they say there's a nursing shortage, ha

[lpn.sarah]

I have had my LPN license (MO) for almost a year now and omg there arent any jobs in southeast missouri/northeast arkansas that even pay well if they come open. they claim theres a nursing shortage. haha. around here LPNs arent hired in ERs, OB, or things like that anymore and when i started school they hired LPNs in those areas like crazy. I mean come on a ADN-RN (2 yr degree) just has one yr of books on a LPN and LPNs have a lot more hands on training atleast where Im from they do. I dont understand what the difference is. Its crazy and I feel like Im forced to work in a nursing home or doctors office which they arent even hiring LPNs anymore so what about this we learned in school about not being able to take any orders from a non-nurse? yet dr's hire people right off the street wtihout any medical training . I was written up at the nursing home for refusing to take an order from a non-nurse for a Lasix injection and the doctor refused to speak with me b/c he didnt have time for a nursing home nurse! WTH??? I told my DON about it and she said to go ahead and take the order and I refused stating its my license on the line .. She claimed it was lega so I called the arkansas board of nursing ( i worked in AR with my compact license) and guess what? I couldve lost my license and the girl at the MDs office can go to mail for impersonating a nurse!!! im wanting to move my family somewhere that pays well, has good insurance (family plan with me, hubby, daughter was going to be $1,200 a month!!! ) errrrrr

[AngelicDarkness]

^^^^ This.

For the record, I graduated with some LPNs doing the RN bridge program. I think there was a 2-3 class difference between the programs. By the third term (out of 9) we were all on the same curriculum. A few of them had the "well I'm already a nurse so I'm way ahead of you" attitude. It didn't last very long :) That's all I'll say about that.

LPN hospital jobs are hard to come by because an RN can do LPN duties and then some. It makes sense from a financial standpoint. All of my doctors' offices are staffed by LPNs. My hospital hires a few LPNs, but only for select home health visits. Have you tried that? All nurses are having difficulties finding work, as you can see from the billion threads on this topic. Persistence and flexibility go a long way towards finding a job. You also said there aren't any openings that "pay well." Maybe that's part of the problem? I understand wanting competitive wages but starting LPN pay isn't that great to begin with. Payscale.com listed it as $13-20/ hour. I know a hospital here in SW Ohio that has a large %age of LPNs. Starting pay for new grads is $15.

And no, I haven't found a job yet either. I graduated the end of January and passed boards in March. It takes time. Good luck to you!

13$?? Really?? EEK! I made that working as a "PSW" in my 2nd year of RPN schooling. Move up to the North (Canada)! We start at least 7$ more than that!:)

[CrazyGoonRN]

I am an LPN and I think what she means even though she dosn't clearly state it is that in an LPN program you spend more time doing clinicals than doing book work (percentage wise in the overall program). The percentage for LPN programs is higher than the percentage for RN programs. However, this dosn't mean that the exact number of hours is necessarly higher for LPN programs. RN programs probably have a higher number of clinical hours.

I also agree with many of the comments that an extra year of school is not just book work. RN programs are designed to teach more things in greater depth than LPN programs. That's just a fact.

Also there is a real difference between LPN's and RN's. One example: LPNs must be IV certified before starting IV's. RN's come out of school already certified.

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

Actually that's incorrect, at least for Canadian RNs. We become certified to do IVs after we are registered. They don't want you poking people until you're a nurse where I'm from.