muffylpn

Throwing it out there LPNs in MA start and administer IVs

Please spell Trazodone correctly

I just wonder as it does not say. Will it be a similar law to Calfornia, because they included ALL nurses where as Massachusetts only considered in their bill that Rns were nurses

Furthermore if your cna takes someone to the bathroom and they break their hip are you responsible. No, you will have a lot of paperwork but you will not loose your license. True story, my uncle 25 yrs ago was an LPN in CA, he had just come back from vacation and was working with an RN who told him to do something the wrong way. He admitted in open court he knew this was wrong, the RN admitted in court she told him to do it ( Pt. old with dementia died as a result). My uncle lost his license the court and BON found that since this was WITHIN my uncle's SCOPE OF PRACTICE it did not matter what the RN said ( she never touched the Pt). Unless an LPN does something out of her scope of practice that is when you can be held responsible. I give the wrong med. and the Pt dies it's not coming back on you. I DON'T WORK UNDER YOUR LICENSE I WORK UNDER MY OWN

I hate this question, it's call Scope of Practice. If my license says I can do it, I can and I will be responsible for my actions not you.

If you work those types of jobs in long term in MA the DON is the person " who technically covers that"

I have been an LPN for 26 yrs in MA. I work 40 hrs a week ( 32 in a hospital and 8 in a NH). Last yr I made 69,000. Yes it includes the occ. OT with every other holiday. And no I don't work in Boston ( 90 min outside the city). And no I don't work every weekend.

Wouldn't it be great if we just said nurses. Cause LPNs also do this job.

Just FYI. Plenty of LPNs work the night shift in hospitals.

I hate these types of posts as you always get some nasty comments. I honestly try to avoid them. The answer is: What state are you talking about? The state matters. And YOU can find that answer on the website for your board of nursing

We got socks-yup I said socks with our hospital logo

I read one comment at the start of this post. LPNs work under no one's license but their own. Working under someone's license is like an RN saying "go head I said it's ok for you do this thing out of your scope of practice cause I'm an RN and you are in LPN" no that wrong and it has NEVER been this way.

Yes of course CHF and dialysis would be exceptions to the rule. But it's what we do as a routine with our elderly Pts. first before we start IVs on them. That is me and the other RNs I work with. Including our supervisors who would ask if we tried pushing fluids first.

What did your supervisor say? If I was placed in that position the very first words out of my mouth to that doctor would be " The 3-11 RN supervisor told me I needed to call you about this B/P" lets see where it goes from there.

Did not read all the comments. But many x's vs are taken at night. We seem to have established that. I have worked in both hospital 23 yrs and NH 16. I would never call a Dr. for that B/P ever unless s/s were noted. I would ALWAYS push fluids if I had an 80/50 and recheck in an hr. 70/40 would get a phone call but only after I did everything else. And this might have been mentioned but ( and I'm sorry) the Dr. does not seem to want phone calls if that's the B/P so why are you still calling him? ( it's just a question-not meant to sound rude)

First I did not read thru the comments. I have worked psych. in a hospital setting for 23 yrs. 1) If it was a Dr.'s order you are in the wrong-and you and the charge nurse could both be screwed if something happened. 2) You asked the charge to pull the CNA and the charge nurse agreed-that person can now be blamed ( there is a charge nurse for a reason-this is one of them).3) If you have a hospital policy about 1:1 and constant obs. that is what needs to be followed-if it is not, the hospital will NEVER support you should something happen. 4) Lots of Pts contract for safety and LIE. Lastly in my state a 1:1 is done with a person being in arms length of the Pt. Constant obs. is Pt must be be in view of the person watching them but a written hospital policy will overide what is considered the norm. Lastly with this person's labs being all messed up was there a potential fall risk cause people say all sorts of stuff after a fall as to why it happened-biazzar lawsuits happen and people who lie win them-just saying

The person did not lie about his title. It was his perception, which was not correct. But we don't know the whole situation and the actual nurse was not offended so whats the big deal. Many times when dealing with our dementia Pts at the hospital I will refer to the CNA as a nurse, as I don't think the dementia Pt is up to the explanation of the vast difference. I know this was not the case in this situation, but again we don't know the whole situation cause we were not present.

Before everyone jumps all over kellenl. She is NOT saying RNs are stupid. What she is saying is as LPNs we do have more clinical hrs. then RNs and way more, believe it or not than BSNs. Again I'm sure she is just speaking for her state as I am for mine. Many of our BSN new grads at the hospital admit they did alot of community work, they did not do anytime in NHs. LPNs are trained differently than RNs we have MUCH MUCH less time in Pedi and Maturnity as those places usually in hospitals don't hire us. In MA. you can legally have a DON-LPN BUT MUST HAVE an RN that is tech. in charge of the place. This occurs freq. in Rest Homes/Asst Living where the level of medical care is on stable people. My aunt used to be that RN several yrs ago. She was hired as a universal administraor for several family owed RHs so she was on the books as the RN where the DONs were LPNs

I agree with you (nursesRns). I never have or want any nurse (rn or lpn) to do what I say because of my title or my yrs of exp. Many Many Many times I tell all the nurses. This is what the policy is or I've showed them paperwork or have even said I've took care of this or that detail. BUT I ALWAYS say you need to do what YOU are comfortable with even if that means double checking me. You have a license that YOU work hard for. Also why should anyone who does not know me trust me. I have had many great RN supervisors at the hospital over 23 yrs who have treated me the same way. It is the only way to have a gd work environment. I have learned ( and learned very early) it NEVER hurts to go with the final decision of the RN. My documentation will always stand as to what my position was/is and there is always the chain of command. I have only used it afew times. But every time I did I was right. The game plan was then changed and noboby was hurt. RNs can tell Lpns what to do and 90% they are right 5% of the time I bite my tongue ( they are in charge-at the hospital and the final say in the NH) 5% of the time I say "NO, I'm not going to to that cause I feel it's wrong-but you can." I work under NOBODY's license ( that's a myth) and I will also be held accountable for ALL I do within my scope of pratice no matter who told me to do it.

Not speaking for FL. But I know my scope of practice in MA. ( but thanks for posting it). A RN NEVER has to do what an LPN says. As when it goes to hell in a handbasket in the court system. That RN would never be able to say the LPN told me to and that be ok. My point stands. I'm a relief supervisor in a NH over RNs- why 1) they are new nurses 2) agency 3) I been there going on 16 yrs. I have very little time to show people how to do things or make decisions to send people out to the hospital. On the other hand as the supervisor I will stop you the RN from the agency or the new grad from sending out a DNH Pt. by showing you the paperwork. Then my all means send them out. When the family and DON call to scream at me I will have my documentation in place stating I showed you the RN this was not what the family wanted. And well we are at it call the DON at 3am ask her to go over filling out the death cert. with you as you are pretty sure I have no idea what I'm talking about and when she does not answer feel free to explain to the funeral home who has now arrive why it is not done. There is ALWAYS an RN on call at every NH around the clock if only LPNs are in the building-just FYI

Have to disagree about clinical issues here is MA. Its the same reason an LPN can orient an RN. We can orient RNs within our scope of practice as I do in the hospital I've worked at for 23 yrs. And in the NH where I have worked for 16 PD we have nurse managers who are LPNs who run floors. They can and do provided disciplinary action if the issue is in their scope of practice. And that would include the death cert. an RN might fill out that is not correctly done. Many new RNs in NHs have to be shown how to do this at 3am. We don't call the DON to provide over the phone instructions at that time of the morning.

that's right, but then Im sure so many feel an RN should just get it cause they are an RN. Sorry same way in MA. LPNs can in NHs be supervisors over RNs and ADONs can be LPNs

just gonna say our hospital worked best on Med-Surg w/ 2RN 4 LPNs and 2 CNA everyone worked in their scope of practice and no one ever left overwhelmed. RNs did admissions, reviewed all labs and handled all the problems that required calling Drs. They would meet with ea Pt and review the care for the day. LPNs would pass meds, dressings,IVs,FS,-write notes CNA would get the VS and do care ( we all helped the CNAs as they ea had 12-15 on there assignment-but the RNS helped them the most). We never had issues such as RNs thought they were better or LPN felt RNs did not think they were real nurses or CNA felt they were slaves. It's easy to work on a team when the roles are CLEAR

I would like to know which state you are in? Just last night on our GMPU. A Pt's family memeber told us and I quote " I'm the HCP and if my mother falls I'm going to sue this hospital" So she was placed on a 1:1 only for our nurse manager to come in the next day and say " We don't but people on 1:1 for being a fall risk" ( well we do, but whatever). I love our bed alarms and I hate incident reports and treads to be sued. Confused people have rights and I don't think alarms have anything to do with "dignity". I personally enjoy knowing that my very confused Pt who likes the get up and urinate whatever he likes ( cause he thinks he's in the BR) does not AGAIN pee on his rm mate. What about his dignity?

I'm am LPN so never have lived ur life or walked in your shoes. AND I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT EVERY BSN PROGRAM IN THE WORLD. I work with several BSN nurses from MA. that felt the same way you do. These are the people who did the 4 yrs straight thru. and not a 2 yr program 1st. They felt they were way cheated out of major clinical skills that even I as an LPN got. Just so that u know ur not alone. I worked with one my last week of LPN school 23 yrs ago and it's funny I remember this as she was also a student in her last wk of school. The RN came to get her as they were going to push Lasix on a Pt. Not only had she never pushed Lasix she admitted she had never pushed any drug in 4 yrs. I remember at 19 thinking there had to be something wrong with this back then.