Difference Between Registered Nurses And Licensed Vocational Nurses
Nurses provide a great service to the healthcare sector by helping patients cope with illness and treatment and assisting physicians and surgeons in their practice. It wouldn’t be false to say that the healthcare industry would be nowhere without these valuable but oft times overlooked care givers.
Like doctors, there are different kinds of nurses trained in their own specialties and registered nurses (RN) and licensed vocational nurses (LVN) are a couple.
Registered nurses
Registered nurses are those who have completed their degrees in nursing, whether of a three-year or five-year nursing program duration. Their role is largely relegated to planning, delivery and management of patient care and also supervision of orderlies and LVNs. They earn more too, by as much as 50 percent, according to some statistics.
Licensed vocational nurses
Licensed vocational nurses train for the nursing program for a duration of one and a half to five years. They’re generalists in that their role involves working in any area of healthcare. However, they may also work in specialized settings such as doctor’s offices.
LVNs are the nurses we, as the public, are used to seeing when we need to get treatment for some ailment. They’re the ones who administer IVs and medicines as well as maintain a patient’s records.