When you actually take a look at the two types of Nurses you find many similarities and differences. There are many stereotypes placed on Nurses, like an LPN is not a real nurse, or an LPN is the “bottom feeder” in the care setting. The general public has been led to believe that there is a large difference between the RN and the LPN and the care they provide. There is little or no truth to this. I feel as though people have gotten the wrong information about nurses, and the jobs they do. Both The Registered Nurse (RN) and the Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) play vital role in the Medical Field and shouldn’t be looked down upon regardless of which title they achieve.
I will now go through the two types of Nurses starting with the Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN.) It takes 12-18 months of Vocational training to obtain the credentials to become an LPN. LPN’s do direct patient care, do assessments, admissions, IV’s, injections, medications and make clinical judgment’s to just state a few. LPN’s work in conjunction with RN’s in patient assessments and are conserved to be working “under the RN License.” They are responsible for seeing that the patient care plans formulated by the by the RN are put into action. LPN’s are task oriented and paperwork demanded and can be held legally if there are any discrepancies.
They are competent, capable and experienced in the acute and long term care setting. Now on the other hand the Registered Nurse degree takes two years for an Associate’s Degree and four years for the Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing (BSN) after completing prerequisite courses. They have the same role as the LPN but they have more skills; they are able to hang blood products, push IV’s, titrate drugs, hang Chemo, initial assessment , and they formulate the Nursing Diagnosis of the patient for their care, they establish care plans and the Nursing actions to provide care. They are the supervisory position and are assigned fewer patients than an LPN. The RN gets paid more than LPN.
The similarities between the two types are huge, both Nurses have to go through extensive training and schooling; both have to take Anatomy and Physiology, Biology, Psychology, Meds, Medical Terminology, Document/charting, patient care, Life Sciences, and Growth and Development. They both have the same Clinical Experiences in settings like Hospital, Nursing Home, Clinics for Psychiatric, and Labor and Delivery. They are both responsible for providing care safely and legally.
The differences in nurses can lead people to believe that one type is better than the other. From the education, training, abilities, and qualifications makes people stereotype them. An average salary for an LPN is 40,000 to 45,000 and that of an RN is 57,000 and can get to as high as 90,000 depending on where they work. Those differences in recent years have been to force LPN’s out of the hospital setting. The results have been many of the problems causing the lack of safety for patients in hospitals. These in turn led experienced and qualified Nurses to be unemployed/under employed or are forced to spend more time and money to continue their education.
Regardless of which type, all of the Nurses in this world do a lot of work for very little pay and sometimes no pay at all. Regardless of the title, they are under appreciated and the job of any Health Care Provider is no better than another and shouldn’t appear to be less than another. With all these stigma’s in nursing it has led Healthcare to drastically increase the cost of Medical care. With them “pushing LPN’s out of the Hospitals, it is not cost effective, they have been saying this for many years but they are still hiring them. There is no reason to pay an RN more when they both have much of the same job responsibilities.
