Reason for becoming a LPN?

Janlynn · Aug 13, 2005

Im have been out of college for about 9 years and i'm thinking about going back to school. I only went for two years and then decided to go to Travel School-bad decision. I love helping people and I do think I would like working in the medical field but I was hoping for some advice on what a LPN does. Thanks for your help
Lillian

As far as I know in our area (Illinois) an LPN can do almost as much as an RN with an exception of giving certain drugs IVP--or hanging blood and writing the care plans. There's probably a few other things that we can't do, I guess it just depends on the state your living in. I'm sure the pay is alot different than that of an RN.;-)

LPN worked for me because I'm 35 and have 5 children. It was a 10 month course (full-time), and now I can work while I'm taking classes here and there for the RN. If for some reason I can't make it through the RN--I will always have the LPN to fall back on. Good luck with whatever you decide! Janet

lillian83 · Aug 13, 2005

As far as I know in our area (Illinois) an LPN can do almost as much as an RN with an exception of giving certain drugs IVP--or hanging blood and writing the care plans. There's probably a few other things that we can't do, I guess it just depends on the state your living in. I'm sure the pay is alot different than that of an RN.;-)
LPN worked for me because I'm 35 and have 5 children. It was a 10 month course (full-time), and now I can work while I'm taking classes here and there for the RN. If for some reason I can't make it through the RN--I will always have the LPN to fall back on. Good luck with whatever you decide! Janet

Did you wait untill you had children and then to go school or was this something you had allready thought out? I want to be there for my children so im thinking this my be better for me. How tough was school? I really have a hard time in school and im afraid to get in over my head. Is this something I can take my time at? Do LPN's get respect? i have been hearing some coments that make me wonder. I guess in any field if there are people above you, sometimes they let you know it. I was thinking of taking some refresher classes first to get my mind ready and my confidence up.

Janlynn · Aug 13, 2005

Did you wait untill you had children and then to go school or was this something you had allready thought out? I want to be there for my children so im thinking this my be better for me. How tough was school? I really have a hard time in school and im afraid to get in over my head. Is this something I can take my time at? Do LPN's get respect? i have been hearing some coments that make me wonder. I guess in any field if there are people above you, sometimes they let you know it. I was thinking of taking some refresher classes first to get my mind ready and my confidence up.

No--I had my children starting very young, and didn't stop up until a couple of years ago.;-) My oldest is 17 and my youngest is 2. I just decided that it was time I did something--I'm not getting any younger and this was something that I had always thought about doing, so I just went for it. School was hard, life was hard, finances were very hard. We were paying $600 a month just for daycare while I was going to school. I did get some grants and loans. School was like a full-time job. Lecture/clincals all day, 5 days a week--and studying all night.

Our program was 10 months long and it was seperated into 4 quarters. Looking back now it does seem like it went by pretty fast--but at the time it didn't. It was a fast-paced programs and sometimes we'd have 3 tests a day in three different areas of study. There are different programs out there, this is just a description of the one I went through.

I don't think LPN's are disrespected (at least not in my experiences), although I haven't been in the workforce as an LPN for very long. There may be some people out there that would try and intimidate you or make you feel less worthy--but who cares? That's thier problem. As long as you take pride in your work, and know that what you're doing is respectful.

I'm working in the Emergency Department so I do work around alot of Rn's. The ones I've encountered so far have been very helpful. I talked to an RN in nursing orientation the other day and she said she loves working with LPN's that sometimes she wouldn't know what to do without them. Anyway I hope some of this helps.

Take care!

Janet