Real Nurse!! I hate that, I have the same patients that a RN has and do the same type of care. Yes, I do plan on getting my RN because I want to be a NP, but I am in no way ashamed of being a LPN. I was the DON at 2 ALFs, and I did come across the stigmata of being only a LPN, but I earned the respect from the residents families and co-workers. Just don't let the "I'm only a LPN" become your thinking, we are all nurses for the same cause.

Thanks for all of your postings. I agree - in every profession has these sorts of divisions, and you should definitely take pride in being an LPN/LVN, or a CNA for that matter. If you enjoy your job and you feel that you are making a difference in people's lives, you are better off than most people. Do you think that many lawyers or investment bankers could say that? I think not.

Do many of you feel that RNs don't respect you? If so, please provide some examples. Hopefully some RNs will chime in on the conversation too.

i work with RNs who do little and get less patients because they MAY be needed to do an IV push which is basically the only difference between what an LPN and RN can do. Atitudes? well they carry them around but it does not bother me because at the end of the day if my patients are happy, well taken care of then my work is done. It is sad that this is a common occurence in many work places considering the nurse shortage in the country.

I am a college student and a cna. I am also a parent .I want to be an RN one day,but find that I can deal with the prospect of school if I take it one step at a time,however I cannot get a teacher to tell me what I need to do to get to LPN. I think they just want my cash!! So if anyone has any brilliant ideas I will lve you for real. P.S. I love my LPN friends.

Great point Ejkats that certainly does seem to be the cause, at least in the U.S anyway. From what I hear it is hard to find Nurse Educators thereby causing nursing schools to have to deny admission to otherwise qualified applicants. Does anyone have any ideas about how nursing schools in the US could attract more faculty members to train LVNs and RNs?

lilmommarowl said:

I am a college student and a cna. I am also a parent .I want to be an RN one day,but find that I can deal with the prospect of school if I take it one step at a time,however I cannot get a teacher to tell me what I need to do to get to LPN. I think they just want my cash!! So if anyone has any brilliant ideas I will lve you for real. P.S. I love my LPN friends.

I agree with taking the most recent grade of a prior failed course. I don't agree, however, with colleges lowering their gpa requirement if they do not count the failures. We need to hold those who come into our profession to the standards that we were required to meet. Not less.

So there you have it. If the requirements should be held at the almost standards. then you will always have a nursing shortage. Nurses are expected to be almost genious before and during and in entering the work force. Not everyone fit this criteria. what ever happened to just practical nursing. There should not be a split in this tyrpe of nursing. When you have this type of split between the LPN and RN, then you will always have a nursing shortage, because practical nursing is phasing out, because of critical care nursing.

JonZ said:

Do you think that practical nursing is still phasing out? It was my understanding that it might be coming back because of the shortage? Has anyone heard something similar?

I don't think lowering the standards is the key.

If anything, standards should be maintained if not raised for certain degrees. I heard that there was talk of making the NP on the same level as a PhD.

If anything, I think the nursing shortage may be related to a lack or respect for the profession. Lowering standard won't help with that.

I think there are more reasons than just not getting into nursing school that keeps us in a nursing shortage.
I know some nurses who made it through just fine , but I am scratching my head in wonderment as to HOW they passed!

A lot of people I talk to say that they just couldn't do what we do for several reasons: " I would get too attached to my patients" , "I couldn't handle the blood", etc., so I think there are more reasons than just not getting into the school.

Also, there is an enormous responsibility on nurses, LVN and RN alike. The liability is insane. Nurses who are worth their salt take their jobs seriously, and sometimes the liability is a very scary thing.

We have several nursing schools in the area, but still we have a nursing shortage. Why? IMHO, some people can handle it, and some people find out that nursing is not their calling, and some people just can't hack it.

Face it, this is a very special profession, one that not everyone can do. We certainly don't face a doctor shortage.Their schools are tougher than nursing schools, and even if some of them may be sorry, they still had to make the grade.

I've been a LPN for a couple decades. I've worked Acute care and LTC. I've worn many hats, Medical Care manager, Assitant DON, Infection Control, Staff Dev... I've recently gone back to school to become an RN. I've been told more times than I can count I should be an RN, Lpns aren't real nurses, your only an LPN, get me a real nurse and more. I'm only in my first week on the 3rd semester of the Rn program and wow. To be certified to do IVs as an LPN, I took a class that was 40 hours of all kinds of information. In the RN program, now these are people, the other students, that have never touched, seen or played with IVs... The IV class was less than 4 hours. I can't believe I'm able to do IV pushes now after watching an instructor do one push, in less than 5 minutes. I've probably watched thousands of RN do pushes in the past, just amazing. I know I have to play the game. I'm so close...2 semesters and then I can wear the initials.

I am a 51 year old 2nd Career LPN, My first carreer was as a home builder for 27 years. I have wanted to be a nurse since I was 20 years old, and by golly-gum I am a nurse. I work in a LTC staffed with mostly LPN's and the Rn's who work along side us can't see any difference between their jobs and ours. I work with the greatest bunch of nurses a new nurse could ever get lucky enough to find. We all share our knoledge and skills with one and another, We all cry the same tears when one of our "FAMILY" moves on. Do I ever want the Rn. Nah.. not really. I like the hands on type of care I am able to give now, you know. The relationship you get to build with your residents and their families.
The only thing I can say that I find hard getting used to working with LPN's and Rn's alike......all the baby showers. Tho they are kind of fun. Don't quote me on that. I will denie it, might effect my macho malenurse image "ARGH, ARGH,ARGH"(quote provided by the Tool Man Tim Allen)

Okay right there, fele, I agree with you on that one. Most of us weren't mature enough at 25, well anyway I wasn't. Isn't there some research that says the frontal lobe of the brain isn't developed enough before 25, and isn't that where impulse control resides.

I was a LPN for quite awhile. I always worked where I was either the only LPN or part of the first group of LPNs hired. I worked tele and ER mainly with some stints in spinal cord injury and rehab. At my last job as a LPN, on a very demanding Surgical Tele/Renal transplant floor, I often got "you are just as good as a nurse!" I then reminded them that the "N" in LPN stood for NURSE!
I am now a RN on a tele/burn unit and it has been an adjustment. I am the one hanging all of the gtts and making suggestions to the doctors now. The CNAs all like me because I am not afraid to do the "dirty work" and won't push them around because I know what it is like. And that is my point, there will always people that feel that they have to put down others to make themselves better, we just have to make sure we are not them. All of the LPNs that become RNs must remember what it was like to be a LPN.