Physical before entering LPN school?

FEELYRN · May 23, 2005

Every program I know requires you to have a physical before starting. This is for two reasons: first, to make sure you are physically and emotionally capable of meeting the demands of the program, and second to protect the patients you will be working with in clinical. If you have previous medical condition and it is under control it should not prevent you from entering the program. In my class we had one who was pregnant, one who had bipolar disorder and one who was diabetic. These are just the ones I knew about. The school requires you to disclose this because of medications you may be taking, and because of infection control. We had a strict drug policy and random drug testing so they needed to know up front if you took any meds.

Michelle. · May 26, 2005

i just had my physical. The doc did the basics-- lungs, heart, throat. Checked vision, height, weight. You'll have to have an up-to-date TB test. You'll need proof of having the chicken pox or the vaccine. You'll have to list all your immunizations. Any major or minor surgeries.

hope this helps.

Sarahe23 · May 27, 2005

I just had my physical too--unfortunately it took me some time to find my childhood immunization records to prove I had vaccines for things like Polio, etc... if this is the case for anyone else, start digging for those records now! My school also highly recommended having a Hep B series, which takes a year to complete... otherwise it was fairly straightforward. I was, however, shocked by how much time my Dr took in askin me questions about my financial status (was I going to have enough money to live during school? was I going to work?) etc and her advise to be careful not to burn out... yikes. As if I wasn't nervous enough already! :uhoh3: Anyway. Hope this helps. :)

Sarah

i just had my physical. The doc did the basics-- lungs, heart, throat. Checked vision, height, weight. You'll have to have an up-to-date TB test. You'll need proof of having the chicken pox or the vaccine. You'll have to list all your immunizations. Any major or minor surgeries.
hope this helps.

sandiLa · May 27, 2005

My physical was a joke. The Dr. that did it looked like he was around 18, he never touched me at all, sat at the desk and filled in the blanks. I do recommend getting the Hep B vaccinations. I'd already gotten those while working as an EMT. They also did a TB test which was included in the physical description.

Sandy

kathc · May 30, 2005

My school required a physical too, but it could be done by your own doctor. You did need proof of vaccinations and if you were lacking on any, they needed to be done before clinical started. We had several people in class working with different medical conditions: MS, diabetes, bipolar....

We also had a student in the previous class that was deaf.

I agree with LHLPN that they are looking to make sure you can keep up with the demands of school.

sierranic · Jun 28, 2005

Our school required a physical and once I got into the office I got very upset. I assumed with this being a health care program that I would only have to answer some questions and possibly prove that I can lift, push, and pull heavy objects. However, I swear this was no normal physical and I voiced this to the NP that was doing my exam. She checked everything, reflexes, hearing, vision. The thing that upset me the most was that she said I also had to have a breast exam!! I was furious, I couldn't understand why I wouldn't be capable of being a nurse if I had a lump in my breast... I couldn't believe that this was required as part of the physicial, I told the NP that I felt like this was something my school did not need to know!! And the NP stated that they also wanted to do a pap test, but she somehow talked them out of requiring it!! WHAT IN THE HECK!!! It was unbelievable what they HAVE to know before you enter the program that I did! But I did it, and it still baffels me to this day... I'm just glad that I got through my course, and don't have to go through that again!!