Should I become an LVN and then continue to become an RN?

[RockyRamona]

Hi everyone, I'm a prospective nursing student. I'll try to make this question brief as possible but the details I say here are related to it.

I originally just wanted to go straight to RN but lately I've looked at a lot of job ads online, especially from Indeed.com and they most, if not all of them, ask for experience. This came as a shock to me because my parents assured me that I'll be hired on a degree basis after I graduate, that it doesn't matter if I have experience or not. With that said, I heavily considered going on the LVN-RN path to get experience and be more hirable once I get my degree. However I heard that they're phasing out LVNs and it's a bad idea. Despite that, I found ads that hire LVNs with no experience. Are they misleading? Will I be hired as an LVN without experience after I graduate as one? Keep in mind that my goals are to become financially stable and move out of my parents place. I planned out the LVN-RN route. Ideally, if it goes well, I work as an LVN for a brief period of time, then go back to school for my Associate's. In this way, I can get experience in a hospital setting and save up to move out, so I won't be stuck at my parents' house for like 2-3 years finding a job. I also don't want to be in a situation where I become an RN with an Associate's degree and have a hard time finding a job because I have no experience working as a nurse. If I go through the LVN-RN route, will any LVN work experience be considered well enough to be hired as an RN? Is going through an LVN-RN route a good decision? If it is, how do I convince my parents without them flipping out that I'm not going straight to RN? They did so last time when I tried to convince them. Tbh I just want to make my own career choice but not make a dumb one basically.

Ultimately, is it worth it to go through the LVN-RN route and if so, how do I convince my parents to let me? (They pay for my education, which is great but the downside is that I can't freely make my career decisions. Which is a good and bad thing. :/ )

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

I didn't go the LVN route, so take what I say accordingly.

LVNs are still alive and kicking, but it's true that a lot of facilities are cutting back on LVNs in favor of RNs. There are still LVN jobs out there, but in places such as LTC, SNF, LTAC, clinics, medical offices, etc. It doesn't seem to me--at least in the areas where I live--that they're hiring on a lot of LVNs in acute care. However, we have lots of LVNs in psych. Depending on the facility, their duties range from just passing medications to doing full-on nursing short of the RN-only stuff (that is, no admissions, discharges, IVs unless certified, etc.).

So see what YOUR local job market has for LVNs.

As far as whether LVN experience will count when you're doing your RN job search...yes and no. It is healthcare experience, and you could spin it to your advantage over other new grad RNs without any healthcare experience. Some facilities may give you credit for it, e.g., counting each 2 years as a LVN as 1 year RN experience, but that's more for pay/competitive purposes than for landing that first nursing job. But at the end of the day, it's NOT RN experience simply because you weren't an RN. A nurse, yes. A RN, no.

Of course, after you land that first nursing job, it's a moot point. But you do have to land that first nursing job...

I don't know how many LVN-RN bridge programs are out there, but almost all will require you to go in for clincials and what not, and most result in a ADN. I think there's a LVN-BSN program out there but I don't know where it is. Also, since you're using the term LVN, you're likely from CA or TX...I can tell you that Excelsior's RN program will NOT let you get licensed in CA as a RN, either initially or by endorsement. So if you're in or ever planning to work in CA, you need to keep that in mind.

The advantage to becoming a LVN first is that it's faster than becoming a RN, it costs less, and you could be working all that sooner. And you may decide that you want to stop at LVN--I work with a lot who decided for various reasons not to become RNs. Some never wanted to be RNs in the first place, some didn't want to go through the hassle, some discovered they were happy exactly where they were.

I won't say it's a "dumb" career choice to pursue LVN or RN. For a lot of people, it wasn't dumb at all. However, that doesn't mean it's the best decision for you...only YOU can decide that.

Best of luck whatever you decide.

[RockyRamona]

Thank you. Personally, I think it's a great decision for me but I don't plan to stay an LVN especially because hospitals are phasing out LVNs. However I'm pretty sure after I graduate, there will still be LVN jobs available. The time gap isn't that huge. Two years doesn't make much of a difference imo. I checked a lot of LVN-RN programs and they let you get licensed in CA. There's also more ADN programs that let you take additional classes during the summer to qualify for a BSN so I'm definitely going back to school. Not stopping at LVN. But thank you for the advice. Technically it could count as nurse experience in resumes but I see how it can't count as RN experience so I'd basically have to really read the job description and requirements to see if it counts. But thank you again, this really helped. I originally wanted to take the LVN-RN route but my parents initially discouraged me by kind of lying to me tbh. They didn't lie about hospitals phasing out LVNs but they did lie that they weren't getting hired. I guess they meant long term but I was trying to tell them that I'm not gonna stay an LVN. I hope to be able to convince them to let me do this path. Again, thank you so much.

[caliotter3]

One of the biggest problems with starting as an LPN/LVN with intentions of progressing to RN, is the adage about the best laid plans of mice and men. For whatever reason, your plans might stall. OK, if you are content, but not OK if you spend the rest of your career asking "what if?" Get the RN license while the getting is good. The better job opportunities right out of the gate alone are worth it.

[RockyRamona]

My main concern was whether I'll get hired on degree alone and a lot of nursing job ads say otherwise. I didn't want to go straight to RN and then have difficulty finding a job. I'm kind of glad I did my research and I didn't just take my parents' word on being hired on a degree basis, with disregard to experience cause I would have been hella disappointed. I know the plan won't be that cut and dry, worse comes to worse, I work as an LVN for longer than I expected. But rest assured I'm still aiming for that degree. Again, what made me consider LVN-RN was the financial independence aspect. I basically didn't want to just end up with a degree and then kind of screwed when I can only apply to like 1-2 jobs that accept RN grads when there's a bunch of jobs that accept LVN grads and I can technically use it as experience. I just hope I'm not in a situation where I'm stuck as an LVN, which is my only concern tbh and where I'd see the benefit of going straight to RN. But again it was more of job concern after graduation.

[Ddestiny, BSN, RN]

How helpful it will be, depends upon the specifics of your area. If you know anyone that's in nursing school that might know some people that have recently graduated, they might be able to say whether or not those people have had much difficulty getting jobs.

I bridged each step of the way....CNA, CMA, LPN, ADN, BSN. Doing this helped me to gain Nursing experience and earn more money each step of the way, at a faster clip than if I had gone straight through to my ADN or BSN. This was important to me because my husband and I were young and broke and we didn't have other family financial support. We took out a lot of loans my LPN year for both tuition and living expenses, but after that I was able to work FT and do a FT LPN to ADN bridge program where the the classwork was all online (clinicals and check-offs in person). I made 50% more in dollars-per-hour as an LPN than I did as a CMA, and I was able to work a lot more because of the flexibility of the program (during LPN school I worked every other weekend).

I live in an area where new grads can pretty easily secure hospital jobs because Kansas just doesn't get enough nurses, but I definitely felt that I had an advantage coming in with LPN experience (MD office) into the hospital because I was considered to be "experienced, just not in the hospital setting". I got more credit for LPN experience than I would have for CNA/CMA experience, which reflected in my starting wage.

I think there are pros and cons either way and it really does depend upon each individual's situation. If you can do more research on what new grads are experiencing in your specific area (job ads are great, but finding the other half of the equation will really give you the full picture) then that will really give you your answer. I have understood that it is difficult to be hired as a new grad nurse in CA, but I'm not sure if there is a difference between LPN and RN for that. Some doctors offices like to hire whatever they can get cheapest, which for some areas means LPNs, new grad LPNs or (unfortunately for us) Med Aides.

Good luck with your decision.

[VidyaNC]

I am not there yet, a graduate nurse from school, but in my neck of the woods, NC, most hospitals have new graduate programs that hire new nursing graduates. Competitive? Sure. Impossible? No. I'd say if you are sure that you want to become an RN, go for it now while you are blessed with your parents' room and board. If I could go back to my younger self, I would have got my act together and would have been a licensed registered nurse a LONG TIME AGO. I now have to deal with life: husband and kids. I work part-time as a CNA with the hope of one day getting my RN license. I was going to go the LPN to RN route but time is no longer on my side so I am shooting for the RN to MSN route. That is a different topic.

Don't take this wrong, but I think the hesitancy has a lot more to do with finding a job after graduating. The same time, more or less, that you would, ideally, spend going from LVN to ADN could economically be spent going from ADN to BSN or ADN to MSN.

In short, go the ADN route, study, get those grades up. Use CLEP to place out of general education courses (check your school policy first and CLEP site for what courses your school will accept), roll up your sleeves and go for it. In the mean time, volunteer, or better yet, get on your CNA certificate and start building up your resume. When you finally graduate, apply to every place that hires nurses.

Do not get hung up on trying to find "THE HOSPITAL" job because just about everyone is trying for that one. Again, apply to your university hospital (if you are in a college town/city) program for new nursing graduates, but do not give up on the SNFs, independent living, etc.

Your goal right now should be on getting into nursing school, working in some kind of basic skilled nursing setting (CNA, as most nursing schools' will require this for all interested applicants), and make friends/ find a mentor from someone already in the profession who can vouch for you when it comes for references and character checks.

Enough of my two cents. I just wanted to encourage you to move forward and not stop because of hearsays and, must I say, I smell some fear and hesitancy on your part.

Thank your parents, accept their blessing and go for your dream of becoming an RN. Do not rush it.