LPN 17yrs now

[vlightsey]

Hello I have been a LPN 17yrs + I have lived and worked in 3 different states and really love what i do. I do enjoy nurse dot com but it seems everything is only geared for RN's....Am i mistaken?

[GitanoRN]

Welcome to the cite...Aloha~

[Nikki-1984]

Hello I have been a LPN 17yrs + I have lived and worked in 3 different states and really love what i do. I do enjoy nurse dot com but it seems everything is only geared for RN's....Am i mistaken?

This site does seem to be focused on RNs but that may be the case because there are only a couple of Lpn's that use it. I for one am happy to communicate with another LPN who understands what it means to work as an LPN! I went to an LPN school that was a part of the local hospital where I lived. The LPN education I received at the time took an entire year to finish. We started our program in June of 1983-June of 1984. We had classroom courses from 8am-12noon mon-fri., lunch at the hospital from 12-1:00pm and then clinical from 1-5:00pm mon-fri. After clinical we had research papers we worked on from 5-7:00pm then I went home and studied from 9-1:00am everyday. I was going through a divorce and raising my six year old son during the year I was in Lpn school. We took the very same classes then as they offer now, however we didn't receive college credits for these classes at the time because our nursing school was part of the hospital like the diploma RN program used to be. It cost a small fortune now to enroll in an LPN school that is located within the local tech school, but at least they receive college credits they can use towards getting their RN or BSN at the local university which is right beside the tech school. The LPN school takes two years to complete now. The two year associate degree RN takes three and a half years to complete now and it's extremely difficult to be accepted into either one. The waiting list are 2-3 years typically during which time most students take their prerequisite . Even their LPN to RN bridge program requires the same classes as the two year RN program, the only difference is that they let you test out of 7credit hours of required courses. I've checked into the online LPN to RN programs that is only supposed to take one additional year of study if you already have an LPN license but I've heard nothing but horror stories about these online nursing schools. Because of my age(55) I thought the year of online classes sounded really great but when I looked into the college network etc...the information I received from other nurses was terrifying. I was told these online programs have you sign for a loan of up to $12,000.00 for your books etc..and only allow a three day time period to cancel if you change your mind. I was told that a lot of people have had to repay all this money and never even received all the study material. Do you know of any online schools that you know are legitimate? I would really like to finish my RN for me, not just for a better job option. The salaries for most LPN's in this area are pretty low ranging anywhere from $13.00-16.00 per hour. But I've always found that salaries are negotiable depending on how badly a facility needs nurses at the time I apply. The last job I worked I was paid according to experience (they said) which brought me in at $24.50 an hour. But basing my pay according to experience was not exactly true because the RN who oriented me was only being paid $23.00 an hour with twenty years of experience. This same facility just changed owners and they are now basing pay on a pay scale according to experience which would pay me $35.00 an hour with a sign on bonus of $1,000.00 which is practically unheard of in this area! What is the LPN pay like where you live? Nikki

[maire]

Welcome to the site. Post more often!