Do you miss them being on the floor with you? Were they a help? A 'nuisance' ? Or a little bit of both?
I'm about to graduate from an LPN program. When I used to work as a secretary at a hospital back in '07 and '08 LPN's were on the floor then. Around '08 they started making them clinical secretaries. Some RN's didn't mind. Others were ok with it because a lot of times they had to take some dr's orders and some IV meds.
Some of my classmates are upset that LPN's don't really work in the hospitals anymore. Just had me thinking if LPN's are missed. :)
I'm not 100% sure what the difference is between LPN and RPN, but I am an RPN and we do almost everything that an RN does. On my floor, we just tend to have more stable patients. We can give medications, blood transfusions, IV meds, admitting, discharges, telemetry, the works!
As for 'phasing out', where I am from, RPNs are popping up all over here. Hospitals are hiring many of them because they are realizing that they can do almost everything an RN can but for less pay. I've also seen a lot of young RNs going to older RPNs for advice.
A lot of it comes from experience, not years of school. There are good and bad of all nurses, RN and RPN. I've seen too many RNs with the "4-year syndrome". But 9/10 are fabulous!
We've definitely got it made in Ontario! I'm curious to find out what hospital you work at! I thought the scope of practise where I am was broad, but we don't administer TPN or take care of epidurals here. Glad to hear that other places let us use all of our skills!
Surgical Trauma...because we deal with these things frequently, we have a lot of exposure to them and can handle them if the patient is stable. Whereas other floors may not deal with it as much so when a patient has them they just give the patient to the RN, as least that's how it was explained to me by the unit manager. Although the acuity of the floor is so high that we don't always get the stable patients...
For those who are unfamiliar with the scope of the RPN in Ontario (And much of Canada I assume, but I'm not sure), the difference between the RPN and RN is not in the skills but in the stability and predictibility of the patient.
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bezj
3 Posts
I'm not 100% sure what the difference is between LPN and RPN, but I am an RPN and we do almost everything that an RN does. On my floor, we just tend to have more stable patients. We can give medications, blood transfusions, IV meds, admitting, discharges, telemetry, the works!
As for 'phasing out', where I am from, RPNs are popping up all over here. Hospitals are hiring many of them because they are realizing that they can do almost everything an RN can but for less pay. I've also seen a lot of young RNs going to older RPNs for advice.
A lot of it comes from experience, not years of school. There are good and bad of all nurses, RN and RPN. I've seen too many RNs with the "4-year syndrome". But 9/10 are fabulous!
Teamwork!!
:-)