Enter the Workforce Fast: Get LPN Training

Are you considering a career in nursing, but you wish you could be working right now? Training to be a licensed practical nurse (licensed vocational nurse in Texas and California) is the closest you can get, and still be a nurse. Most LPN training programs take a year to complete. After that, you take a national licensing exam and get a license in your state. You are then ready to get a job as a real nurse.

LPNs are the most hands-on nurses. They work closely with patients, implementing plans the doctors and registered nurses have made. LPNs carry out orders, but will also watch their patients closely, and write down and report everything about their patients' condition. It is the licensed practical nurses who bathe the patients, change their surgical dressings, help them to the bathroom, and help feed them if needed, as well as making sure oxygen therapy is working, and intravenous lines are running. They gave been called "angels in comfortable shoes."

LPN training schools offering the best LPN training:

An LPN in a hospital will be supervised by a registered nurse. In a rehabilitation or extended care facility, LPNs are often supervisors themselves. LPNs also work in patients' homes, when they need nursing care and assistance, and in doctors' offices. There are jobs for LPNs in places you might not expect, like the military and the prison system. They can work for employment services which can send them wherever they are needed. Some employment services allow LPNs to work in different locations in the United States for three month assignments, so you can travel and work at the same time.

While you are getting your paycheck as an LPN, if you look around and decide that you would like to advance your career, you can enroll in an LPN-to-RN program and become a registered nurse. Often your employer will help you pay to get your RN. There are programs in place especially for people who are already working.

Whatever your ultimate career goal in nursing is, LPN training is a good place to start.