Before LPN Work Come LPN Qualification

LPN work is interesting and varied, but before getting ahead of ourselves we need to consider how someone who is interested in LPN work actually goes about becoming an LPN, so there is work to be had.  Obviously before becoming an LPN you need to undertake the necessary training course so that you can be in a position to take the examination that is set by your State Board Of Nursing as a requirement for you to pass before granting you your qualification.

In order to become an LPN you first need to be able get onto, or enrol on an LPN training program.  In order to do this the pre-qualification criteria is simply to be able to prove that you have a high school diploma.  Indeed, the LPN schools these days have even prepared courses that can be started in high  school if you are already know at that stage that you are interested in the practical nursing qualification.

If you are happy that you have the necessary qualifications to undertake the training course, the next step of course, is to select the appropriate LPN school and LPN program to take.  Here you are in fact quite fortunate.  In days gone past, the days before the proliferation of the internet, it was expected that you would attend your classes in person and this meant that you were pretty much restricted to taking the LPN program at the local LPN school whether you considered it the best course or not.

Nowadays, there are many online LPN programs that are available for you to select from and  this has meant that you are much freer to take the best course for you.  For instance, although LPN work may be your objective, it is quite likely that until you fully qualify you will need to hold down a job, to pay for living expenses and even the cost of the course.  This is much easier to do if you are able to study when it suits you, in the morning  or the evening, or whenever is most convenient.

The typical LPN program lasts a year, or maybe 18 months at most and includes practical and classroom study.  At the end of this period you need to sit and pass the NCLEX-PN examination after which your State Board of Nursing will award you the status of licensed practical nurse, and you can then start the process of securing that LPN work that you wanted from the beginning.

LPN Work Description

These days the sort of LPN work undertaken in healthcare environments varies quite widely.  There are a significant number of interesting and engaging activities many of which involve direct patient care and require good skills and experience.  Although LPN work is typically supervised by Registered Nurses (RN’s) in the same team, or occasionally under the supervision of a physician, this does not detract from the fufilling nature of the work.

LPN work in quite a variety of settings.  These have expanded as the nature and scale of healthcare provision have evolved away from large centralized treatment centres towards more local, but necessarily smaller community healthcare provision.  However, the typical place of LPN work would include something of the following; hospitals, long term elderly care facilities; local outpatient clinics; community healthcare centres, nursing homes, doctors surgeries and increasingly these days it would also include home care.

The proliferation of work in local centers has meant that the number and density of LPN work in hospitals is actually in decline despite the fact that demand for LPN work is increasing across the country.  This should come as no surprise and is certainly not something to be concerned about if you are a qualified LPN and seeking work at the moment.  Prospects remain strong and are forecast to continue to increase for at least the next 10 years.  This is supported by a study by the Department Of Labor Statistics carried out in 2006 which suggested just that.

But what does LPN work actually involve?  Well, the list is almost certainly too long to include in a single article, however, as an indication LPN work duties might include one, several or all of the following;

• The taking of patients vital signs.
• Monitoring the condition of infirm patients, documenting and reporting any changes.
• The treatment of conditions associated with palliative care, such as bedsores.
• The collection of urine samples, and potentially other samples such as stool samples and blood samples.
• The cleaning of wounds and the application of wound dressings and bandages.
• Administering injections, and assisting with enemas.
• Feeding patients who struggle to feed themselves.
• The provision of personal care, including activities such as getting dressed, through to assisting patients with personal hygiene matters.

This list could be extended significantly further, but it is possible to get a real feel for the role from the descriptions above.  LPN work can be really fulfilling for many people and as the route into the profession is relatively simple and accessible it is definitely a career choice worthy of serious consideration.

LPN Work And It’s Impact On Modern Healthcare Teams

One of the issues facing healthcare industry today really relates to the lack of nursing staff available. It’s possible that this problem can be solved by using licensed practical nurse, LPN, or LVN in California and Texas, in place of the registered nurse in many areas, undertaking many responsibilities, that would otherwise have to be carried out by that nurse.  Under the conditions set down by the State Board of Nursing in each state LPN work must be supervised by the registered nurse or a physician. This means that the LPN has to form part of a wider team cannot generally work in isolation. This is fortunate because it means that the activities undertaken by an individual LPN can in effect reduce the workload that would otherwise have to be undertaken by the registered nurse supervising that person.

The sort of LPN work undertaken includes relatively straightforward but often time-consuming activities. Some good examples of LPN work might include:

• Enquiring of patients their medical history and the documenting of that history in a comprehensive manner.
• Undertaking a physical examination of a new patient.
• Cleaning and dressing wounds and burns.
• Assisting with the administration of a medicine regime
• Undertaking straightforward inoculations and injections.
• Assisting patients with personal care and personal hygiene, especially if they are elderly or infirm.

Hopefully you can already see from this relatively short list that the sort of LPN work carried out will almost inevitably save the registered nurse or registered nurses in their particular health care team a great deal of time. This will allow those nurses to undertake activities which require a greater degree of skill, experience and training. This will almost certainly by definition improve the outcomes for patient care in healthcare environment.

Perhaps the underlying problem though, is the question of whether the pool of candidates who trained to become LPN’s are similar or overlap significantly with the pool of candidates who might otherwise traits become a registered nurse. Clearly, you will be able to see that if there is a significant overlap then the problem of lack of availability of registered nurses is not necessarily solved by providing for a greater amount of LPN work.  fortunately, studies in this area that have been undertaken in the last few years that the overlap between the pool of people who consider training to become an LPN in the pool of people who want to become a registered nurse is not that significant. This should mean that any nurse staffing shortages can indeed be addressed by the introduction of LPN’s into healthcare teams.