All nurses touch lives, but registered nurses and vocational nurses contribute in different ways. Both are professional caregivers, but the difference between them is subtle and it impacts their employment opportunities and career trajectory. Here’s what nursing students need to know.
Why Become a Nurse and Work in the Health Sector?
Jobs in the healthcare field are among the most practically and personally gratifying, but only a nursing career offers unique rewards, such as:
Job Security
Technology is replacing humans in many industries including healthcare. Once essential positions are disappearing fast. However, nursing requires a human touch, so the demand for registered and vocational nurses is expected to rise for the next decade and beyond. A nursing education is a good investment.
A Sense of Excitement
If you thrive on the new, unusual, and unexpected, you won’t regret being a nurse. As a licensed healthcare provider, you’ll watch real-life medical dramas unfold before you. And better yet, you’ll play a life-saving role by delivering cutting-edge treatments to people in need.
Personal Fulfillment
There are opportunities to help others in any profession, but nurses heal bodies, minds, and souls. If you crave a sense of fulfillment, few fields offer as many opportunities to make life-changing personal connections.
What Does a Nurse Do?
Doctors diagnose and treat illness. Nurses diagnose and treat patients’ responses to illnesses by:
- Taking vital signs
- Doing pain assessments
- Administering medications
- Performing treatments
- Assisting with personal care
- Managing medical equipment
- Offering emotional support
- Providing emergency care
- Educating patients and their caregivers
- Supervising paraprofessional staff
- Addressing psychosocial needs
- Documenting care
However, registered nurses and vocational nurses have somewhat different roles.
What Is the Difference Between an LVN and RN?
An RN and an LVN are both licensed professional nurses. They work together in the same hospitals, clinics, and nursing facilities, but each has different duties based on these factors:
Education
Training for RNs and LPNs is similar when it comes to basic skills, but RNs take extra courses that dive deeper into the science of nursing. Better equipped to manage complex medical issues, they have greater decision-making responsibilities. Vocational nurses focus more on practical tasks.
Work Settings
In some facilities, clinical roles for registered and vocational nurses are nearly identical. In a nursing facility, for example, patients are stable, so both RNs and LVNs can take leading roles.
In a hospital, patient acuity is higher, so registered nurses manage care with the help of LVNs. A vocational nurse, for example, will take a patient’s vital signs, a registered nurse will decide whether abnormal results warrant a change in nursing care.
Professional Growth
Aptitude and experience play a part in the types of positions for which RNs and LVNs can qualify. However, a nurse’s scope of practice is clearly defined by each state based on their education level. Registered nurses may hold the highest positions, but in doctor’s offices, nursing homes and assisted living centers, LVNs qualify for supervisory and leadership roles.
Private practices and long-term care environments offer vocational nurses significant professional autonomy. Jobs are available in hospitals, but professional growth is limited regardless of experience.
Higher Education Opportunities
The good news for all nurses is that the sky’s the limit when it comes to education. A nurse can begin with a vocational school diploma, and through study, become a nurse educator or an advanced practice nurse. Registered nurses have a head start, but where your education begins is less important than where it ends.
As an LVN, you can also seek specialty training to expand your skills and bridge opportunity gaps. Taking an IV certification course, for example, may qualify you for jobs in an infusion center where most nurses are RNs.
Other options include:
Advanced Life Support
All healthcare providers, including vocational nurses, have basic life support training. It covers CPR, support for choking victims and the use of automated external defibrillators. Advanced life support courses include topics like airway management and leadership during a resuscitation event. The additional training helps LVNs feel more confident handling emergencies.
Correctional Health Certification
Working in a correctional facility requires skills you won’t learn in a nursing program. With Correctional Health Certification, you can work in jails, prisons, and juvenile detention facilities.
Hospice Certification
Vocational nurses can work in hospices without special training, but certification gives you additional tools with which to help dying patients and their families meet their end-of-life needs.
Clinical Research Certification
If you prefer the science of nursing over hands-on care, why not become a clinical research nurse? Certification programs cover everything you need to know to establish and monitor clinical trials.
Nephrology Certification
Nephrology certification allows vocational nurses in some states to work in dialysis centers. Home care LVNs can become Certified Peritoneal Dialysis Nurses, assisting patients who self-administer their treatments.
Gerontology or Geriatrics
Vocational nurses working in long-term care facilities may qualify for promotions with certification in gerontology or geriatrics. Course topics include pharmacology, psychology, and the social needs of the elderly.
How Do You Become an LVN?
An easier way to become an LVN is to complete a vocational school program. Programs are taught by industry experienced instructors, class sizes are small and you are also offered career services. CyberTex offers an LVN program that will prepare you for the first day of your new career and the preparation you need to take the NCLEX-PN exam. It’s a complete curriculum with lots of hands-on experience.
Final Thoughts
If you want to be a nurse, but you’re not sure which role is right for you, you can’t go wrong by taking a positive step forward. Start as an LVN now and learn while you earn and build the career of your dreams.
Licensed Vocational Nurse
Classes for the VN program are conducted in a student-friendly atmosphere conveniently located in Austin, Texas. After graduating from the Licensed Vocational Nursing program, students can apply to take the National Council Licensure Examination for Practical Nurses (NCLEX-PN), become a Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN), and start their exciting new career immediately.
Contact us today to learn more about our CyberTex campuses.