RN Vs. LPN: What's the Difference?

Medical Safety Today

This article is the second on a series on healthcare today. This installment focuses on the differences between RN (Registered Nurse) and LVN/LPN (Licensed Vocational/Practical/Professional Nurse) and what it means to you.

Much media attention has been focused on the lack of nurses, as mentioned in the first article on this series. However, much of that attention has been poorly focused. This is due in part from lazy reporting. Other influences have been political influences in the medical field.

The nurse shortage is not and does not need to be as drastic as it appears to be at this moment. Almost every statistic stated about the lack of nurses focuses on RN's. This ignores the fact that there is another classification of nurses. The other classification is called LVN or LPN, depending on which state you refer to. While the title changes, the educational requirements remain the same due to national standards of education and testing.

For the remainder of this article, I will use LPN for simplicity.

Most of the general public has been led to believe that there is a large difference between RN and LPN and the care they provide. There is little or no truth to this.

What is the difference between the two?

The role of the LPN has historically been to provide direct care to patients in the medical setting. The role of the RN was designed to be a supervisory position. Years ago, it was normal for many LPN's to work under the supervision of one RN.