What is your job?

[mgalloLPN]

As an LPN, where do you work, what do you do? Do you work in a hospital, doctors office, LTC facility? If you work in a hospital, what department do you work in? What type of doctors office do you work in? What? What are your duties there? Just curious as to what my options are when I get to go back to school.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I work at an upscale nursing home and am one of 4 charge nurses on my floor. I pass medications and perform treatments on 17 elderly residents.

[miracle1986]

Are you going on for R.N.?????

As an LPN, you can work in:

A. LTC / Personal Care Homes / Skilled care facilities....you will be a charge nurse. In charge of all C.N.A.'s (overseeing that they do their job). You will do drug passes, all diabetes care, trach care, G-tube care. Lots of charting. Answer doctors calls, do rounds....take orders. Every state is different with the duties...but this is general info.

B. Hospital. You can work the med-surg floors.

C. Doctor's offices will hire LPN's usually if the M.D. is a specialist. YOu will do vitals, take present complaints, pass out needed orders once M.D. has seen patient.

I would dive into skilled nursing facilities. You will learn soooooooooooooo much and work so hard. It is a rush.

Good Luck !

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

In addition, hospitals and doctor's offices tend to pay LPNs very poorly.

I live in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. The nursing homes pay LVNs anywhere from $17 to $22, dependent upon experience and patient load. The doctor's offices pay $13 to $14 hourly, and the hospitals pay $12.50 to $13 hourly. Sorry, but I am not putting my hard-earned license on the line for $12 or $13 per hour.

[miracle1986]

I worked in Skilled Nursing for 13 bucks an hour. Charge nurse over 1-2 wings. 32-yes 32 patients per wing with 2-4 aids. Skilled care, with all the above mentioned kinds of skilled patient care. My license was on the line every time I punched in.

That is why I am almost an R.N.:w00t:

[betmic2002]

When I was an LPN i did LTC skilled unit. Which really was the same as LTC. I encourage you to work in a hospital i you want changes everyday. But id you like continuity and getting to know you patints then do LTC. Back in my day, LTC was for nurses who did not make the cut in a hospital. It is different now. I have this feeling in my heart I will go back to LTC. It hase been 10 years since I did LTC, but in many ways i feel it was the most gratifying.

[miracle1986]

To elaborate on my post #3 on defining the Skilled area of LTC....Things have changed in 10 years....in the state that I am in, LTC is long term care....like personal care.

Skilled care....is just that....skilled. Trachs, tubes-g/jg, vents, brittle,sliding scale diabetes, a few rare quarrantine conditions that even went undiagnosed for quite some time :stone, decubiti that you could put 4 fists into.....it was very, very challanging.

It is unbelievable what you can see / learn on Skilled Wings. There were a handful of nurses that would only go down that hall to assist me in an e.r., they would refuse to work a shift alone on that hall.....that is the truth!:chair:

I learned soooooooooooooo much in Skilled Nursing.

[AdobeRN]

I do pedatric home health. I go into peoples homes and take care of kids that are on vents, have trachs, feeding tubes etc. I am in Texas and make $20/hour. Sometimes I feel like a babysitter more than a nurse. But the job is low stress for me, which is what I need while I am in school.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

I work in a hospital clinic, and have a pediatric home case on the side. In the clinic, I do vaccinations, monthly vitamin B-12 injections, mist treatments for emergencies, basically, I administer all sorts of medications, from depotestosterone to biacillin. I do a great deal of patient teaching, PPD implants/interpetations. My private patient is a 4 year old with a trach. I see me doing more home care on the side, because it is less demanding and less stressful. I am a new nurse and want to utilize my skills, however, from what I read here, and see every day, I sort of decided that I refuse to work in places of high stress if I don't have to. My clinic is stress, but I can basically handle it. But, I wouldn't be effective as a charge nurse, and while I wouldn't mind med-surg, there are too many nursing cat fights for me to be interested in working there often.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

I do pedatric home health. I go into peoples homes and take care of kids that are on vents, have trachs, feeding tubes etc. I am in Texas and make $20/hour. Sometimes I feel like a babysitter more than a nurse. But the job is low stress for me, which is what I need while I am in school.

Is the vent care difficult? I never didn't learn about vent care in school, and I definitely need to brush up on feeding tubes. I was offered a vent case, but, since I have never even seen one before, I rejected it. Thanks...I hope you see this and reply.

[NickiLaughs, ADN, BSN, RN]

I work at a State University in the Student Health Center. Most of my day is taking vitals, doing birth control refills, flu shots, depo shots, pregnancy tests. Fairly simple stuff. The pay is good, and the classes are free to employees, so I can finish my BSN at minimal cost.

[HeatherLPN]

I work LTC on the locked Alzheimer's/behavior unit. Love it. Get to use alot of skills, also get a lot of Hospice patients b/c we can give more one on one care on my unit.

I've worked skilled at another place, with vents, trachs, ect., but 36 residents, 3 vents, 9 feeding tubes with flushes, and 2-2 hour medpasses on an 8 hour shift was just too dangerous to my license for me.

I swore I'd never work LTC, but I don't know that I'd ever work anything else.