I initially worried about becoming an LPN, but no longer. I love my job, I have worked in two jobs so far in the year I have been a nurse. My first job was at a nursing home, that oddly enough employed mostly RN's. I was one of 2 LPNs but I never felt put down. I was charge on my shift, as there was only one nurse on duty at a time. Got to learn a lot and being in the nursing home, any practice questions never came up. We didn't do blood, or Iv's or anything. But, after that position I went to a hospital where I remain. Again, I am in a minority, however, we are hiring more LPN's as we go, which is fantastic. Currently we have 4 LPN's and about 10-12 RN's. I have never felt like I was lesser to the RN's by anymeans. They are all great about helping me on the floor with IV's or anything not in my scope of practice. The one and only time I have felt slightly slighted was actually yesterday. One of the nurses, that I really respect, she works tons of hours and is just always there if you need her. She is a wonderful nurse. Yesterday however, she was on call and was thinking about asking one of our LPN's to switch with her for the evening. As she was leaving, she mentioned again that she would be on call. I mentioned that I thought she was going to have SB pick up her call? "No, I figured if they needed anybody that they would need a nurse". Well, this totally rubbed me the wrong way. I lost just a tad bit of respect for her, then. I really don't know if she meant it the way it came out, but it made me feel that she felt LPN's weren't nurses.
Other than that slight, I don't feel bad at all about being an LPN. I love my job, I love the RN's they treat me as an equal. and during assignments they are very fair, and don't just load up the LPN. I don't envy the RN's at all, they are charge, take patients and work the ER. Too much for me. Just give me my patients and I am off and running!
