RN & LPN(LVN) Questions

Specialties Cardiac

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Hello!! I have been accepted to the LVN program that starts in August of 2005 and will end in August of 2006. I eventually want my Assoicates and even bachelors in Nursing. I have my prequistes for the RN program to include my sciences except for A & P 11 and Im currently enrolled in that. My question is if anyone knows what is the starting salary (I know it depends on location) of an LVN. I have two options here & I dont know which to do.

Option 1 is to put my packet in for the RN classes that begin in January 2006. I will not know if I get picked up until October of this year. If I get picked up I will begin the program in Jan 2006. It is two years in length w/summers off. They told me I could work in the hospital for pay during these summers as an assistant. If I didnt get picked up for RN in January I would still have my LVN slot from that I turned down in August, but I would begin in January.

Option 2: I have already been selected to start the LVN program in August of 2005. I would graduate one year from August. Does anyone know what I can make when I get out. Also, I would like to transition, but they told me I would have to wait one year b/c I wouldnt have my license in time to enroll for their transition.

Can anyone who has been in my shoes shed some light on what the best thing is to do, where the money is at etc. THANK YOU :chuckle

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

Why do you want to be nurse? To help people or to make lots of money? Money isn't everything in nursing.

I always recommend that people go to RN programs, preferably BSN programs. The job situation for LPN/LVNs teeters precariously all the time. During the 80s and 90s hospitals were only hiring RNs and LVN/LPNs were left to find employment elsewhere. Nursing homes are big employers of LVN/LPNs as charge nurses. A good majority of these charge nurses B&M (b***h and moan) that they are doing just about the same things an RN does and not getting paid for it. A trend I saw happening in the midwest was that some of the hospitals were only hiring BSN RNs and turning away the ASN/ADN nurses. Those ASN/ADN nurses were going into nursing homes to work.

So, if you want to make money and you care about people, the big money is in intensive care nursing and ER. OR nurses do OK, too, if they take a lot of on call work. The stories you might hear about huge sign-on bonuses for RNs is true, but I've worked in several hospitals that offered these bonuses and the reason they offered them was because their nursing staffs were leaving out the back door as fast or faster than the new nursing staff coming in the front door. You have to wonder why that was happening. With experience, an RN out here in LA should be able to make $60,000 a year easy.

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Thank you for the input. No it isn't all I about the money. Being a nurse is something I have had my heart set on since I was 14 and I am going on 28. I am a people person. I love people and enjoying helping if I can and not expecting anything in return. About the money, I would like to work like I don't need the money. I would like to have the money to help others( like my mom, brother and sister) when they may need it. I want to enjoy what I do. I am going to pass up the LVN class in August and hope I get in the RN in January. My GPA is at 3.33 and that's what they are looking at. If I don't get in the January class I will have a back up spot in the LVN position. Its not really what I want, but its better than nothing and it will get me started. I have most all my classes for the RN anyway except for two. My husband only has two years left in the Army so I am trying to get something under my belt so that I can take care of us until he finds work.

Thanks for your input.

Why do you want to be nurse? To help people or to make lots of money? Money isn't everything in nursing.

I always recommend that people go to RN programs, preferably BSN programs. The job situation for LPN/LVNs teeters precariously all the time. During the 80s and 90s hospitals were only hiring RNs and LVN/LPNs were left to find employment elsewhere. Nursing homes are big employers of LVN/LPNs as charge nurses. A good majority of these charge nurses B&M (b***h and moan) that they are doing just about the same things an RN does and not getting paid for it. A trend I saw happening in the midwest was that some of the hospitals were only hiring BSN RNs and turning away the ASN/ADN nurses. Those ASN/ADN nurses were going into nursing homes to work.

So, if you want to make money and you care about people, the big money is in intensive care nursing and ER. OR nurses do OK, too, if they take a lot of on call work. The stories you might hear about huge sign-on bonuses for RNs is true, but I've worked in several hospitals that offered these bonuses and the reason they offered them was because their nursing staffs were leaving out the back door as fast or faster than the new nursing staff coming in the front door. You have to wonder why that was happening. With experience, an RN out here in LA should be able to make $60,000 a year easy.

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Specializes in Telemetry, ICU, Resource Pool, Dialysis.

Angela - just a note - that as an ICU nurse, I don't make 1 cent more than any other RN in the hospital. The ER nurses also don't make any more. But, I do agree that you should bite the bullet and go straight to RN - ASN or BSN, whichever you can afford or prefer. I don't know of ANY hospitals in my state that hire only BSNs.

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