Start Your Licensed Practical Nursing Career with Online LPN Nursing Classes

LPNs provide a large proportion of the direct patient care in today's healthcare environment, including:

• basic bedside care, such as measuring vital signs, giving injections, and keeping patients comfortable
• patient monitoring, including recording patient health and treatment information
• feeding and caring for infants
• teaching family members how to care for a patient in-home
• supervising nursing assistants and aides

LPNs are an essential part of the health care system, but a one-year LPN program can also be an important early step on the road to a more advanced nursing career. Check out the All Nursing Schools web site, which offers a number of LPN program options for you to consider.

Further study in an LPN-to-BSN or LPN-to-RN program requires more years of coursework, but in the end provides the knowledge necessary for a more supervisory role or a teaching career.

As you might expect, many LPNs practice in hospitals, where they work under a physician or registered nurse in one or more specific departments. However, LPNs are increasingly needed in specialized settings, particularly home health care services, nursing care facilities and office/outpatient nursing. LPNs more advanced in their careers may become treatment nurses or special procedure nurses, or attain supervisory positions.

Start Your Search Online for LPN Nursing Classes

LPN programs are generally offered at technical or vocational schools or at community colleges, though some are available through high schools or hospital training programs. The LPN program includes a combination of classroom training and supervised clinical practice, followed by the National Council Licensure Examination, or NCLEX-PN.

Because of the importance of gaining in-person experience caring for patients, it isn't advisable to pursue an LPN program that claims to be fully online. However, it may be possible to complete some or all of your coursework through online LPN nursing classes. Check with your state Board of Nursing for a list of approved training programs.

Also, be sure that your chosen program is accredited by the National League of Nursing Accreditation Commission (NLNAC) or the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). Although accreditation is voluntary, such programs meet high standards of educational quality established by the accrediting agency. Graduation from an accredited program may improve your future job and education prospects.

There is no denying that nursing is a booming career, with the LPN field expected to grow 21 percent between 2008 and 2018, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nursing care facilities and home healthcare services will offer some of the best career bets. Because more medical procedures are expected to take place in doctors' offices and outpatient facilities, those settings will also employ large numbers of LPNs/LVNs.

LPN Nursing Salaries

Just one year of LPN training can really pay off. The mean annual wage for licensed practical and vocational nurses in May 2010 was $40,380, while those in the 90th percentile earned as much as $56,010. High-paying industries for LPNs included employment services, with an annual average salary of $46,190; home health care services, nursing facilities, hospitals and doctors' offices. Advancing your nursing career with an LPN-to-BSN or LPN-to-RN promises even higher salaries.

Gladys Jimenez is a real LPN success story. She went from a poor housing development in New Jersey to a practical nursing high school, where she completed her LPN coursework. At her first nursing job at Raritan Bay Medical Center, she helped launch the Comprehensive HIV Care Program, one of the first HIV care programs in the state of New Jersey. She also coordinates and assists with a number of other programs. She says she is fulfilled and happy in her LPN career, and plans to continue her efforts on the level of practical nursing.

_{Source: Advance for Nurses}