Secondly, I think all of us in the Health Care Industry have had experiences with someone who has all kind of educational accolades but is clinically a disaster.
Degrees do not equivocate to competence in the clinical area for either nurses or doctors.
My feeling is that we need way more clinical competence and way less book nurses.

Thirdly, I have worked with many competent LPN’s, so the comment about incompetent Lpn’s was probably made by an RN who never puts down her clip board and gets her hands dirty.
Lastly, I can never understand why hospital personnel cannot work together, after we are all there to provide patient care, somehow that always seems to suffer in the face of personality conflicts, department wars etc, and at times these problems in the workplace lower the standard of care and make the environment hostile and more stressful than need be. I agree nurses are not helpful to each other, if they would be maybe nursing could become a respected profession instead of survival of the fittest.

And Linda……poor, poor Linda. 15 years, and you never worked with ONE competent LPN? Seriously? Could that possibly be because of the position you were in, with your head being so far up your a**??

Want to know the REAL reason that there is such a nursing shortage? It’s nurses like these two, Mike and Linda. Every nurse has heard the phrase “Nurses eat their young”, right? Well, they not only eat their young, but their old, their innocent, their disabled, and anyone else that is not savvy enough to cover her back at ALL times! Most nurses don’t respect one another anymore, and if you dare cross them, it’s FAR, FAR too easy to set each other up!

Let me tell you a quick bit of info. I am a LPN, and I have two sisters who are both RNs. BOTH my sisters laugh about how they “make up” heart rates because they “can’t find” the apical rate….they write down blood pressure numbers, because it’s too much work to really “take all those pressures”, they have NO idea what pretty much ANY lab results mean, neither has EVER inserted anything remotely like an NG tube, reinserted a tracheotomy tube that dislodged, started an IV, or actually performed the compressions and breathing of CPR. I have done ALL those things, and much, much more!

The course for the LPN is shorter, but it is wildly compressed in that time, and a huge number of people who attempt these classes drop out when they realize that it is NOT easy, as they had assumed.

My sisters (whom I love dearly, btw) graduated from a well known and respected University, and yet NEITHER had to take a PHARMACOLOGY class! But I’M the one who is incompetent??
Please. Yes, I have known LPNs who were….not the brightest. And YES, I have known and worked with RNs who also were definitely NOT the brightest either! Many people in the world are book smart, but have no common sense, and no feel for clinical skills whatsoever. Nursing is an art, and no matter what type of nurse you are, you can be excellent at it, or you can be poor at it. Putting an entire group of nurses down and lumping them all together is just plain ignorant.

For the record, in my facility I was the first LPN EVER to be promoted to Unit Manager, responsible for a 40 bed heavy medical care unit, and responsible for supervising all three shifts of staff…….RNs, LPNs, and CNAs. Back when I did hospital nursing, there was a “desk nurse” who was an RN, she called lab results to the doctor, and waited for the resulting orders. NOW, we call the results to doctors, and suggest the treatment we feel is best for our patients….and work with the doctor, because WE know the patients, and we know lab values and treatments, medications, side effects, drug interactions, etc., and we now take an active role in helping to find the best course of care for our patients. I would never, ever again work in an environment where the MD is God, and the RN is the little Archangel…..taking the orders from God and handing them down to the nurses to carry out!

No one occupation has ownership of title. This is the very same old and illegitimate argument applied to DO’s. The same title that would be used for a clinical doctorate in, Physical therapy, Occupational therapy, Pharmacy, Dentistry the list goes on and on and don’t forget the Doctors (PhD’s) that would have schooled you to the point of your inferred membership in a club.

For the sake of debate , I put up a few examples of the time and experience invested:

Lets say we have a 20 year old Pre-med grad entering Med school . After 2 years of basic science and 2 years of clinical education they receive the degree of MD. They then “Match” to a specialty and begin the process of learning what is required to perform to the expected scope of practice within that specialty.
I will use family practice for the example for reasons I will explain later. Ok, the tally is 8 years of education to this point and now we begin residency, (Family practice is currently a 3 year process) .
11 years is the total for the process.

For comparison Lets take a 30 something old with a BSN 4 year degree, they have been either working in acute care or family practice for 10 years. They have been considering a Masters for (APRN) or perhaps already have completed one. The apply for a DPN program ,and accepted . The DPN program is another 3 to 5 years of practice based education in a field they have already served for the past 10 years. Hmmm, that’s 17 to 19 years involved with the process.

Another comparison just for fun. Lets take a 40 year old military veteran who served as a combat medic with a 4 year BS in whatever. They go back to school to complete some perquisites required for Medical school, In the process they are encouraged to consider nursing by means of an accelerated BSN program. They complete the program and go to work in a Emergency room.
They have met the required clinical hours acceptance into the DPN program and apply, get accepted and complete the program. Now lets total the yrs, of the described process : lets say 4 to 8 years as a military medic, that included advance trauma training and experience as the single primary provider in combat in situations that would leave most med students and resident MD’s with a deeper understanding of involuntary bowel movement. The word brutal is unearned in the authors reference but eludes to their level of competency under artificial stress.
The 4 year BS degree and 1 to 2 years of Medical school prerequisites (Organic chem and physics w/labs). 1 year of the accelerated BSN program and 3 to 5 years in the DPN program. If we assumed the person matriculated straight into the DPN program with out any accounting of clinical experience we still come to 14 to 16 years of training.

Put down the bong chump and add’em up.

My reference to family practice is implied to draw attention to the lack and growing need of practitioners in that field. With more and more med school grads looking to match in whatever they can make the most money, a primary care deficit caused by perhaps greed has opened the door for opportunity .

One should proof prior to publishing as there are spelling errors in your text. Not good, when trying to make a point…doctor!!

Also 80 hour work weeks plus 24 hour call went out several years ago…so keep up with the times if you are going to make a statement.

#2. there are certainly great qualified NP’s that can very well practice on the same level as an MD…

however: given they typically know their limits, do not push the envelope…so I am unsure why your nose is out of joint here.

#3. your mentaliy of: taking an exam does not get you into the: “CLUB” is typical of “inferior DOCTOR mentality”.

If you are good and confident why worry, doctor?

All nurses are governed by their state Board of Nursing (BON), no matter what degree they hold. Most PhD RN’s are also licensed Nurse Practitioners and they can diagnose and prescribe as dictated by the BON. Nurse Practitioners must work in a collaborative relationship with an MD, not “supervised” as with a PA.

I don’t know who wrote this article, but it is erroneous, poorly researched and obviously meant to be inflammatory.