The LPN, or Licensed Practical Nurse, is very much the unsung hero of hospitals, long-term care facilities, learning disability facilities and medical offices. The LPN is a combination of skills involving technical scientific concepts and caring for people in need. So how do they get there? One of the most popular ways today is online lpn classes.
To enter any LPN program both online and off, you will need to have earned a high school diploma or GED. Most online LPN classes will take one year to complete. The benefits the online LPN classes offer is, of course, the flexibility of not attending classes at specified times or being in a specified classroom after driving several miles to the campus, circling for hours to find a parking space and then wandering all over the vicinity in search of your car when classes are done for the day or night. Be very careful, though, when choosing your online LPN classes. You must choose your program only from accredited colleges to be sure your license will mean something in your state once you have earned it.
You can work and take the requirements of the online part of the LPN program at the same time. This works well for anyone who is already working in a health care setting and has access to on-site classes in their place of work. If you are not currently employed in a health care facility and would like to pursue career in nursing, you can go to a local nursing college, community college or other type of campus to fulfill your practical RN basic requirements while simultaneously satisfying the units required for your LPN license through online LPN classes.
An Example of the tasks that need to be learned in actual practice in a health care facility are:
- Taking a patient’s blood pressure, temperature and pulse
- How to dress wounds
- Assist patients with bathing and dressing
- First Aid
- Relocating patients
- Occasional clerical duties
What cannot be learned in either actual practice or online classes is the capacity for caring. Without that, choose another profession. You and your potential patients will be very glad you did.
A few of the online LPN classes that will prepare you for the academic requirements of the license include classes in:
- Anatomy
- Chemistry
- Medicines
- Psychology
- How to perform research and then arrange your findings
- Time management
Once all of the course work and practical skill applications have been satisfactorily completed, the future LPN must study to pass the NCLEX-PN examination to obtain a license from the state in which they will perform their duties as an LPN. The mean annual wage a LPN can expect to earn is about $41,360* according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2010 in any of the fifty states.
If you have what it takes personally and emotionally to work as an LPN or in any level of nursing, you will find the benefits of your online LPN classes as well as those practical applications gained through a nursing school or similar institution to be highly rewarding. The LPN covers only a small part of the career options available to the nursing profession. If you love the profession, you can go higher and higher up the career ladder with subsequent nursing degrees all earned online. So, you can consider your online LPN classes as entry into an interesting and ever-changing work experience and happily remain there, or build your skills and your education level higher and higher to give yourself an increasing number of options in your professional nursing career. It’s all up to you.
Aren’t you lucky to live in this technological age where you can sit in the comfort of your home with a computer and build a life?