The Education needed to be a Licensed Practical Nurse

There is a Nursing license examination for Practical nurses to obtain their license. For you to take that exam, you must first undergo a practical nursing training program that will last for about a year. Some schools and colleges offer this vocational course to students who wish to become an LPN or a licensed practical nurse.

There are a lot of schools offering a practical nursing program, however you must be wise in choosing the right school for you. Remember that you are just going to study for a year and you shouldn’t be wasting that short period of time on an education that is not worth it. Try studying in schools that are known for their nursing education. It is important to find a reliable school that will give your future a head start as a practical nurse. Moreover, it will more likely assure you a passing grade on the nursing licensure examination for practical nursing and be a licensed practical nurse or LPN.

In a normal classroom setting of a practical nursing program, students are being prepared for clinical practice or the proper care for patients. This will cover the basics of care giving as well as science subjects such as medical-surgical nursing, physiology, anatomy, pediatrics, psychiatric nursing, nutrition, and a lot more. There are different approach to nursing because people’s needs vary that’s why practical nursing students are being taught the basics of each fields so that they will be prepared when they ge to be LPNs and go out to work in clinics and hospitals.

Licensed Practical Nurses as Educators

If you think a licensed practical nurse or LPN can only do a little in the fields of nursing, you might be wrong by that. Aside from having the capacity to take care of sick and injured people, they know more than the basics of nursing. They can be trusted when it comes to giving injections and massages to patients, doing laboratory test, preparing the right food nutrition for their patients, and assisting high ranking nurses and physicians.

Did you know that LPNs can also be educators? LPNs have the capacity to educate families about proper health habits, especially families of their patients so that there is continues progression on the patient’s condition. Moreover, they can educate not just the proper health habits but also some nursing task that would be beneficial for families.

For licensed practical nurses who work in the clinic, they can be assigned to make appointments, keep records and perform other clerical duties. Once you’ve become an expert licensed practical nurse, you can now administer certified nursing assistants on their duties.

In a nursing care facility, licensed practical nurses assigned in hospitals work around 40 hours per week. They do not work on a day shift basis all the time since some patients need to be taken care of 24-hours everyday; some licensed practical nurses have night shift schedules. Also, their holidays can also be taken over by work just so they the patients are fully supervised.

It is not a glamorous work; however the job is very self-fulfilling considering the fact that you’re helping a lot of people live and get by.

What a Licensed Practical Nurse Does

LPN or a licensed practical nurse can also be called LVN or a licensed vocational nurse. You can finish an LPN course in about a year, which means you get to earn immediately because you only study for a short period of time. If you think that Licensed practical nurses are not in demand in the society, there are many countries looking for LPNs to work at nursing homes and hospitals as well. Make sure to study in a school that will give you superb education about nursing so that even if you’ve studied for a short period of time, you are sure you’re getting the proper education needed to face the demands of society.

Licensed practical nurses not only know the basics of nursing but also does more technical work than just washing the patients, helping them walk, eat, and a lot more. They are reliable when it comes to giving injections and massages to the patients. Also, they can check the progression of the patients; vital signs, laboratory tests, and other improvements that they can note down. Their analysis counts.

However, a licensed practical nurse cannot take orders from doctors, only to those nurses who have a higher rank than them. Once a licensed practical nurse is considered an expert, he or she can now supervise nursing assistants.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report last May 2006, those licensed practical nurses who work abroad more or less earn a median annual salary of $31,080 to $46,640. That’s a big money for a short period of education.

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