LPN first or go for RN?

[olanda1]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for just some general input. I'm a 32yo mother of three. I've been in the healthcare field for about ten years. I've been a CNA and now work as a medical assistant. I'm going back to school for my LPN but don't really have a desire to work in a nursing home when I graduate. I've been looking in my local want ads and that's all I seem to find for LPN's. I would like to go for my RN because I beleive it would allow more positions for me to choose from. I'd like to be in L&D, ER or anything surgical.

However, since I've been out of school for so long I'd spend a year doing pre-reqs before I could even start on my RN program. Which means I would be in school three years instead of one year FT for my LPN and then try and fastrack to RN. Which would really be hard for me and my children financially, unless I took out loans to cover my expenses during the year but be in more debt after three years.

I guess what I'm looking for is some suggestions. Anyone who's worked as an LPN for a few years then gone back for RN. Anyone who's just bit the bullet and gone for their RN.

[Tonya B.]

Take it from me....DON'T DO THE LPN THING!!!! I have been trying to get started on the LPN to RN fast track for 5 years. The only way I am going to be able to go back to school is to quit work so that I can attend the classes. Maybe there is a different schedule where you live, but in my area they only offer nursing classes during the day--which is when I work. I am not able to work night shift since that is what shift my husband works and I have a child. I have checked into Excelsior--but it is just way too expensive for us. This is only my opinion--many people have done the fast track and worked around their school schedule-it is just not possible for me. I am afraid that I am going to be stuck as an LPN and taking the jobs that I can find. Like you, I do not want to work in a nursing home. I want to get back into the hospice field, but.....they don't hire LPN's in hospice here. Good luck in whatever you decide to do. I love being a nurse--just don't have as many options as a LPN.

[Randy, RN]

I considered, in 1977, doing the LPN thing first, but I am so glad I just did the RN thing instead. Once out working, accumulating debt, etc. I would have never been able to go back and RN has opened so many financial and FUN doors over the past 25 years. I would sure rec. the ADN RN program for speed and opps. Bless you in whatever you do and Merry Christmas to you and yours!

[phil34]

Call the state board for LVN/LPN and find out if you can challenge. In california you can challenge if you have done certain requirements. Check the website in your state under requirements this was taken from the califonia website. Then you can work as an LVN while going for your RN.
"Equivalent Education and/or Experience.
This method requires you to complete within ten (10) years prior to the date of application not less than fifty-one (51) months of paid general duty bedside nursing experience in a general acute care facility approved by the Board, at least half of which shall have been within five (5) years prior to the date of application. In addition to this experience, you must also complete a pharmacology course of at least 54 theory hours that covers the following content:
Knowledge of commonly used drugs and their action

Computation of dosages

Preparation of medications

Principles of administration


The 51 months of experience shall include a minimum of each of the following:

48 months medical/surgical nursing

5 weeks maternity or genitourinary nursing

5 weeks pediatric nursing


Experience in any of the following areas may be substituted for a maximum of eight (8) months of medical/surgical experience:

Communicable Disease Nursing

Public Health Nursing

Industrial Nursing

Office Nursing (M.D.)

Psychiatric Nursing

Operating Room Nursing

Hemodialysis

Private Duty Nursing (In a general acute care facility)

Emergency Room Nursing

Geriatric Nursing

Recovery Room Nursing

Out-Patient Clinic

[JuliaS]

I am a LVN in Texas, I chose to go the LVN to RN route since I was unable to start my nursing career until later in life and wasn't sure about the whole "going back to school" thing along with the financial part. Since graduating LVN school and passing boards, I have worked in critical care at my hospital. I have also been taking my pre-req's. I start my RN program this next year. It has worked very well for me.
GOOD LUCK TO YOU!!!!!!!!!!! whichever course you decide on.

[chicabella]

Go for the RN in first. I'm in Fla and LPN"s get paid $9.50-12.50 at a general hospital, that is so sad. I went for my Rn and then went for my Bsn. I recommend the ADN program, you can get it done in about 13 months and it's worth it. IF you go to LPN school you'd have to go back to get your RN which really defeats your timing purpose. God bless and I wish you well!!

Carlie, BSN,RN.

[danieeeeee]

HI, I'm a mother of 5 when I decided to go school. I attended an LPN program first and finished school to get my R.N. I think personally it all depends on the stae that you live in. Here LPN'S make in between 22.00 to 30.00 an hour and they make it very possible to bridge which is an additional 8 mos of schooling to get your R.N. before you nake any decisions check your state requirements and what they offer first. For me it was a time issue, but it ended up being very feesable.

[luv2healwounds]

Well, I can tell you I wish I would have got on this forum and asked this question. I am an LPN, certified wound specialist and hyperbaric oxygen technologist. I am VERY LUCKY but I am still not happy. I feel that I have had road blocks everytime I turn around due to only having my LPN credentials. I am now going to find a way to go back to school. I want to do wound consulting and can only do so in the nursing homes. So many will still look at if you are an LPN or RN. I can say that whoever has ever worked with me knows I am a good nurse but when I sometimes meet people they assume the LPN is not as much as the RN education wise. I don't even know how some of the RN's I have worked with got their degree. I am afraid of the chemistry and algebra to go back to school. But I am going to do it. Good luck to you and your nursing career.

[nurse4hire]

Girl that is putting it lightly... as an LPN for better than 13 yrs in Kentucky / Indiana I have only worked as a contract/agency Nurse & no matter where I have worked, or what area of Nursing it has been .. the RN's have ALWAYS looked down @ me.

I have been a sponge for years, and even went through & took a EMT then Paramedic program, and completed them, now I am a Senior RN student, and I have been smarter than most RN's I have worked with for many many years... and have proven so. it is sad that initials are what seems to make a person. Once I proved myself I have not had any problems... it is just the fact of having to go to such extremes to be accepted.

[luv2healwounds]

Oh, let me tell you what happened today! I do wound rounds for a facility as a LPN WCC. I have 13 doctors that have given me permission to write orders for them. Well, a NP wrote an order today that said, " Wound orders not to be changed by anyone but someone with a post graduate degree and class in wound care" Can you believe this. Well, the DON made a copy and is contacting the Dr. He even said he didn't want anyone else to do his wound orders but me. The nerve and it really hurts that just because my alphabet soup behind my name isn't what hers is. I am certified in wound care and she isn't! This is the same NP that debrided a lady at bedside with no pain management and then didn't even chart! AHHHHHHH!!! I feel so crazy right now.