Counseling Education

Vocational Nursing Program - A Day In The Life

A program to achieve a licensed vocation nursing (LVN) career will prepare the dedicated nursing graduate to perform a number of essential duties in support of registered nurses and doctors.  An LVN is most likely to work in a nursing care facility or a hospital, but they also work in the private offices of physicians, with administrators providing home care and in elderly community care centers.   

The duties may vary depending on a particular work setting and in which state an LVN resides, but they will generally involve the following tasks:

-       Monitor a patient’s general health and vital signs, such as blood pressure, temperature, pulse, respiration and oxygen count, and keep records of these vitals.

-       Provide the measurement data of a patient’s vitals to registered nurses and doctors.  This timely communication is essential to assure that a patient’s status in health monitoring is up to date and consistent with appropriate ongoing medical care and the healing process.

-       Seeing to the patient’s needs with basic care, including changing of dressings, administering medication as needed (varies by state), changing and administering catheters as needed and possibly even administering intravenous drips (IVs – which also vary by state with regard to LVN involvement).

-       Keeping open communication with the patient with regard to their ongoing medical care: answer questions regarding the doctor’s diagnosis, description of any tests to be performed, their purpose and expectation of results, the treatment schedule with medications, what medications are doing and potential side effects, and discussion of any concerns the patient has with regard to treatment.  Some of the laboratory tests discussed with patients may be performed by the LVN (also varies by state).

-       Provide basic patient needs like assistance with dressing, bathing, and their general comfort.

Depending on the state of residence, the above general duties will vary as some states’ licensing allows greater or lesser degrees of administering health care by LVN’s.  States also vary in their licensing of LVNs with regard to their autonomous actions or oversight by a registered nurse or doctor.  These variations are very well defined in each state.  There should be no question about the duties and responsibilities on an LVN in the state of residence and licensing.

As an LVN gains experience and knowledge by extended work in a health care facility, they may be elevated to a supervisory role over other LVN’s as well as unlicensed staff in the medical facility.  The statistics noted below for an LVN career do not take into account this potential supervisory role, which should command a higher pay rate than noted below. 

The work of an LVN is likely to pay in excess of $40,000 per year, or over $19 per hour and requires the achievement of a licensed vocational nursing school license, administered by each state. There are over 780,000 LVNs working today across the country with a growth rate of 22% over the next decade; one of the highest career growth rates in any industry, with an expectation to have over 900,000 LVNs employed by 2020.

Image credit:  Andrea D Mueller on Flickr