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The Complete Guide to Becoming A Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurse
The real story of what LPNs and LVNs do every day, what they earn, how long the training really takes, and how to know if this is the right hands-on healthcare career for you.
by Alumigogo Books
Chapter 1: What Does a Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurse Actually Do?
The alarm goes off at 4:45 AM. That's the first hard truth about this job for most people: it starts early, it starts dark, and the only people who are happy to see you at that hour are the night-shift nurses who have been there since 7 PM and want to go home. You are not wearing scrubs to sit in a meeting. You are wearing them to move, lift, bend, and wipe, for twelve hours straight, with a thirty-minute lunch break if you're lucky.
So what exactly are you doing during those twelve hours? The official definition is that a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN, which is the title used in most states) or Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN, the title used in California and Texas) provides basic nursing care under the direction of a registered nurse (RN) or a physician. But that definition is about as helpful as saying a chef "cooks food." Let's get into the actual, concrete tasks that make up your day.
Your primary responsibility, the thing you will do more than anything else, is administering medications. This is not a side task; it's the core of the job. On an average shift in a skilled nursing facility (the most common employer for LPNs), you will pass medications to anywhere from 20 to 30 patients. That means pulling the correct pills or liquids, checking the five rights against the medication administration record (MAR)