Potential LPN Student Needing Help!

[ems2nursing]

Hello all!

I've received a grant to pay for a LPN class. Part of the requirements for this grant is that I interview three LPNs. I'm currently an EMT and I don't know any LPNs so if anyone could help me out that would be great. I live in Tucson by the way. I only need 3 interviews. I'll post the questions below:

1.) Are there jobs in the field? (Explain)

A.) Within your company?

B.) Within the community?

2.) What skills are required?

3.) What training is required?

4.) What certification or license is required?

5.) From which schools do you hire?

6.) What do you feel the satisfactions are from doing this work or the advantages of this career?

A.) What do you think the disadvantages or challenges are?

7.) What is the potential for advancement?

8.) What is the salary range for entry level? (respond with a dollar amount)

9.) Other information:

Interviewed Name and company

[Alex Egan, LPN, EMT-B]

Nope... your an EMT and don't know any LPNs? If you're a working EMT you should be positively tripping over them as you wheel granny in and out of nursing homes and rehabs. Trust me as someone who was an EMT, and is now an LPN you want to take a little time and talk to these future coworkers and figure out what the job really is about before you commit to school. Especially in your LOCAL area. Good luck my friend, nursing has been kind to me, but it's not always what you think it is. Please lean into this assignment and find an LPN from a few different settings to talk to.

[sallyrnrrt, ADN, RN]

No validity in asking on anonymous web site

[BrandonLPN, LPN]

Well, I'm not answering that whole mass of questions, but the gist is:

yes, there are plenty of jobs for LPNs. Not in the hospitals so much. LPNs can do anything a medical assistant can do in ambulatory/clinic setting, and the two roles are often interchangeable, which explains why LPNs in this setting make so little, comparatively speaking.

The area LPNs make the most in, and are given the most authority in, is LTC/SNF/Rehab. LPNs are the backbone of skilled nursing, and skilled nursing is the backbone of LPN practice. If you are horrified at the thought of working in a nursing home, you should *seriously* re-evaluate becoming a LPN.

There are some other fields LPNs can work in, including home care, dialysis, school nursing, correctional nursing, psych nursing. Correctional and psych nursing utilize LPNs as medication nurses for the most part. Dialysis nursing varies, some places will use you as a tech, some as a nurse. School nursing pay tends to be abysmal.

You must take and pass a practical nursing course at a community college or trade school in order to be eligible to sit for the NCLEX-PN. Pass that and you are offically a LPN.

In LTC in the Midwest, new LPNs start around $18-$20 an hour. As an experienced LPN in LTC I make just under $28 an hour. It won't get much higher than that in this neck of the woods.

Potential for advancement for LPNs beyond the bedside is extremely limited. We are bedside nurses by definition. LPNs can work as unit managers in LTC.

Being a LPN in a nursing home is obviously very different from being an EMT. Nursing is about managing care, and is a much broader skill set than the very specialized skill set of first responders. You know a lot about a specific role, more than we do certainly when it comes to first aid and life support..... but we are expected to know a little bit about everything. We are generalists. Something I've found many EMTs-turned-LPNs do not like for some reason.