rlgunger

It is all about money. I finished with my LPN in December of 2005. The plan was to go back right away and get my RN however I was told there was a 7 to 8 year waiting list, however if someone who worked at Walmart wanted to be an RN, it was a 3 to 4 year wait list. That was extremely frustrating for me. Then like you said there is the whole other issue of them not accepting any credits and making you redo everything. LPN's in Manitoba are the highest trained LPNs in Canada. I have worked in numerous areas as an LPN and the LPNs do nothing different than the RNs (exception would be ER I suppose). I finally ended up going to the US to get my RN, but the a-holes here sure didn't make that easy for me when it came to transferring everything. Thankfully it's all done now. Unfortunately I would not recommend that anyone take their LPN unless they never want to upgrade. Sad, but that's how it is

While I am only 24 right now, I do know a little on this subject. I started my LPN when I was 20. My mother, who had turned 40 had always dreamed of being a nurse, but getting married, and having 9 kids, had put a stop on her plans. At 40 she decided to go back to school, and both of us took the LPN program together. We were able to study together, compare notes, and compare practicums too. It was a great experience, and she has never been sorry for doing it. I will be starting an RN bridging program in January, and she is interested in doing the same! You won't be sorry you did it, best of luck to you in your studies!! Rach

Good for you!! I will have been an LPN for 3 years in December. I'll be starting school for my RN in January, and am very excited about that!! Keep it up!!

Thats an interesting comment you make at the end about correlation between how many times test is written, and the "quality" of the nurse. I think that is way too subjective. I think its safe to say that people expect some of the same qualities in a nurse (competent), but all people look for little things. They might think less of a nurse cuz she doesn't have a sense of humor like the last nurse that took care of them etc. I'm from Canada, and if I'm not mistaken, here you have only 3 chances to write the exams. There was one girl who came here from the Philippines, and wrote her RN exam 3 times, didn't pass, so wrote it as an LPN. In addition to the licensing exams, in our class, we had one person that couldn't complete nursing school, because he had failed the math exam that is required pre-pharmacology. You only have 3 tries on the math test, and you have to get greater than 90%. Rach

I'm also white, I'm 23, and I've been thinking about getting locks. I have a total of 5 facial piercings, and no one in management has ever told me I need to take them out. I know if I got locks, it wouldn't take more than a day til my manager would pull me into the office and tell me to take them out. Its horrible that people aren't more tolerable about things that DON'T MATTER!! I know that my workplace policy says that hair must be clean, and off the shoulders. This is easy to do with locks, and I would not be violating anything, and would be prepared to fight it to the bitter end!!!