About Licensed Practical Nurse
Licensed practical nurses (LPNs) are also known as licensed vocational nurses (LVNs) in California and Texas and as registered practical nurses (RPNs) in Ontario, Canada. They are called enrolled nurses (ENs) in Australia and New Zealand and as state enrolled nurses (SENs) in the United Kingdom. Licensed practical nurses care for the sick, injured, disabled or convalescent. They bring their caring, sympathetic natures to hospitals, home health care services, nursing care facilities, physicians’ offices and other health care providers and agencies.
Working under the direction of physicians and registered nurses (RNs), LPNs and LVNs attend to patients in a number of ways. Depending on the nature of their job, they might:
- Take vital signs
- Gather patient health information
- Prepare and deliver injections
- Assist patients in personal hygiene tasks
- Collect lab samples and perform routine lab tests
- Help care for and feed infants
- Teach patients and family members about good health habits
- Supervise nursing assistants and aide
LPN must at least be high school graduate. LPN follow the rules of State Boards of Nursing. Requirements for taking boards usually include a clean criminal record and graduation from an approved practical nursing program. The first practical/vocational nurse training occurred at the Young Women’s Christian Association in New York City in 1892. The first official training was three months long, offered at the Ballard School in New York in 1893. Students studied homemaking as well as learning how to care for patients. Some states did not have a license for LPN/LVNs until 1955. Current training is usually college-based.