When thinking about a nursing career, you may wonder what is the difference between LPN and RN?
While the wage, duties, responsibilities etc. may be quite different from state to state, there are some general things that are consistent no matter where you want to work. Knowing the differences can help you make an informed decision about what type of nursing training to pursue.
Licensed practical nurses must have specialized education just like RNs do, and LPNs usually attend LPN nursing schools for about a year as opposed to 2 or 4 years for an RN. During this year of education, students learn things like how to observe a patient, how to help patients with basic skills like feeding and dressing themselves, how to chart information about patients, and how to prepare and give certain medications. Most LPN programs focus on hand-on care of patients. Besides the training program, LPNs and RNs alike must pass certification exams, though the training program should do an excellent job of preparing you for them.
Once working, the LPN job responsibilities and duties may be quite different than those of RNs though this is not always the case. Though it varies in each work location and state, the LPN nurse is trained to work with less critical patients and is sometimes restricted from giving certain medications without an RN present. This doesn’t mean that LPNs are not real nurses though as they are still highly-trained and do all of the typical day-to-day nursing tasks that RNs do. In many cases the licensed practical nurse is even trained to supervise nursing assistants.
The wage of an LPN is significantly more than that of a nursing assistant because of their more specialized training and responsibilities. Because of the increasing demand for good, skilled nurses, the benefits for all nurses are similar. LPN versus RN benefits usually include holiday pay and vacation time as well as more choices in work shifts as the nurse increases in seniority. In fact, in many hospitals and care facilities, nurses are paid a shift differential for working on weekends that can mean a large increase in income.
The reality is that the question, what is the difference between LPN and RN, comes down to a lot less time spent in school before starting your career and some minor differences in the responsibilities. For most people thinking about a nursing career, knowing that you can get working in just over a year can make the difference when selecting a path to becoming a health care professional.
