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.

[jelorde37]

im an lvn in california. i work in an LTC/rehb facilty that has a cardiac unit.(kinda weird). i float around between the ortho and cardiac unit. the patients i deal with are mainly status post cabg or status post orif. i occasionally get floated into the LTC area of the facility. there, its just skilled nursing. you know stuff like GT, foley, upa tx, wound tx, diabetes, htn, decubitus ulcers, medications like injections, and i wound occasionally get an impending mi from time to time. people look down on ltc as if its the bottom of the food chain, but its alot more work than a cardiac or ortho unit for sure.

[lorelei40]

Hi Blue...I left peds because I got fed up with working with kids. I love em, I have 5 of my own, but the parents are nuts and so many of the kids are unruly---as you described the 12 y.o. acting like a 3 y.o. perfectly. This is happening too often and the parents stand there like idiots expecting ME to parent THEIR little darlings. Been there. Done it. Not going back. Now I'm in GI. Much more interesting...and less drama.

[postmortem_cowboy]

Well, I've been an LVN for three years, started out on M/S, moved into the geropsych unit, and very shortly thereafter into ER, and bumped around between ER and ICU. I've done quite a bit in the three years of my career, straight caths, foleys, digital disimpactions (yes i know), IV starts, phleb, triage, blood product hangs, sutures, staples, assisted on spinal taps, many many codes, cardioversions, numerous traumas, stab wounds, gunshot wounds (hey I worked an ED right next door to compton), ran the "drunk tank", assisted docs put in chest tubes, etc etc etc. I've done alot. I can truthfully say my career so far has been very rewarding, both spiritually as well as what I take from the job. I love my job, and wouldn't trade it for the world, or go back to driving truck if I had to!

Wayne.

[Cat Nurse]

Hello,

I have been was a LPN, the a ASN-RN and now I am a BSN-RN. I am the charge nurse M-F. Our unit council recently made a decision to not use LPN's on our unit. The unit is Ortho/Med-surg. The hospital has mandated that the LPN's go to school ,with completion in four years. Then the rest was up to each unit. WE have a high turn-over rate of patients. Recent changes have really changed the role of the LPN. They have revised the IV medication administration, now LPN can not give any IVP drug. We tried LPN-RN teams which did not work because the LPN was not helping the RN, simply because the role change now prevents this. I have worked with many of these LPN's for many years they are my friends, but on Monday I feel they will see me as someone they will hate. The ultimately goal we want is for the patients to have the best possible care available. I pray they don't think it is personal, because I understand more than they know. Because it could have been me.