Why can't I do everything a RN does as a LPN? We should be equal.

[SweetPoo]

Why do RN's make more when we practically do the SAME THING. I don't understand how RN's having the ability to start IV's and give a few medications IV push make them more valuable than an LPN. Those extra courses you take to become RN's, heck even BSN's don't add anything clinically. When I am on the floor, WE DO THE SAME THING, yet I take home 30% less than my RN/BSN colleagues. Does anyone else agree that us as LPNS should be able to make the same salary? I hope the Affordable Healthcare Act (AHR) addresses this issue with EQUAL PAY for EQUAL work. We are a lot cheaper to higher than RN's so hopefully the (AHC) will realize this and create more of a demand for efficient LPN's that are easier to train, and cheaper to higher, thus bringing RN wages on par with our wages. It just doesn't make sense for the hospital to pay a RN $25-30/hr to start, while I make $22/hr and have more than 18 years experience. Any thoughts?

[StarofLifeRN]

Is their any other LPNs on here who would be will to advocate with me? I am planning on writing a letter to NFLPN on creating schools with more training to makes us more complete as nurses?

If you're feeling incompete and believe more training is the answer, then why not consider taking the next step and becoming an RN?

[duskyjewel]

More education leads to higher levels of responsibility, based on increased knowledge. That's how it works in this country and has for a long time. Plus, people are paid based on the value they generate for their employer. RNs, having a wider scope of practice, can generate more reimbursement/payment value for the employer, therefore they are worth more. Simple economics. If there were no difference between the two roles, then there would be no distinction.

Your limits are in your mind. You've told yourself you're too old to go back to school. (How old is that anyway?) So you're putting up artificial barriers to the one thing that would get you where you want to be. I don't discount that money is a real concern, but talk to someone about financial aid before you decide you can't afford it. Do you have kids at home? If not could you, say, downgrade your living quarters and budget like mad on groceries and utilities to carve out some tuition money? Or even live with family for a year to do a bridge program? If you want it, you'll find a way to get it. But what you're advocating didn't work in early American colonist communes, it didn't work in the Soviet Union, and it currently doesn't work in Cuba or North Korea. Venezuela is actively rebelling against it.

So either accept the role and pay of an LPN, retire and do something else, or get the education commensurate with the paycheck you seek. Simple, even if not easy.

Example from my own life: my husband completed his MBA last year, but is still doing the same job at the same pay as when he only had his bachelor's in business. Should he rail at the unfairness of his employer? He was hired for a certain job and is expected to continue doing it regardless of other events. Also, regardless of his degree, the job he has is only worth so much and there's not a lot of room to pay him more. So his choices are to accept the limitations of his current job, or go out and find a different one that will require the MBA and pay him more.

[duskyjewel]

Simple, I can easily read books, and if you give insulin to a hypokalemic pt you would drive K back into the cells driving the pt into a serious hypokalemia. Wikipedia is not that difficult,

Oh dear sweet Jesus, save me from the day my nurse is looking stuff up on

Wikipedia in order to determine my care! Really? This one made my head spin.

[HappyWife77, BSN, RN]

Because you went to school for LPN...it took about half the time as an RN degree. Should QMAs or CMAs get paid as much as LPNs? They do almost the same as LPNs and only require 12 weeks of classes and a 1000 hours of CNA experience?

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Did you read the whole thread before you judge. NP's argue and state they should be paid equally with physicians, so why can't I Make a valid point as an LPN to be paid as much as an RN's since we do the same work except "yes you do nave more education, but so do physicians"with some limitations placed on us by governments. Please enlighten me on how you support one (NPs) but can find it reasonable to consider or support (LPNs) should be paid almost what RNs make . No one has yet to answer, but some have made valid points.

I don't think a NP should be paid what I doctor makes...they aren't a MD...unless they are practicing independently...but they still are NOT a MD.

You make your point and I think people are reading. It is clear you are frustrated and angry. But is still won't change the reality. You made the point that LPN's are cheaper and are therefore the better option then you said you believe they should be paid the same...you can't have it both ways.

[HappyWife77, BSN, RN]

While we're at it..why not pay nursing students what RNs make too....they are doing everything that the RNs are doing right?

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Sweetpoo does it again. Sorry, I cannot even get past the name to address this seriously.

[elkpark]

I've heard this same idea from many LPNs over the years -- we do the same thing the RNs do, how come we don't get paid the same, I can do anything an RN can do, what's the difference? I've also heard, from every RN I've ever known who started out as an LPN and returned to school, oh, wow, I never realized how big the difference was until I went back to school. As the old saying goes, you don't know what you don't know. Registered nursing is about a lot more than skills. A CNA and I can both give someone a bed bath. It would look a lot the same to someone observing, and the person would likely end up just as clean (although, I have to say, I give a heckuva complete bed bath :)), but my use of the experience for communication, observation, assessment and data gathering, and my synthesis and application of that data, is entirely different from that of the CNA.

Plus, as others have already noted, we live in a society in which you get paid not for how hard you work, but for how much education you have and how much you know. Maybe that's not "fair" (although I happen to think is), but it's the system we have. LPNs who really want to are welcome, at any age, to return to school to become RNs.

[HGTVrn33]

I really thought this person was trolling at first. But just give it a try, go back to school for your RN and come back and post in this thread and you will see why a LPN gets paid what they are paid. And you will definitely see why a RN is paid what they are paid.

Like someone said up thread you are for what you know not so much for what you do.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

I am planning on writing a letter to NFLPN on creating schools with more training to makes us more complete as nurses? ... We can't all afford to go back to get our associates with kids, family, and work balance.

There already are schools with more training to make you more complete as nurses. It's called RN school.

People sacrifice time and money to go to school and should be compensated for that. Not all of us have time to go to medical school. Should we all be compensated like MDs because we're smart and can read some books?

You want the money? Get the education and the license and the responsibility that go with it. It will take sacrificing some time and money. Just like those that have their RN license already sacrificed.

[sjbrk]

Oh dear sweet Jesus save me from the day my nurse is looking stuff up on Wikipedia in order to determine my care! Really? This one made my head spin.[/quote']

I snorted water out of my nose when I read that comment from OP. I thought I was the only one who noticed.

[elkpark]

I snorted water out of my nose when I read that comment from OP. I thought I was the only one who noticed.

(No, we all noticed ... :))