What are the roles of Licensed Practical Nurses, and what are the tasks require from their profession?
Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) duties and responsibilities are all carried out under the supervision of doctors. At the same time, they can work under the guidance of a registered nurse. Their roles include utmost care of patients who are bedridden and provide physical and emotional care to aid quick healing. LPN’s first duty is to gather essential information from patients who are to be admitted and treated.
LPNs take care of administrative duties such as asking and documenting medical records, medical insurance, and other paper works or formalities needed to be done before the treatment and medical checkups. Also, one of their duties is to guide the patient through medical examinations such as patient’s blood pressure, weight, heartbeat rate, respiration and other tests for determining the health problems.
After this, an LPN needs to study the results of the medical examinations and then provide the doctors with the same, after which the treatments, diagnostics, and medications are to be decided. If an instance that the doctor has suggested any medicines or injections, the LPN is tasked to administer them to the patients.
The LPN also has to take periodical urine samples for testing in the laboratory to find out any improvement in the health condition of a patient admitted in the hospital/medical facility. Their job also requires them to discuss with the patient’s relatives what all has to be done after the patient is discharged like the food to eat and other basic guidelines on how to take proper care of the patient.
The LPN’s salary range greatly depends on the work experience, facility of work, state working in, among other aspects. Experienced LPN averaged with a range of $31,000 to $45,000 per annum. Likewise, the salary varies by state and city. Inexperienced LPNs can expect a pay ranging from $27,000 to $40,000.
