Thinking of taking the RPN course at Algonquin College

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Hiya folks. Folks post for me.

I am a 41 year old male who thanks to the Government of Ontario might be given a 2nd chance. I am looking to take Practical Nursing at Algonquin College and was wondering how good is the program, and 2nd question is what kind of work does a RPN do? (Please don't say "take the RN it's better" I KNOW it's better, but they will only pay for a 2 year course not 3, and no I cannot ask them to just pay the 2 and I will pay the 1. I asked :>)

My background is IT, but I only got into IT when I was 24 because it was a hobby and I thought I would like doing it as a job. Bad choice. But it paid the bills. While I enjoy helping people, I don't like doing it with computers. I am good at IT, but I always found I never got any satisfaction at all.

I just finished last week taking a Career Path course and many of the assessments I took the top 5 jobs that would suit me seem to include Nursing each time. I am very much a extrovert and I think I would make a great nurse. Even family and friends who know what I might be trying think that I would be a good nurse.

I am also wondering are Male nurses in high demand? Or looked at different?

Cheers

djlottawa

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

I have seen male RPNs in the workplace and they were not treated any differently.I wouldn't say they are in high demand particularly but not discriminated against either.

An RPN can do may different types of nursing. Where I am RPNs work in most areas of the hospital, excluding the ICU and L&D. They can work in clinics, doctors offices and in the community as visiting nurses. Where I work the RPNs can do pretty much what the RNs do except IV push and hang blood. We have the same pt load and the same responsibilities as the RNs.

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Specializes in ED.

I'm a RN not RPN, but here goes...

I believe the scope of the RPN is a provincial standard, but what they can actually do is based on the policies of their employer.

At the hospital I work at (in the Ottawa valley), RPNs only work with med-surg patients who are considered stable. They are not currently working in ICU and they are only working in the holding area in Emergency caring for admitted patients waiting for medical beds. I'm not sure if they are able to work L&D/Peds.

They are not allowed to do many things that are actually within their scope. They have just recently started training our RPNs to initiate IVs although they cannot give ANY IV meds or blood products. They can do only simple dressings. As far as I know, they can give all PO medications. They are not allowed to give any IM injections.

I work with a few male RPNs and from what I gather they aren't treated any differently than female RPNs.

Once you become a RPN you can always take the bridge program to get a BScN.

Good luck!

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Thanks for the replies. It helps.

I just applied for my letter of Admission for Practical Nursing and now I wait :yeah:

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I'm taking Practical Nursing at Algonquin College....

I think it's a very good program, the first year was not heavy (in my opinion), it allowed me to work as well as study.

I believe you can find a job as RPN right away, all my friends who graduated and passed the license exams got jobs. You can work ranging from nursing home, to agency, or hospital. Also hospitals have those programs for graduating nurses, they will hire you even before you write your license exam. you can browse online for jobs in Ottawa and see for yourself, there's a lot of opportunities.

at my work place for example where I work as health care aid we always need RPN's, sometimes they ask you to stay for double shift because they can't find no one to fill in for you.

In nursing homes you will mostly be giving out pills and certain medications. And it depends on your work place what they allow you to do as RPN.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Med-Surg..

I hope the op has decided what to do since he posted almost six months ago.

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Hey folks.

Update. I am taking Prep for Health Science starting January 1st. Since I first posted I have been upgrading my English and Math. It's been so long since I was in school I am glad I am doing this. It's setting me up for doing assignments and homework.

Prep for health runs from Jan to April, and I also sighed up for the PN course. I am sure I will get in since I applied 2nd day it was open for submissions.

My wife just had a baby 2 months ago so this is making school interesting :>.

One thing I noticed while at the General Hospital in Ottawa, in the baby ward almost all the nurses are Practical Nurses. Is that normal? I would love to work there but being a guy not sure new moms want to learn how to breast feed from a guy.

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Our postpartum used to be a 50/50 split, not sure of how it's working now. If anything there will probably more LPNs in there with the way AHS is funding things out here.

I've never seen a male employed on that unit. Even when I was a student, the guys did it but among some cultures, the husband used to demand another nurse (meaning female) because they couldn't separate the difference between nurse and male.

One of my classmates said he loved the actual baby care but could live without fundal checks and asking about flow. He went back to do his RN and last heard off was wanting to go to work in a NICU someday. He'd be great. Had kids of his own, and could stand the crying.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

Not a whole lot of crying in NICU usually. It's hard to cry with an endotracheal tube passing between your vocal cords.

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I meant on post partum. It was the domino effect. In the nursery, if one started they all joined the chorus.

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