License Practical Nurses

Thinking about a career shift or earning from other job? Have you thought about nursing? You may think becoming a nurse takes years but with the shortage of nurses, there is a nursing course that only requires at most one year of study. After one year of studying you will become a License Practical Nurse (LPN) or called License Vocational Nurse (LPN) in same states. Online LPN courses are also available so you can study at your free time while you work though most potential employers would want LPNs to have more first hand training in hospitals and other health related facilities during their study period.

Why is a LPN course so short as compared to a Bachelors Degree in Nursing? Will you have the same opportunities as those of a registered nurse? Compared to registered nurses, licensed practical nurses role are limited. Usually in a hospital setting, you work under the supervision of registered nurses. LPNs other duties include observing patients and reporting any findings to doctors and registered nurses. They are also usually found in small clinics, work as a school nurse, or work freelance through home health agencies in caring for sick patients at home. Compared to registered nurses, pay is lower though with a minimum average of 31k a year.

The nice thing about being a licensed practical nurse is you can work part time. As the number of the older population grows, more and more LPNs will be greatly in demand at nursing homes as they can supervise nursing assistants and nursing aides. If an LPN decides to proceed in becoming a registered nurse, what they learned during the LPN course can be credited to their continuing education so it saves them time and money.

Becoming a Registered Nurse

There are more than one way to become a registered nurse (RN). One can either take a Diploma in Nursing course which is a degree usually awarded by hospital based schools or Associate of Science in Nursing which are usually awarded by community colleges or taking a four year nursing course to earn a Bachelors Degree in Nursing. If one has gone through any of those three nursing courses, one is eligible to take the NCLEX for RN.

NCLEX (National Council Licensure Examination) is an exam developed by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing in the United States to test the nursing skill of an examinee. Unless one passes this exam, one cannot obtain a license in order to work in the field of nursing. Questions asked during these exams are mainly topics regarding knowledge, analysis and application of nursing theories at entry level. Questions are usually in multiple choice but recently there are broad questions are asked that require more detailed answers.

If one passes the NCLEX and becomes a registered nurse, it doesn’t end there. One can go on to take advance courses for nursing specialization. Some of the fields in nursing specialization includes surgical nursing, forensic nursing or a nursing educator to name a few. The basic salary for registered nurses average around 30k to 50k a year but nurses who have specialization can receive up to 75k to 100k a year. Currently with the shortage of nurses, it isn’t really difficult to find a job in the nursing field.

The NCLEX RN Examination Study Guide

The National Council Licensure Examination-Registered Nurse licensing examination is a Computer Adaptive Test that runs from 75 to 265 individual items, relaying on an individual’s performance on the exam. Following graduation from your respective nursing programs, triumphant conclusion of this test is a nurse’s doorway to his/her professional career as a nurse. The outline for this examination is revised and revisited every 3 years by the NSCBN depending on the results of a job scrutiny study of fresh graduate nurses rendering the practice of nursing within the initial 6 months following commencement. Every item on the exam is itemized as “Client Need Category” and an “Integrated Process”.

Client Need Categories
There will be four categories for client needs, and every test is going enclose a lowest and a highest questions available from each category.

• Effective Care Environment and Safety
1. Management of Care
2. Infection Control and safety
• Health Maintenance and Promotion
• Psychosocial Integrity
• Physiological Integrity
1. Comfort and Basic care
2. Parenteral and Pharmacological Therapies
3. Risk Potential reduction
4. Physiological Adaptation

Integrated Processes
The integrated processes acknowledged on the NCLEX for RNs exam plan are the following:

• Nursing process: a systematic problem-solving method utilized in the practice of nursing ;
Composed of the steps of the nursing process which are assessing, analyzing, planning, implementing, and evaluating
• Caring: nurse-client relations characterized by shared value and confidence and that are bound on the way to the achievement of preferred results.
• Documentation and communication: nonverbal and/or verbal contacts between nurse and the patient including family members and members of the health care team; a written or electronic documentation of actions or events that happen while the client is under the nurse’s care
• Teaching and Learning: helping the client gain knowledge, attitudes, and capabilities that direct to behavior modification.

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