What is LPN? Licensed Practical Nursing, a.k.a LPN, is a nursing profession that is common in the United States and Canada. It refers to a nurse who takes care of patients – who are sick, disabled, or injured. They provide nursing care as well as take the responsibility to comfort the patients.
Long Term Care Nursing
The primary focus of long-term nursing professionals includes the responsibility of providing extended patient healthcare support. LPN Jobs is a nursing profession where a nurse has to take up the complete responsibility of a patient or the injured person.
This includes people/patient who is affected with severe injuries and this covers a broad range of scenarios including:
Taking up this profession, you will often take care of the same patients for several months or years together. At times, you would often end up having a comfortable relationship with that patient. However, patients who are in need of long-term nursing care often pass away while they are under your care.
If you’re planning to take up this as your career, you must have complete dedication and compassionate at your heart, and at the same time, you must be emotionally mature to handle the death of that person.
How LPN Professional Differs from an RN?
Licensed Practical Nurse and Registered Nurse are entirely two different professions. Following are some of the aspects that provides a clear difference between an LPN and an RN:
Job Role – An LPN provides basic medical care and nursing which includes blood pressure monitoring, sugar check-up, inserting catheters for disabled, ensuring the comfort of both the patients as well as people with disability by helping them to take bath, dress up, and much more. Whereas, an RN administers medication as well as treatment to the patients, maintains and coordinates plans for the patients, perform necessary diagnostic tests, provides proper instructions to the patients, helps them to manage their illness post-treatment, and much more.
Education – To become a qualified LPN, one must have completed a practical nursing program from an accredited university or a college. These LPN courses are often available in the community or technical colleges. The course includes topics related to nursing, pharmacology, biology, and supervised clinical experiences. In case of an RN, there are 3 educational options which include BSN, ADN, or a diploma from a nursing program (approved). All 3 courses include physical science, social, behavior, and clinical experiences.
Licensing/Certification – You will be receiving a certification in Practical Nursing once you’re done with your practical nursing course (which you will be completing from a state-approved program). Once you’re done with this, you should take up with the NCLEX-PN to obtain your licensing and to work as a certified LPN. In case of an RN, all nurses must get their nursing license by completing NCLEX-RN from an accredited program. Though few RNs opt to become certified with the help of professional associations, it is important to get their certifications.
Pay– The annual salary for an LPN professional is comparatively less to an RN professional. For an LPN professional, the median annual salary is $44,090, whereas, for an RN professional is $68, 450.
Career – In case of LPN professionals, most of the professionals after gaining experience they advance in their career to supervisory positions. On getting additional educational qualifications, one can also advance into other specialities say a Registered Nurse. Whereas, most of the RNs begin their career as staff nurses. Once they have gained enough experience and with additional educational qualifications, they mostly move to management positions. They either take up the position of a chief nurse or any other higher posts. They can also move into another side of the health care.
Procedure to Become an LPN Professional
There is a growing need for LPN professionals in the United States as well as in Canada. The number of seats or vacancies for LPN is expected to grow drastically over the next few years. Taking up this as your profession, you will become the part of this growing industry and this as your career – you will be safe and steady with your profession.
If you’re planning to take this as your profession, you must complete one of the below-listed certification programs. This includes programs such as:
Now with growing job opportunities, becoming an LPN professional could be a better career option. In some cases, LPN professionals have opportunities to advance in their career – one can also become credentialed/specialized in a certain area. This includes IV-therapy, pharmacology, and gerontology. Thus,choosing LPN as a profession could be a wise decision as the job opportunities are increasing drastically year-by-year.
Lacy Ryan
A Doctor of Public Health, Lacy Ryan has accrued more than ten years of experience, making a name for herself as a researcher, writer, policy analyst, and project manager specializing in public health and international development.She earned her PhD in Community and Behavioural Health at the Colorado School of Public Health, her Master’s Degree in Global Health and Public Policy at the University of Edinburgh, and her Bachelor’s Degree with Honours in Biomedical Sciences (with minours in Biology and Psychology) at the University of Waterloo.
