As an owner of a nurse staffing agency I can assure you that in the region I am in LVN's are not being phased out. So facilities use only RN's but are critically short of nurses the majority of the time. The LVN's I employ are highly competent and qualified to do their jobs. For the most part I have more complaints about my RN's than my LVN's. My take is that it is a job security reaction from RN's in management positions. If they let the LVN's in then their jobs are not as secure. It cannot be explained with quality of care. I am also an LVN.