Which LPN Courses

One of the often overlooked aspects of the LPN role is the physical demands that being a practical nurse can place upon you.  A good LPN course should emphasise the physical requirments and allow you to make sure that you properly match up against those requirements.  Remember a significant part of an LPN job may involve lifting and handling of patients who are either old or infirm .  You may have to assist in their bathing, physical activities and for example helping them change out of their clothes into new ones.  Aside from the physical exertion required in doing this to an able bodied patient the situation may be exacerbated as the patient may be unco-operative, may be partially paralysed, or possibly even exhibiting violently challenging beahaviour.  The risk of the LPN mishandling such situations and ending up injured is very real.

LPN courses should address all of these situations provided adequate lifting and handling training and it should make sure that each LPN student is fully aware of the physical demands that may well be expected in subsequent LPN jobs.  The following should provide a good summary of the sort of physical criteria that the typical LPN will need to expect:

• You must be prepared, at times, to lift heavy objects, perhaps as much as 70 pounds in weight, possibly more.
• You should anticipate the need to move, which may involve partially carrying, patients from one area to another.
• You will be pushing, or dragging carts, stretchers, beds and other similar objects around for sustained periods of time, possibly whole shifts of 8 hours.
• LPN shifts may well involve working at unsocial hours, for which LPN pay will be adjusted accordingly, but nonetheless can place particular physical strain on a person.
• The ability to concentrate for long periods of time on manual activities such as administering IV’s, injections or drugs.
• Assisting infirm patients to change positions, in bed or in a seat.
• And finally, the ability to remain on your feet for an entire 8 hour shift, walking around, dealing with a variety of different patients.

This list is by no means comprehensive, but is intended to provide you with a good idea of the type of physical activity that is undertaken for an LPN role.  Much of this will be covered by your particular LPN course, however and you will have the opportunity, through the practical phase of the LPN course to experience it, even if not as intensively as you will when you have qualified,  in a real work environment.

Tags: LPN Courses by Liz
No Comments »

If you are looking for a great way to start on a nursing career ladder then you should not look further than qualification as a Licensed Practical Nurse, or LPN.  The principal reason for this being one of the best routes into nursing is that the length of typical LPN courses is between 12 and 24 months, one to two years rather than the four years that a Registered Nursing (RN) degree typically takes.  Not only this, but because the LPN course length is less you are not likely to run up as much debt as you would on the longer course.  And when you qualify as an LPN you will start earning good money almost immediately.  This combination of a short qualification process, followed by the capacity to earn a decent LPN wage afterwards is hard to beat, but better still you can then still go on to study for your RN degree using your LPN experience to shorten the process.

There follows a brief outline of what is involved in most LPN courses.

Firstly, you should know that in studying to become an LPN you will concentrate specifically on those subjects which are directly applicable to your future role as an LPN.  You will not have to study peripheral subjects such as geography, or history.  The focus of your LPN course will be to provide you with the necessary skills in order to make the provision of care to your patients as high a quality as possible.  Of course, this means that you will by necessity end up taking courses that relate to the human body, such as anatomy and physiology, all of which will give you a good understanding of the functioning of the human body.

There will also be an element of chemistry, simply because you need to understand certain chemcial processes that take place within the human body.  Fortunately this will not be as difficult or as in depth as you might encounter in a chemistry course at, for instance, medical school.  An important part of LPN courses is practical experience.  You will therefore get to understand what roles exist in the operating theater and how you as an LPN have a role to fulfil in surgery.  This practical part of the training will also include how you deal with pregnancy and childbirth, and how to ensure the mother and new baby are adequately cared for at their most vulnerable stage.  The LPN course will also provide you with training in common medical procedures and techniques as when you qualify as an LPN you will be responsible for delivering a wide array of differing treatments, such as taking blood pressure, giving CPR, delivering medicine and so on.

LPN courses have a simple objective.  The idea is to take someone, who may well have very little in the way of medical training, or understanding of the human body and turn them into a professional, capable practical nurse in something like a year.  This objective is highly desirable, and in the future potentially lucrative, and if you study diligently you will definitely receive everything you need in order to comfortably pass the NCLEX-PN examination at the end of your LPN course, and on to begin your career as a nurse.

Tags: LPN Courses by Liz
No Comments »