Well, I guess I'll get it started.....

[rouqie]

I am an LPN working towards my Associates degree in nursing and also starting my BSN. I have done the intership in the hospital and in long term care facilities. I have learned in my experience that it's not that all nurses look down on LPN's or ADN's. It's based on a person's personal feelings. I have been treated great and wonderful by all types of nurses and I have been treated bad by all types. I think that if an LPN can sit down and pass RN boards than let them take it. I would also like to read the article mentioned above

[Pat]

The answer is a nursing delivery system that we used in the late 70s and early 80s, it's called team nursing. Primary nursing is likely the dumbest, and greatest failure in the history of nursing. Here it is more then 20 years later, people still have trouble identifying the problem. But not the schools, they still train and produce nurses at various levels with a concept that RNs, LPNS, and CNAs or techs, work together to provide for the needs of the patient. I could write a doctoral thesis on this subject, but I'll leave it at that for now. Good for you guys, work together, let each nurse work their strengths. Maybe you can convince the powers that be you'd like to work as a team. You'll have more patients, but what you do for the patient will be more focused!

[medi]

I once worked as a charge nurse in a cardiovascular ICU unit and had the priviledge of working patient care alongside an LPN with 18 years experience in ICU. I'd been recruited by the unit's director from being a charge nurse in NICU and at the time had had no experience with adult patients since nursing school.

To my credit I'm happy to say that I had the good sense to transition into the unit with a watch, listen, and learn attitude and remain grateful to this day for that LPN's experience, knowledge, and willingness to share with me from her wealth of knowledge. At that time it was primary care nursing and the state where I was working then allowed LPN's to work in critical care. The LPN was actually allowed to do most of her own patient care with me only serving to "supervise" as needed, to hang blood etc...

Unfortunately I was still there when the state nursing board changed the rules and stopped allowing LPN's to work in critical care areas at all. What a waste! But- I disgress. Here are some things I learned about LPN's that I believe are worth passing along:

An experienced LPN is the backbone of your nursing team. Compare an LPN to a sergeant in the military- the sergeant is the glue that holds the force together and sees to it that the mission gets accomplished according to orders.

The experienced LPN, like that military sergeant, has a thing or two to teach new RN's (like new 2nd Lts), and a wise RN listens, respects, learns, and treats the LPN's with great respect and dignity- while keeping perspective of the differences in scope of practice, duty, responsibility and accountability of each other's position.

Heed the advise of your LPN when you are lucky enough to have experienced LPNs, value and respect them, treat them well, but always do YOUR job as an RN to the best of your ability and bear in mind your responsibility to your LPN's as well- the responsibility to assign them fair patient loads, to provide them adequate supportive staff (CNA's etc), to DO your job of making patient care plans, assessing each patient, taking responsibility for all patients under their care, and seeing that things flow smoothly for all.

The RN role is comparable to the officer's role in the military- to ensure safe care of patients, to organize and direct staffing, work flow, procedures, to interact with physicians and manage aspects of patient care and organizational operation, while your LPN's role is to be your eyes, ears, hands, and advisor in regards to patient status, changes, areas where help is needed etc...

Experienced LPN's are treasures. They are paraprofessionals and a play a vital role in the health delivery team. They are not RN's however and their role and scope of duties should not be confused with that of RN's.

In respecting each other's roles and valuing and respecting the function each plays in accomplishing the mission everyone wins.

[All41]

Well Stated Medi! I hope LPNs and LVNs read your post and know that there are plenty of RNs who respect them and their knowledge base. I have worked with LPNs who I would rather care for me than some RN's. Again, well stated!

[Anonymous]

I agree with you. But I have had other nurses say to me even before I have opened my mouth.. So you are an RN. I suppose you have a BSN. Now that is biased from the get go. They know absolutely nothing about me. They are eating the old if you would.. I just have heard that phrase ad nauseaum and am tired of it..I believe it is fostered in nursing school.. I heard it in 1979 in Sanford NC in LPN school, I heard it in an ADN program in Maine and I heard it in my BSN program in Maine again..I remember students asking in class what does that mean "eating the young" and it was explained to us that older nurses weren't nice to new grads.. This explaination was given to us by our professors.

I believe it's trite, unnecessary, and biased.

IMHO..

WR,,, three commas for Becca

[NurseFocker]

I am currently a student in a BSN program at the University of Central Florida; I am also a CNA. I believe that every part of the medical team is important and that everyone has their place. Whether their education is 16 wks, 2 years, 4 years, or 8 years; each person is a valuable asset to the medical team.
The program that I am in is a community based nursing program. Our directors have even told us that right out of school, the 2-year nurse will have more beside training than we will, yet in 6 months, our experience will catch up to those 2-year nurses. Most of the nurses I work with are either 2-year nurses, or certificate nurses (from back in the day) and those certificate nurses are absolutely genius and I would never think them anything less that a Registered Nurse.
Designations are not important… A nurse is a nurse and we are here to provide care for our clients no matter what our education level. The few differences that I have even noticed are that the BS degreed nurses are trained to be unit managers and are prepared to continue on to practitioner school here in Fl. A 2-year nurse must get the BS before they can go to those areas. Our education is based on a lot of the theory and, at least here, the AS programs are not. Other than that and a tiny little pay difference right out of school, there is really no big difference. I am happy to work with all personel, CNAs, LPNs, RNs, even MDs, all serve a crucial role in the medical practice!!

[dannwoods]

Kudos for you Medi!!!...I also wish this nonsense of who's a real nurse would go away...I am 49 years old and will be starting my LVN program this Fall. This is a second career for me and I'm looking forward to it. I have raised my family by being in the corporate world. Now, that they are adults and I have been downsized I decided to follow my dreams by becoming a nurse. By the way people an ill patient does not look at a name tag to see who has rank! What they want and deserve is to be taken care of by a nurse in their scope of practice. I will be proud to become an LVN in 2005.

[CrystalC]

I feel angry about this too, but what really surprises me is the way LPN are treated in the Northern States versus the Southern States. My husband is in the military and we move around alot. I'm 25 and I'm from Alabama I have been an LPN for 5 years. I currently live in Maryland and upon arriving here I was shocked at how alot of hospitals do not hire LPNs to me it is a slap in the face because in SOuth Carolina I worked at a hospital in the ER non the less and started IV's, assisted with suturing, and anything else that was thrown at me and I came up here and can't even get a job in Med Surg because as I was told "We don't hire LPNs" So I currently work in Nursing homes on Sub acute units which is about the closest thing to a hospital I can get without driving 50 miles. The hospitals that do hire LPN's only want to pay a fraction of what the Nursing homes pay for doing twice the amount of work. There are only 2 or 3 hospitals that I know of in the Baltimore area that hire LPN's at all and it's usually on units similar to the nursing home. Whereas in Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia they have LPN's in the ER, Oncology, Med-Surg etc. It almost makes you feel like people think we don't know what we are doing. I know that not all LPN's know how to start IV's, flush lines, assist with various procedures etc. but that should be discussed during the interview process. I think it is ignorant for a facility to simply say "We don't hire LPNs" This especially angers me knowing that I have taught many RN's the correct way to do alot of the things mentioned before and other various things on the floor that is not experienced in the classroom or clinical setting. Because as we all know it is a different world when you get out there. I'm currently in school for my ADN and I vow that I too will never shun anyone for what letters they have behind their name. Because you never know just how much experience they have under their belt. The things I have mentioned are my opinion only and I know everyone has different opinions on this matter but this is mine.

CrystalC

[JeannieTaylor]

Hi Crystal:
It is a strange world isn't it? I was so anxious last year to get going on a track to Nursing that I was considering going for an LPN instead of an ADN (and then continue to an ADN in my spare time while I was doing LPN work). However, I kept noticing that the Hospitals in this state didn't seem to have LPN's and virtually the only place in my town to get hired at about $10 an hour (just not a living wage) was the hospice care facility that had more LPN's than it would ever need. Now, I know some of this has to do with the laws of the state you are in but listen to the other side of the story.
I was emailing some longtime friends in NY (where I grew up) and found out several were back in school to become LPN's. I asked them why they weren't going to become RN's and they told me it was because they could get $20 to $30 an hour as an LPN in NY because the hospitals there are using LPN's in place of RN's to save money and fill the nursing shortage gap. My friends will be out of school and in a job that pays the same as my more expensive degree a year earlier than me. I guess the laws are different in NY and I'm happy NY is smart enough to do this but it makes me worrisome for my ADN degree in the future. After having spent all this extra time, money and schooling, will I only get the same money as an LPN in 5 or 10 years if more states go the way NY is? Doesn't make me happy at all

[Carla]

i am an LPN and have been for over 30 years--i am currently in school for RN associates--i have a unit manager job in a convalescent home at present which is threatened by laws in CT that are being enforced about a LPN being unable to assess a pt--i feel a bit angry...it seems someone who doesnt even know me is saying after all these years i dont know what i'm doing--i have worked hard to get the experience and to be where i am--but i do understand that is the RULE--one must be an RN to assess and make major decisions--i am older and its late in the game for me but i am glad for this opportunity to get my RN