Licensed practical nurse

Encyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health, 20050229 by Lisette Hilton

About 1,100 state-approved programs provided practical nursing training in 1998. Nearly six in every 10 of these students went to technical or vocational schools. Three in 10 of these students attended programs in community and junior colleges; while the remaining students graduated from programs in high schools, hospitals, colleges, and universities.

Practical nursing programs prepare students to qualify and pass the National Council Licensure Examination. After their scholastic training, L.P.N.s should be able to utilize the nursing process to care for patients. They learn to teach patients about health maintenance and prevention of disease. Essentially, L.P.N.s learn to function as generalists in practical nursing in a variety of health care settings. Practical nursing programs usually require that students go through about a year of learning in the classroom and supervised clinical practice. In the classroom, these nurses discover basic nursing concepts and patient care. These nurses take classes in such subjects as: anatomy, physiology, medical-surgical nursing, medical terminology, pediatrics, pharmacology, obstetrics, psychiatric nursing, advanced nursing procedures, geriatrics, administration of drugs, nutrition, health and wellness, and first aid. Clinical practice might be in the hospitals in addition to other health care settings, including community health care clinics, schools, nursing homes and rehabilitation settings.

Advanced education and training

L.P.N.s can continue their educations to become registered nurses, or RNs. RNs have expanded roles, working collaboratively with physicians and other health care providers. They often oversee the work of L.P.N.s. RNs must graduate from a nursing program and pass a national licensing examination to become licensed. They must periodically renew their licenses and, depending on which state they work, must also take continued education courses for license renewal. There were more than 2,200 entry-level RN programs in the United States in 1998. RNs can pursue one of three educational options. They can achieve an associate degree in nursing, which is usually offered at community and junior colleges and is about two years long; a bachelor of science degree in nursing, taken at colleges and universities and usually taking from four to five years; or a diploma program, which is given in hospitals and lasts about two to three years. Licensed graduates of any of these levels usually qualify to start work at the staff nurse level. Most RNs graduate with either an associate's or bachelor's degree. There has been talk of the requirement for an RN changing to a bachelor's degree or higher; however, this would not affect current associate degree RNs and would probably take place on a state-by-state basis. Most agree that there are more opportunities for advancement for RNs with bachelor's degrees in nursing. A bachelor's often is necessary for administrative positions and is required for admission to graduate nursing programs of all types, including research, consulting, teaching and clinical specialization. Today an increasing number of nurse executives are saying that they want a majority of their hospital staff nurses to have bachelor's degrees because of the more complex demands of patient care. In 1996, 27 percent of RNs reported having a diploma, 31% had a bachelor's degree and 32% held an associate's degree.