Granted, this is coming from a student, but from my current view point, working with one patient at a time kills me, but when you consider that nurses have 5+ patients each, for 12 hr shifts, the thoughts make me want to run screaming from my clinical site!
I would have given her a run-down of what you do in a shift:
- Assessments
- Med pass
- Dressing changes
- Foley inserts
- Dealing with lab/doc
- etc.
I had a similar interaction with a student not in the nursing program a week or so ago on campus at the cafeteria. We were in line, and I had on my uniform (I was in lab that day), anyway, she asked me if I was in the RN or LPN program (my school uses the same uniform for each). "RN," I said proudly. Her response floored me, so to speak, "I think I'd want to do the LPN program, you get paid almost the same, and there's only one class different anyway. RN doesn't seem that hard."
Now, granted, LPNs are nurses, and I'm not down-playing the importance that they have to the healthcare setting, but there is a BIG difference in LPN and RN.
Of course, one of the biggest, at least at my school, is the education level. RN is an ADN program and LPN is a diploma. That means there are two semesters difference between the two programs, and in those two semesters, 6 courses.
I simply responded that if that was what she thought, she may need to speak: to the program coordinator or dean and get a rundown of the difference, and walked away!
