treeloc

HI there! It's been a while since, i've been online. Yea, it's the pits! I read what everyone's opinion is. The fact here is that everyone's "walk to hospital" work is different. Sometimes it's mere chance or luck. I never had luck on my side and anything I got was from hard work. I think that if CNA in the hospital is the only way to land a LVN job then it's what works for you. I'm an optimist even though it doesn't sound like it. It'll come, but I hope not too late since I'm 56 and don't have many more years to work! Stay UP! Treeloc

The only solice I get in this whole matter is that I'm not in the boat by myself. You would think with the shortage of RNs that LVNs would be the resource needed to lighten the work load of the RN. It's the patients that suffers when this happens. We could make such a drastic difference in this dilemna if hospitals and SNFs would hire us and give us the "on the job training" needed so that the pt. to nurse ratio would be more workable. I read a posting where a LVN wanted to get this issue addressed by simply writing a letter and having those of us that agree, sign it and send it to the board. I think something like this might work if we had RNs and LVNs alike, complain. There were preceptor programs before and they need to be used again. If I were a RN I would have no problem having a LVN work along side of me until that person could wing it alone. What do you think?

I"ve always wanted to work the ER. I was trained by Companion Hospice as an admission's LVN but found that it was more PR than anything else and the waiting for paperwork to be done was waaay too time consuming. Visiting hospice work would be fine but they didn't have openings for that. I do home health with peds now and the pace is waay too slow also. 1 pt. all day is not for me. I'm a really fast paced 56 yr. old and really want to be on the med/surg floor of a VA. So that's my goal at this point. I've applied to psyche facilities but you need some background in that area which i don't have. I think this whole turn of events came right about 2004. Before then you could be guaranteed to get into a SNF. LVNs had that cornered, but not anymore. Even they want 1 yr. of SNF or acute care. So, slowly but surely I am taking classes in every frickin thing. I'm IV/bloodwithdrawal certified, have my EMT1, CNA, trained in hospice, homehealth, assisted living, just no yr. in acute. Oh yea 1 yr of working in a clinic setting will open doors for you also but the office assistants/med techs have that all sewn up. So... oh well. Thanx for the vote of confidence though. I have a boat load of family who work at Loma Linda med ctr. Didn't want to use family but I might have to pull that card. Have a great Holiday!

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving, I'm finding that this is a major dilemna! I graduated in 2005 and without that 1 year of acute care (not being able to use my clinical time)no hospital will employ me. It is very defeating. I get soo depressed about the whole situation. I went to a community college where I had to take all sort of prereqs and actually only have 2 more classes and some bridge classes to get my RN. I started late in life and just don't have the money or drive to pull 1 more year. Times are too hard and one has to keep their job no matter how menial. I got out of school and went staight into assisted living and loved it. I would have stayed on except I relocated to the Riverside area where the pay sucks! The assisted living job payed $18 and then jumped to $22 shortly after I left. Now I am stuck doing home health as a LVN and only get $16.50. Needless to say I'm just a little POed. My question is why aren't the schools informing upcoming LVNs that this is the case. There are a few cases where LVNs get in the hospitals but they are few and far between. Here is where "who you know" is the case scenario. I even have a fellow classmate who worked at Kaiser as a ward clerk and then got her license and they still didn't bump her up to LVN. Go figure that. I have learned the LTC does qualify as acute care.. The fact still remains that if no one will let you in to get that 1 yr. of acute, what does one do? I have no other recourse but to climb the ladder within my company, which pays it's employees so little. I did apply to a new company out here, being a visiting nurse, paying $40 a visit, but it's per diem which isn't a steady paycheck. so now I must juggle 2 jobs. It's a pain. Teaching hospitals are a little more lenient in their hiring rules. My suggestion is (this advice was given to me by my field RN) bug the hospitals to death and let your face be seen on a regular basis. She said that is what she did when she first got her RN license. A RN had to do this, so what does that mean to us? She even said she would bake cookies and take them to the nurses stations! So, I hope knowing that your not the only one, makes you feel a little better. Some instuctors still work in hospitals (mine did) and I would go to them and let them try to put a good word in for you at the hospital with which they work. I can't since I'm in a totally different county. Good luck and if I come up with a great solution, I post it !

I don't know if you know about something called an umbrella. The way I understand it, any given facility, if they train their MAs to give injections, then, they can do exactly that but only in that facility, the same thing applies to LVNs. I work with a LVN who worked in a hospital and she hung blood products. As far as I know that is not in our scope of practice even if you are IVTherapy/Bloodwithdrawal Certified which I am.

Hello there, I'm in the California area and only can speak about here. I do home health with fagile children, though, alot of quadraplegics require this particular kind of care. They are able to take care of their own business so they choose this route. Here in california, you are required to have a NPI # which stands for national provider ID. You are also required by law to get your own insurance. You then fill out a THICK packet of application papers that is sent to you by the Dept. of Health Care Service...Long Term Care division. The process is a bit long and you have to have a certain amount of hours of working the kind of case you are applying to. The good part is, no one is looking over your shoulder and the pay here in Calif is about $26. as opposed to working through an agency which pays a little more than half of that. You also pick the hours you are willing to work. You do have a RN supervisor if you run into any problems. You are also are more involved with outside agencies ie. OT, PT, DMEs etc. I'm actually going through the process now. I have 2 more mos. before I have the required amt. of hours to go independent. I have talked to a couple of nurses who do this and they like it very much since you are in charge of everything you do ie. you don't turn in your paperwork, you don't get payed, so if anything goes wrong you only have yourself to blame. Hope this helps. T.a.

Hi Again, If money isn't an issue home health agencies are always in need of LVNs. If you have any friends already in a hospital, see if they can get you in. I can't impress upon you how important getting that 1 yr. of acute care is. Los Angeles hospitals have a little more leeway. Belmont Village Assisted Living in Los Angeles is hiring. They just opened a new facility in westwood I believe. They pay more than most assisted living places...$22hrly..The work isn't that demanding and these kinds of facilities don't take any residents that need acute care. It's mostly med management and taking vitals. I would go back if it wasn't so far away.Hospice is also an option. Companion Hospice pays almost $26 for their LVN intake nurses. So I hope this helps you. My problem is that I want to work in a hospital because that would open so many doors for me. ER is the place i wanted to end up. Well, good luck and let me know how it goes. Terri:up:

Hi There! I know the pickle you're in. I graduated back in 05. No one told me, my teachers etc., that you have to have 1 year of acute care, LTC or clinical office experience to get a GOOD job. I made the mistake of going into assisted living right after school when I should have gotten on at one of the hospitals that my teachers worked at( if you were a good student and they have pull it's one way). I live in the Riverside area and can't find anything but home health jobs. I've been told that going to teaching hospitals may be the way to go. The only one we have out here is Riverside Memorial Med Ctr. and you have to have prior hospital experience or be put on their waiting list for their RN program which is huge because all of us LVNs are having the same problems. Once you have that 1 year though, you can work anywhere which most jobs pay $28 and up, it's just getting the experience. It's very disheartening. In this economy most of us can't go back to school except by maybe getting your RN online which takes forever!Places will take a new grad RN over an experienced LVN. LVN schools should place you in a hospital for 1 year immediately after passing the NCLEX, that way you have what you need to succeed in your field. I just feel i spent 3 yrs at the age of 49 to be getting payed $16 hrly. IT SUCKS! So go to Harbor UCLA or Westwood or even the VA and bug them til they hire you!

Hello fellow California LVNs, I spoke to a nursing recruiter from the major hospital in my area which is Corona. As I have written before, I am having an awful time looking for hospital work. I was informed that most hospitals are not hiring new or experienced LVNs any more. She stated that the situations is : the RNs have way too much work and the LVN scope of practice doesn't allow for them to help the Rn in the areas she/he needs. So they retain the LVNs they have and push them to go back to school to get their RN licenses. That was very informative to me and I hope it helps other LVNs in this county to understand why we can't get jobs. I really feel that if that's the case here, it's going to be the case in alot of hospitals across California. I also don't think it's fair that these LVN schools don't inform incoming students that this is what they're up against. Mind you, some SNFs want that 1 yr. of acute care also but some don't. Home health is another area we LVNs can get into but for myself, sitting with 1 patient all day isn't my idea of REAL nursing unless it's a case where your patient is on all kinds of machines that require constant attention, that's when real skills come into play. I guess it boils down to what kind of nursing you want to do. I've always wanted to be in a hospital. Nursing schools should inform prospective student to what the deal is. Tell them that acute care is not really an option anymore unless they definitely are going on to RN. I don't want to be a downer but I just want to let my fellow LVNs in this similar situation, know that it's not us, it's just the way the cookie is crumbling now. My advice is go staight for your RN and that way you know you're covered! Hope this has been informative. BEWARE of those hospitals that do take LVNs, unless you know they still are accredited, otherwise, you'll be working in a hospital that has a BAD rep. I almost got into a situation like that. Just before I was to go through a registry to work in a hospital, I found out it had just failed JACHO.

Just for the record I'm state board certified for IV Therapy/Bloodwithdrawal, CNA, EMT1 and HHvent.

Wow! OH. is bad. Well to reply to both of you, I can only get home health and alot of them want that same year of acute experience. SNFs want 1 year of experience also. I definitely agree with your statement of an over abundance of LVNs in southern ca. We also have many philipinos that are RNs but when they come to the US they can't do RN work but are expereinced in acute care so they work under their newly gotten LVN licenses for a lower pay range than their american counterparts. They worker harder and longer for "that lower wage". I did find out yesterday that registry work in the hospital may be the way to go. They told me to do that for a year and that should suffice. I know i'm not the only one having this problem but this is serious. I can't even do assisted living out here because the LVNs in AL out here do what the DON did in Los Angeles which is budgets, scheduling and training, mostly managerial stuff and the med techs and CNAs/ caregivers do all the rest. So I'm up the creek without a paddle. Doing HH isn't going to give me that year and I feel my career will become so stagnated. No one can tell me there's a nursing shortage. We're out here, but no one will take the time to train us for hospital work soooo therefore the RNs are overworked. I've met with RNs from ICU jobs that have quit just because the work load is too heavy without the help of their LVNs. So this really is an issue that needs to be addressed. Nepotism thrives well in the hispanic and philipino work area. It's not unheard of to meet the whole family at one job doing various positions. I thought that wasn't allowed but I saw it in AL. Sorry, but I'm just one bitter LVN. I feel I've wasted valuable time and I'm no spring chicken. As far as pay goes. Hospital out here start as low as $15 hrly. My end pay in AL was $22, so I'm actually having to work for less pay out here. Can't move, just bought a house out here to be near my elderly parents, so moving isn't a possibility. I just got trained to be a Hospice Admissions nurse and just as I was ready to go into the field they hired a RN and I got the boot since she had more experience. So I'm getting it from all angles, and that job payed $24.50hrly just to sign people on to hospice. Go figure!

I've worked assisted living for a year. This was a mistake. I should have gotten into acute care immediately after coming out of school. Now I can't get a job without 1 year of acute care. In Los Angeles there are places that will take you but here in Riverside it's a "no go". Does anyone have any advice? I know I'm not the only LVN facing this problem. Are there any hospitals that take us without that 1 year? I got a mortgage to pay like everyone else!

I congradulate you on your success. I have been going through the same thing since 2004. I need that one year of acute care experience. I did clinicals at UCLA and that doesn't seem to count for a thing. They'll take a RN-no experience before they take an LVN with 2-5 years experience. I don't understand it at all. Mind you, once you get that 1 year of acute, the doors open wide but in the mean while, what does one do? I refuse to do anything else but acute care at this point because I've wasted 3 years already on the only job I've been able to get (assisted living). I've passed meds to 53 residents with no ID bracelet, accuchecks, ostomy care, injections, catheter care, vitals. I'm really getting bitter and I can't afford to go back to school for my RN. Times are hard for everyone now. If someone has more advice than just rearranging a resume let me know. Cause it aint working for me. Oh, the NOC shift is always the one they'll start you on and working in a doctor's office is another menial job. Med techs are doing what we went to school for, so what's the difference between them and us? I even have my IVBloodwithdrawal and therapy certificate along with vent and A-1 references. Still going no where!