Licensed practical nurses (LPN) or LVN’s (licensed vocational nurses ) denoting persons who are skilled and license to attend the sick, ill, disabled or elderly. An LPN job description also requires working supervised by doctors and RN’s (registered nurses).
In hospital or a clinic, an LPN can assist with intravenous fluid administration under the supervision of a physician, as well as attending clerical requirements. These duties include giving medicines as well as feeding and looking after patients. At Yale University an LPN job description is listed according to the training curriculum. According to the Institution, a list of LPN duties follow:
- Provide care and carry out a medicinal therapy regime.
- Gather patient history as well as other medical info.
- Assist in minor medical and surgical procedure.
- Report and record a vital sign assessment and measurement as well as collect specimens.
- Observe the patient for any physical and/or emotional change that may occur and report these observations.
- Prepare exam rooms, maintaining and setting up medical equipment and supplies.
- An LPN job description will also require the maintenance of an orderly, clean and comfortable environment that is safe for the patient.
- Responding to any necessary medical emergency.
- Recording relevant patient information.
- Preparing patients to experience ongoing care post-treatment and can instruct team- mate LPNs as well as offer information regarding critical and relevant issues.
- The scheduling and coordination of patient appointments and tests.
- Administering medication under the direct authority of an RN or doctor.
- Performing further functions that fall under the scope of nursing activity.
The LPN job descriptions listed represent characteristic LPN duties needed as well as the relevant level of work and skills that will be performed in this career description and duties change along with each job title. The Technical and Clerical description of a job for the LPN D Grade needs to have college-level specialized course-work; a basic idea of 1 or seven related work areas and a substantial amount of knowledge of the broader scoped of learning in this field.
LPN Job Description Skills And Administration Scope
Yale University’s Required Skills include extracting and compiling a wide range of data derived from a written research source and other individuals by questioning them, or available databases with a limited interpretation to the data. To fulfill an LPN job description the individual will also need to be able to use a dictionary, as well as files of labelled material, which have chronological or alphabetic systems.
Individuals are also expected to write easy memorandums for internal use as well as complete complex word forms and on occasion, use difficult machinery like computers or word processors.
These duties include performing a number of easy lab or scientific procedures needing a certain amount of training yet can be reversed inexpensively or duplicated and to be able to record result where necessary.
An LPN job description under office and administrative skills section will require the use of a keyboard, information forms, medical labels and other materials. The individual will enter and retrieve information data from half-finished sources such as computer documents which needs an ability to interpret the documents and a primary understanding of the relevant software parameters.
This includes arranging for and coordinating meetings, schedules, projects, events and conferences. Advising, screening and referring any visitors will also come into practice. Under the LPN job description there will be a need to exercise initiative and independent judgment regularly, while in the case of leadership responsibility, provision of guided work or orientating for procedures which are not routine are needed.
LPN working conditions include being exposed to safety risks. There are often contradictory demands and pressures of time such as deadlines and emergencies. All of these need consistent concentration and a focused and dedicated effort physically and a skills with hand and fine finger dexterity.
An LPN job description will also require supervision of the elderly, oversight of patients who have cardiovascular diseases and blood sugar ailments such as diabetes as well as Hepatitis, which require a vigilant consistent monitoring and medicines to be given in a timely manner. Nurses oversee blood pressure, glucose as well as temperatures, however duties can differ from state to state. There is a marked increase in complex procedures that used to be performed in hospitals alone, that are being undertaken in doctors offices as well as outpatient centers like ambulatory freestanding emergency and surgical centers. As a result, jobs for candidates fitting an LPN job description are projected to accelerate quicker than the norm where the need for healthcare becomes more prevalent.
Career Evolution
For many people, becoming a Registered Nurse is not possible due to financial and/or time constraints however a career as a Licensed Practical Nurse is an excellent opportunity to get into nursing without having to commit to three or four years of studying. As a result of the restrictions on an LPN job description performance, many LPN’s continue with their studies and eventually become Registered Nurses. LPN jobs can lead to career advancements, with a nursing degree enabling the individual to shape a career as they go, taking the opportunities that fit their interests.
An LPN’s job description requirements will need the individual to be constantly challenged to take on more responsibility as they prove themselves and gain experience. Sooner or later this will spur an LPN on to wanting a more specialized focus. In these cases, the following specialties available in a variety of settings and environments;
- Cardiac Nurse Care
- Case Manager Nurse
- Critical Care Nurse
- Dermatology Nurse
- Emergency Nurse
- Hematology Nurse
- Hospice Nurse
- Labor and Delivery Nurse
- Medical Surgical Nurse
- Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Nurse
- Nurse Anesthesiologist
- Nurse Educator
- Nurse Practitioner
- Oncology Nurse
- Otorhinolaryngology Nurse
- Pediatric Nurse
- Peri-anesthesia Nurse
- Perinatal Nurse
- Psychiatric Nurse
- Public Health Nurse
- Radiology Nurse
- Rehabilitation Nurse
- Respiratory Nurse
LPN job descriptions differ significantly from the growth they will experience once skills are gained. While working as an LPN, many encounters may reveal interests in particular career paths in the nursing field such as tabled above. Cardiac care nurses for example work with families and patients experiencing problems with heart disease. These are skilled CCN’s (Critical Care Nurses) who work in hospitals a well as at homes, helping with monitoring cardiac drug dispensing and offering patients care posit bypass, pacemaker of angioplasty surgery.
Case management nursing on the 
other hand requires coordination oversee the sick who are being treated in the long-term which requires high-paced timing for all aspects within the treatment regime. Case management nursing will differ from an LPN job description in the case for cancer treated patients, where these nurses oversee visits, radiation, surgery as well as chemotherapy. The NCM will also carry a specialty in for example HIV AIDS, geriatrics or as a pediatrician.
Critical care nurses care for patients of all ages who are acutely ill or in critical condition while Nurses specializing in dermatology will educate and oversee patients experiencing treatment and investigation of skin disease and wounds. This specialty will differ from an LPN job description in that starting off in emergency rooms of a hospital can lead to an interest in Emergency nursing, where the individual must be skilled to offer oversight and care to patients who are experiencing the critical phase of a disease or illness. This includes being able to isolate potentially life-threatening issues and problems that may arise and promptly providing solutions and care.
For further career advancements, nurses in Hematology will differ from an LPN job description in that they care for people with blood related diseases such as Leukemia and Sickle-Cell anemia. Hematology nurses will assist families of patients suffering from these diseases. LPN work that ends up exposing the individual to Oncology and Hematology Nursing can lead to an interest in specializing in this field as a result of the fact that these diseases have a close relation to cancer so nurses more often than not, specialize in both.
Hospice nurses offer specialist care and the relief of pain for patients who are nearing the final stages of their lives. This entails protecting the ill from painful, unnecessary treatment and often doing so in their homes, so that the patients can spend valuable last hours with their families while they are still able. Labor and delivery nursing can appeal to individuals with an LPN job description where they need to assist RN and other hospital staff with the provision of caring for women in labor, have just given birth or in regard to any labor complications. Maternity nurses also assist doctors with developing plans for the safe deliveries of strong and healthy infants.
Medical surgical nursing as a specialty are for RN’s serve in residence, clinics, intensive care units as well as long-term care settings with adult patients who are undergoing surgical procedures. This will be the case where, once fulfilling an LPN job description, workers find an interest sparked in the specialization of having been supervised by RN’s attending patients being treated with medicines for illnesses.
LPNs who enjoyed studying for their qualification and find an aptitude for delivering babies may want to consider becoming Neonatal intensive nurses. These individuals provide specialist attendance to acute premature or ill newborns, as well as their families while Nurse anesthetists, also known as CR Nurses (Certified Registered Anesthetists), deliver both local or general anesthesia to any patients who under surgical procedures. An LPN job description requiring this type of engagement may open doors for further specialization in anesthesia the future.
Oncology nurses take care of patients who have been diagnosed with suffering cancer and are in charge of giving and supporting the process of chemotherapy as well as the management of symptoms that reflect a relation to cancer. Otorhinolaryngology Nursing (Head and Neck Nursing) requires nurses to provide care and support to patients undergoing medical and surgical procedures concerning the ears, the nose, and the throat. In such a case, an LPN job description that requires work in a specialized clinical environment where such treatments are delivered, may very well lead to this specialization. In closing, it is always worth conducting on site research in a particular setting to determine the next step and to ensure that the LPN job description of choice is fulfilled.