There are currently over 700,000 licensed practical nurses employed in the United States, 25 percent of whom work in hospitals. Like RNs, LPNs are licensed professionals, and in non-intensive settings RNs and LPNs often fill the same role.
Who Are LPNs?
In acute care hospitals, LPNs care for the sick, injured, convalescent and disabled under the direction of physicians and RNs. In the course of this work, they perform a remarkably wide range of duties. Typically, their responsibilities include basic bedside care (such as taking vital signs), preparing and administering injections, monitoring catheters, applying dressings, treating bedsores and giving special bed care such as alcohol rubs or massages. LPNs are charged with monitoring patients and reporting adverse reactions to medications or treatments. They collect samples for testing, perform routine laboratory tests, feed patients, and record food and fluid intake and output. They assist with bathing, dressing and personal hygiene.
In most states, LPNs give intravenous (IV) medications, hang blood, and perform other duties of care in keeping with their training and certification.
The duties that an LPN can legally perform are governed by state statute or regulation. Each state’s “scope of practice” defines the parameters within which LPNs are legally authorized to work.1 All states allow LPNs to perform the basic nursing duties associated with bedside care, but beyond that point state rules vary considerably. Most state boards of nursing allow for IV infusions, IV medications or hemodialysis if LPNs have undergone additional education and certification, although there is variation among state rules for each of these duties. In most states, LPNs don’t independently develop or make changes in the plan of care or perform telephone triage
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