agency nursing" on this site, you'll find lots of info about others' experiences.
  • Experts

You probably can't find info on average salaries for LPNs in doctor offices because most doctors prefer to hire medical assistants and pay them less than what an RN or LPN would be paid. Yes, it is true that many schools give a song and dance about employment as an LPN, or medical assistant for that matter, particularly the for profit schools, but in reality it is the RN who gets the pick of what jobs are available. If you are young and just starting out you should get any employment you can muster up (like night shift in a nursing home) and go back for your RN. The only way you are going to be able to maximize your potential employment is to become an RN, preferably with a BSN, which you can get at some later time if you get an ASN first. Good luck to you.

  • Experts

You mentioned that you don't think you are up to working and going to school at the same time. You can take two or even one course at a time. Start out with all the general ed stuff that you need for the degree, like English 101 and College Math, etc. Once you have done these courses you won't have to bother with them again. Then, concentrate on your nursing prerequisites that don't have time limitations, like sociology or psychology. Save the science courses with time limits, like anatomy or physiology or micro til last, before you apply to the program. Look into the requirements for each of the schools that you plan on applying to so that you can develop a game plan for all of this. Consider internet courses so you don't have to travel to a classroom. That can help with the fatigue of working and school at the same time. Hope you are able to make things work out for you.

  • Author

Thank you so much for all your helpful information. I tried to look into information regarding the nursing program at Ocean County College last night. I wish they had a definite bridge program, but unfortunately they don't. My school is trying to get OCC to change their "rules" and accept at least 12 credits for A&P and such. Until then, I didn't know how to approach the college route.

Your advice makes perfect sense. From what I've heard, OCC has a 3 year wait for nursing. I've heard you must take the pre req's first and be actively involved in the school to even be considered for the nursing program. I am hoping the fact that I am (or will be soon :grin:) a LPN, will factor into my wait time. It makes sense to start now with what you mentioned.

A normal ADN would be 2 years full time, is this correct? So....if I went part time it would take 4 years? Uggghh. I wish I wasn't 41!

  • Author

kstec,

I'm not sure how this board works just yet. I just joined yesterday so forgive me if I don't know how to respond properly. If I want to respond to a specific person (such as you), how do you know the message is for you? From what I can tell it just states at the top that the message is FROM me not who it is TO. I feel silly.

Anyway, thank you for your advice. We actually went to a dialysis center recently for clinical and were told that they hire 1 LPN per year. I liked the place and location and the atmosphere but was very disappointed to hear that they consider their LPN's tech's and the pay was somewhere around $13-$16. Geesh, I made that years ago as a legal secretary before I went through the past year of pure h#^* to become a nurse. Doesn't all that learning count for anything? It's very frustrating.

I like your idea of PRN in different area's to keep it interesting and to have some flexibility. How do you do that? Do you have to work though an agency or do you just apply to certain places and tell them you don't want to work full time and they just let you make your own schedule? I'm so grateful for all the advice.:thankya:

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