Do you believe you can be replaced with the current regulations for the use of UNLICENSED Personnel?

LPN's, Please visit our site and take our survey! We would appreciate hearing form you. http://www.ctnursereform.org

On-Line Petition http://www.petitiononline.com/lps2t/petition.html

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Lisa Morell, LPN, RAI-C
http://www.ctnursereform.org

I agree 100% I graduated in1982, and have had too many jobs to count that I have had to teach an RN how to draw blood, Cath, or even to suction.Lets get REAL! Why can't the "Old School" LPN's have the opprotunity to be "Grandfathered" in if we are gualified. Test us, challenge us, make us show them what we're made of . It certainly is'nt the product they are putting out these days.JUST GIVE US THE CHANCE WE ALL DESERVE. For real not just for us but for the sake of the sick and dying.   HELP. BLESSED SAVIOR<open the eyes of the GOOFY!!!

I agree I also can run circles around RNs even the ones that have been doing it for a while. I have been in this feild for 15 years 6 as an aide the rest as an LPN. I feel that I could take and pass the rn boards without taking rn courses. one day the state of nj will allow it.

Danielle,LPN

No, LPN's will not be replaced by unlicensed personel but our areas of practice are shrinking.  CMA"s are an attractive alternative to LPN's in a physician's office.  You will see 1 licenced nurse and a bunch of Certified Medical Assistants, wearing a name tag without a job title.  The patients coming into the office THINK they are nurses assisting the MD and them.  Been there, done that, scared me half out of my wits.  They are not trained to recognize an emergency situation or how to handle said situation.  I felt compelled to remove myself from that situation.  Hospitals have limited areas that an LPN can practice nursing, some have no areas at all.  If you are not a Real Nurse (RN), you are out of the hospital setting or you are in a clinic area.  Even after 27 yrs of nursing practice, I still get a bitter taste in my mouth when I hear LPN's degraded by RN's with the phrase "Let's Pretend Nurse".   An LPN is not recognized as a nurse, the RN is the professional nurse.  In order to join South Carolina Nurse Association, as LPNs we have to register under "other", though you pay the same dues as the "Professional Nurse".   You will find the majority of LPNs working in LTC.  It is a difficult, fast paced, underpaid, overworked area of nursing practice, unattractive to RNs.  Criticized and looked down on, like geriatic nursing is as low as any nurse can get on the ladder of hierarchy.

I will retire from nursing in 7 yrs.  I came into this profession with such hope and promise.  My dreams were never realized, life can hand us some great hardships, but the hope has never died.  The hope that there would be enough of us lowly LPNs to fight for and attain the recognition we deserve.  We are working professionals.  No, we don't have a degree but how many RNs do you have to teach to be a nurse before you are recognized as a NURSE.  It used to be that PN graduates could go into a hospital setting after graduation and actually apply the knowledge in their heads and learn how to nurse.  What I am seeing is a too many young women with the knowledge that is not utilized by working at least a year in acute care and they are forgetting so much without that practical application.  Can you sense the frustration?

We deserve better than we get.  But how do we go about teaching that to others? 

I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU. I HAVE BEEN A NURSE FOR 13 YEARS AND I CAN WORK CIRCLES AROUND A LOT OF THE RN'S OF TODAY FAR AS PT CARE. THEY ARE NOT TAUGHT PT CARE LIKE WE WERE. THEY ARE TAUGHT ADMIN CARE. I THINK THAT WE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO CHALLENGE THE BOARDS OR CHALLENGE A TEST OF SOME SORTS. WE COULD PASS IT!!!!

Now if we could only get the powers that be (the decision makers) to read these posts!

I work with the developmentally disabled in a ICF residential setting and have for 17 yrs, I've been an LPN for 20 yrs. I am also a member of and certified by the Deveolpmental Disabilities Nurses Association. This is one of the few, if not the only nursing organization that certifies LPNs. I am the only LPN in NC with this certification.

And, here in NC I have been told by our BON that NC does not deem it acceptable for a LPN to orient a RN. Shucks, in my job, I have, over the years oriented about 8 of my supervisors.

What's wrong with this picture?

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Developmental Disabilities Certified

the hospital i work in is doing the same thing with the Magna care award.  this hospital that i work in last year told the LPN that they would have to float(some where on the same floor for 30yrs) and now the rumor is that we will be out in Jan.  They want to be a RN only hospital.  They are only worried about prestiage and awards...not the patient care.  I take care of mostly elderly people on the unit i work on and NO ONE has ever asked to have a RN instead of a LPN.  They want a compasionate and competent nurse!  I go to doctor's that were refered to me by my doctor, family or friends..I don't go because they have awards on the walls and six different initals after their name.  I am going for my RN now but I will never forget where I started.  I can work circles around some of the new graduates of the RN program also, but that doesn't matter...I am a LPN.  I actually told the head of nursing that 4 RN took care of this lady who complained of "indigestion" and "pressure" and all of the RN ignored her because she did not make a fuss.  When she told me "investigated and obtained information" to find out she had a cardiac hx.  She was going to be discharged that day, but when i told the doctor what the patient said and the history she had and with a few more tests it turned out she needed stents placed and she had EKG changes.  When i told the head of all nursing this her answer to me was"RN's can make mistakes!" Primary nursing will never work...the RN are getting burnt and they are not staying.  The patients are the one's who suffer and this hospital just cares about their image.  Nursing has changed so much in the last 13yrs.  The board of nursing needs to look at the LPN and if we can show comptence and we have been fully trained to allow us to do them.  Maybe not the push meds or the blood but at least the assessment's.  I have training in breath sounds, bowel sounds from the hospital but i can't use it! 

i acknowledge there is a nursing shortage. but i agree a great number  of of us lpns have Rn  skills we have acquired. I can put a G- tube in without a problem, even better than some of the new Rns out there. They claim we can't assess ,that is bunk. One of my instructors in school taught us more than just  the basic assessment skills. As an lpn I have worked in almost every capacity, from er CCU, Icu ,dialysis, med surg nursing homes, prisons, clinics, school health etc. I learned many administrational skills also. I can do payroll all types of Pi's, budgets. I have been charge, as well as a team nurse. I know so many Other LPNS, like myself that are working beyond what the states deam as their scope of practice. Many institutions do this because they do not want to pay the RN salaries. Lpns get paid 15 to 20 thousand dollars less than most Rns with much less experience. Also for those of us that have considered the RN program if you are like me and have already college credits that are over ten years old we are requiered to take them again. Thats ok if you are still very young, not so much if you are in your 50's and older. Plus many of the pre-requiered classes i took the overall contents has not changed in years. Why take them again There should be a better program for those of us that would like to get our Rn. just a thought.                  elizabeth_bourdony@yahoo.com