KCMurse

I love being an LPN, I work in a skilled nursing unit my pts are from 40 and up. I get to take care of the same pts for a few weeks and all the way up to 6 months. So I get to use a wide variety still, I do everything from basic nursing care such as bed bath, toileting, helping with there ADL's, thankfully I have the help of cna's we usually split the program load, passing meds, performing treatments. I perform a wide range of treatments such as accu-checks, skin and wound care, care of tube and drainage systems, Cath insertion and care, iv cannulation and blood draws, injections, helping with a lot of range of motion exercise and equipment, use of polar packs, cpm machines, ekg, vitals. That's my average day a little and I pick up in our long term care center from time to just to use a different skill. With nursing the options are open and limitless on where you can go and what you can do with it. All the way form a school nurse, teach man or call classes, jails, prison nursing, long term care, rehab, sub acute hospitals, home health, pediatrics, clinicals and Dr offices, and hospice just to name a few . Compared to an ultrasound tech you are limit and a smaller pool of jobs. Hope this helps with your decision.

The pay sounds about right the average pay in my area is $21.00 an hour, just graduated recently and most my classmates are making between $20- $24

Work in LTC Rehab, new LPN Grad making $23, I'm in the Kansas City area

I graduate from Concorde - Kansas City campus June 15th and have a job offer for $26 in a sub acute rehab. Most my classmates have job offers between $23-$26 an hour. Nobody cares where you go to to school at all that matters is if your pass your boards and have your license

I completed my MA program in a 6 month program and after extern immediately enrolled into a Part time 20 month LPN program. The MA program helped me with basic nursing skills such as vitals, ekg's, injections, capillary sticks and blood draws and gave me a leg up on lab values. So my first term was a breeze then we dove deeper into assessment's and the nursing process and more advanced skills that in my area MA's dont perform such as IV's, catheters, NG tubes, well any Tube, ostomy and stoma care, wound care and wound vacs, drainage systems. Also as a LPN your pay rate will bounce from $13-$15 an hour to $21-25 (kansas city pay rates). Lastly your a nurse which is a big deal and comes with more responsibility and autonomy as you have a License and are responsible for the care you give and your own actions you perform or delgate to others. I heard it a lot in MA school that your pretty much a LPN, skill wise, critical thinking, and the nursing process is so much more than that of an MA. I think you would benefit greatly and its a nice stepping stone if you want to bridge on to your RN at a later date.