What are the differences between a Registered Nurse, Vocational Nurse and a Liscenced Practical Nurse?

I know...what a mouthful. I'm really interested in knowing. Are there any nurses on Askville?

I'm considering one of these as my double-major, but I'm not sure what the real differences are. IYO, How is the work environment of each of these different? Demand of the occupation?

Salary (not important but good to know)? Schooling? Shift hours?

Benefits? Etc etc?Thanks in advance! Asked by Phez 43 months ago Similar questions: differences Registered Nurse Vocational Liscenced Practical Health.

Similar questions: differences Registered Nurse Vocational Liscenced Practical.

Training curriculums and licensure. Additionally, the scope of practice is different, as in the things you are allowed to do to a patient. LVNs and LPNs are roughly equivilent.

RNs are above them, having more training, experience, education, allowed skills and responsibility. The hierarchy is Nurse Practitioner Registered Nurse LPN Nursing assistant/aide Sources: bls.gov/oco/ocos102.htm .

Nurses Well, I used to be a nurse, so I can probably answer your question. First, a vocational nurse is licensed just like a practical nurse. They’re essentially the same thing, it’s just that some states have LVNs and some have LPNs.

A nurse is licensed by the state, so nurses in Texas and California (if I remember correctly), are LVNs, while other states have LPNs. They get the same education, though. Schooling for an LPN/LVN takes 1½ to 2 years (or more, depending on whether the future nurse is in school full time or not) and is usually done at a community/technical college.

LPNs tend to work as unit nurses at nursing homes (dispensing meds, giving treatments & injections, managing the nursing assistants, helping with activities of daily living, recording vitals, etc. ), or physician clinics (checking vitals, taking a patient’s history before he’s seen by the doctor, giving injections, etc. ), or as home health nurses... LPNs don’t have as much of a role in hospitals as RNs (at least around my area). LPNs often work under the supervision of an RN or a physician; in the nursing home where I worked, LPNs ran the floors, and there was usually one or two RNs on every shift to act as charge nurse for the whole facility. A registered nurse can have an Associate’s degree or a Bachelor’s degree, although some places of employment might reserve charge/head nurse positions or other higher-level RN positions for 4-year nurses.

(There are nurses with Master’s degrees, also, but at least around here, they tend to continue on to some kind of advanced practice nursing. There are also diploma nurses, but these programs have kind of died out. ) RNs often take jobs in hospitals, working in the ER, OR, medical/surgical units, etc. They can also get jobs supervising LPNs and Nursing Assistants in nursing homes or in home health, or work in public health... As you can see, there’s a lot of leeway.

I used to go to a particular doctor’s office that never hired LPNs, there were always RNs there. The one I go to now doesn’t have any RNs. Some nursing homes hire RNs to work the units and take a more active role in resident care, while others (like the one where I worked) give RNs administrative duties.

If you’re considering nursing as a career, you may want to consider going into an RN program. They do tend to be paid more, have a little more flexibility as to where to work, and if you get a 2-year degree, you’d have the option of going into a 4-year completion program (sometimes called an RN-to-BSN program, this is where a 2-year RN goes back to school to make up the difference and get a bachelor’s) after you’ve already become registered and started work. As far as pay, I couldn’t even begin to guess.

RNs generally make more than LPNs (sometimes considerably more, sometimes not), but the wages are different depending on the duties and the facility. I’d recommend going to a job search website, and search for "RN" and "LPN" to see what the jobs are in your area and how much they pay. If searching for a job doesn’t give you enough salary information, try this one, which gives the average salary for a particular job at a particular location..

2 The only benefit of having a BSN is it will make you more eligible for management positions, and you have to have a bachelors in order to go to a masters level degree.

The only benefit of having a BSN is it will make you more eligible for management positions, and you have to have a bachelors in order to go to a masters level degree.

3 Schelli's right. Different facilities might have different qualifications for what "management" is, but you'll learn the same technical skills either way. The additional classes are in things like management and nursing theory.

I'm a firm believer in getting the ASN first, and the going on to get your BSN while you're working as a nurse through an RN-to-BSN program. If you go straight through and get your BSN all at once, you'll probably start out with a company in the same sort of job an ASN has, but you'll be eligible for promotions that the ASNs won't. The really high level nursing positions (like "Director of Nursing") usually require a Master's with a Nurse Administrator concentration, but in a hospital, for instance, a BSN would be eligible to be a head nurse or a nursing supervisor.

These jobs pay more, but the drawback is that you'd do more administration and less direct care. I don't want to give you the impression that you can't find work as an LPN (or LVN), though. If your area is anything like mine, there's no shortage of job openings...you'll probably just work in a position that's supervised by an RN and won't make quite as much.In my area, LPNs tend to work in nursing homes and doctors' offices, while RNs tend to work in hospitals.

Schelli's right. Different facilities might have different qualifications for what "management" is, but you'll learn the same technical skills either way. The additional classes are in things like management and nursing theory.

I'm a firm believer in getting the ASN first, and the going on to get your BSN while you're working as a nurse through an RN-to-BSN program. If you go straight through and get your BSN all at once, you'll probably start out with a company in the same sort of job an ASN has, but you'll be eligible for promotions that the ASNs won't. The really high level nursing positions (like "Director of Nursing") usually require a Master's with a Nurse Administrator concentration, but in a hospital, for instance, a BSN would be eligible to be a head nurse or a nursing supervisor.

These jobs pay more, but the drawback is that you'd do more administration and less direct care. I don't want to give you the impression that you can't find work as an LPN (or LVN), though. If your area is anything like mine, there's no shortage of job openings...you'll probably just work in a position that's supervised by an RN and won't make quite as much.In my area, LPNs tend to work in nursing homes and doctors' offices, while RNs tend to work in hospitals.

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I'm a registered nurse whose contemplating getting my own malpractice insurance. I'm looking for opinions. Should i?

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