Nursing is a growing industry in the US, and there is an incredible demand for trained, licensed professionals in a range of different medical facilities. While there are many different nursing designations, a career in vocational nursing might be the best thing for your immediate needs. Becoming a licensed vocational nurse  (LVN) allows you to start a rewarding career, in a variety of different medical institutions.

What Is a Licensed Vocational Nurse?

An LVN is a nursing professional trained to assist other nurses and doctors within medical institutions. You might be more familiar with this occupation as a licensed practical nurse, rather than a licensed vocational nurse, but the two designations are identical. Licensed vocational nurses provide a range of different services for patients, other nurses, doctors and surgeons. For instance, you might be responsible for providing bedside care for patients, or for monitoring and recording vital signs. An LVN might be responsible for dressing wounds, for updating patient charts correctly and for providing proper personal hygiene for patients. An LVN might also assist patients who have difficulty eating, sitting up or provide aid during physical therapy or rehabilitation.

Occupational Settings for a Licensed Vocational Nurse

A vocational nurse can work in any of a number of medical institutions. These medical professionals might work in a hospital, a nursing home or permanent care facility, or within a private doctor’s office. Surgical centers also employ LVNs, while some professionals find the home healthcare field very rewarding. Travel nursing positions are also available for LVNs.

How Do I Become a Licensed Vocational Nurse?

Becoming an LVN requires completing a state-licensed education program and then passing the NCLEX-PN exam to get your license. Most LVN courses offered by vocational colleges can be completed in about one year, but the exact program tenure may vary from one college to another. Even though you may find a number of LVN courses available, but you must find a program that fits your budget, your needs and provides a quality education that will prepare you to pass your licensing examination.

When choosing an LVN school, accreditation is one of the most important considerations. It is also good practice to check the percentage of graduating students from the school who have gone on to pass the state licensing examination. This will help you determine if the course is a good fit for your needs or if you need to continue searching for another education provider. Finally, make sure you understand all the fees involved. Double-check the tuition payment schedule, application fees and other charges that will be applied, and don’t forget the cost of any study materials and medical equipment you will have to purchase.

It is obvious that nurses will be in-demand for a long time to come. Those in a vocational nursing college are sure to find tremendous career opportunities when they enter the job market.

What Is Vocational Nursing and Is It a Good Career Choice? is a post from: Unitek College Blog

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LVN (Licensed Vocational Nurse) programs prepare a practical nursing student to sit for the National Council Licensure Examination for Vocational Nurses (NCLEX-PN). The Board of Nurse Examiners in each state certifies lvn schools that meet the national standards. In order to become a Licensed Vocational Nurse, you must graduate from one of these programs.

To be accepted into an approved program you must:

• Be a high school graduate or have an equivalent diploma
• Be 18 years old
• Be current with vaccinations including Hepatitis
• Have a TB test
• Have no drug convictions
• Have no felony record
• Be of sound mind

If you believe you might have a background problem, check with the nursing board before you spend the time and money for the educational program. Acceptance into and graduation from an LVN program is no guarantee that the State Nursing Board will allow you to become a nurse. 

LVN Program Studies

An LVN school will prepare you for responsibilities related to patient care in hospitals, long term care facilities, home health, assisted living centers, physician’s offices, and community health centers.

• Your studies will include subject content such as Anatomy and physiology, Disease processes, Ethics as related to Health Care, Physical assessment of adults, elderly, and children, Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, Pharmacology, Task and Time Management, personal care and patient ADL to name just a few.

You will be required to have classroom instruction and clinical labs for hands on practice. Once you are proficient when practicing your skills in a setting with mannequins and other students, you will move on to a clinical area with real patients as a student nurse. You will be supervised by a licensed staff nurse and your clinical nursing instructor during these clinicals so you’re your skills are honed to handle real patients.

A full time student can complete their LVN program in about one year. This is a short educational time for better than average earning potential.  As an example, an LVN  employed in the San Francisco Bay Area  can expect to earn an annual salary can range from  $41,652 to $58,448 depending on the location, experience and employer (Source: www.salary.com, 1/2012).

After Graduation

Once you complete the LVN program course of study, you must apply to take the State Board examination. A background check will be performed by the Board of Nurse Examiners, and the following factors will be determined:

• You must have good morals and a professional conduct.
• You must be free of drug abuse, alcoholism and mental incompetence.
• Be truthful. Falsification of facts on your application for a nursing license can get you banned for life from your career choice.

After passing your examination, or “sitting for the boards” as it is sometimes called, you will receive your nursing license. Until you have the license in your hand, you cannot work as a licensed vocational nurse. You may work as a nurse tech, or graduate nurse in some locations.

Entering an LVN school is a great start to a career in healthcare. The field is exciting and ever expanding. Layoffs and cutbacks on nurses have not, and probably never will happen. The job outlook grows every year with increasing wages and excellent benefits with most companies. Many nurses continue their education and climb the corporate healthcare ladder. If you love helping people, are compassionate and yet strong under pressure, then an LVN program may provide the career you’ve been looking for.

LVN Programs: An Exciting Career Choice is a post from: Unitek College Blog

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Our country needs more nurses. That is no secret and has been the topic for countless articles that I’ve read and posts that I’ve written. However, I figure that since you’re in nursing school, one can never get too much good information on this topic.

Scrubsmag.com has posted a new article on this subject with a really great graphic that you should check out. Since you’re investing time and money in a nursing program, this should keep you on track and feeling encouraged.

Nurses are still in high demand and this is why:

• Changes in the Medicare reimbursement system that increased nurses’ workloads
• New patient care technology that requires a higher skill level and more education to use
• A perception that nurses are undervalued and overworked, making it an unattractive career path
• Nursing schools that have not kept up with the needs and interests of today’s students
• Nurses choosing to pursue other lines of work or retiring as they age out of the workforce
• Overall population growth (and a big upswing in the percentage of the patient population over age 65)

“In 2004, the projected shortage by 2012 was anticipated to be 800,000. Now, as seen in the infographic below, that expected gap has jumped to more than 1 million.”

Here are some interesting stats about the current job market that I found interesting:

• The current average salaries for nurses in our country are as follows: LPNs $47,000; LNVs $48,000; RNs $74,000; BSNs $72,000
• Male nurses entering the field are up by 20%
• The average age of a nurse is 42.5 years old

Nursing is an exciting and rewarding career with as many specialties as there are personality types. Like the fast paced life? Try the ER. Want regular hours and a stable routine? Maybe a private doctor’s office is right for you. Do you prefer investing in fewer patients and building a support system for those in need? Oncology might be the path for you. Would you rather work in an office without the demands of a hospital? Health coaches are a rising trend. When you go to a medical training program, there are endless possibilities!

To read the complete article mentioned in this post, please visit

http://scrubsmag.com/nursing-labor-pool-needs-a-shot-in-the-arm/

Stats and Facts for New Nurses is a post from: Unitek College Blog

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No nurse deliberately intends to harm a patient. After all, that is in direct opposition of the role that nurses play. However, when caring for fragile geriatric patients or transferring injured individuals, accidents can unfortunately happen. As a student getting an ADN degree, how often would you guess that incidents are reported?

I found an article on FierceHealthCare.com written by Alicia Caramenico that shocked me. She states that, “Hospital workers reported only about 14 percent of the patient-safety incidents experienced by Medicare beneficiaries discharged in October 2008, according to a new report from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG)…Hospital staff failed to report the remaining 86 percent of patient harm events, partly due to staff misunderstanding what constitutes patient harm. Hospital administrators labeled 61 percent of the unreported events as those that staff did not identify as reportable and 25 percent as events that staff normally reported but did not report in this case, according to the OIG.”

14 percent!?! Is it just me, or do you find that horrifying? Unfortunately in the article and in the actual OIG report, I couldn’t find the definition for “patient harm” and the incidents that caused the nursing staff to “misunderstand what constitutes patient harm.” I would also like to know that if 86 percent of the incidents weren’t reported, then how did the study know that these incidents even existed. I feel like I’m seeing a lot of smoke and not a whole lot of fire…

The OIG report explains that, “As a condition of participation in the Medicare program, Federal regulations require that hospitals develop and maintain a Quality Assessment and Performance Improvement (QAPI) program. To satisfy QAPI requirements, hospitals must ‘track medical errors and adverse patient events, analyze their causes, and implement preventive actions and mechanisms that include feedback and learning throughout the hospital.’ To standardize hospital event reporting, AHRQ developed a set of event definitions and incident reporting tools known as the Common Formats. We requested and reviewed incident reports from hospitals regarding patient harm events.”

So here is my conclusion: there will always be reports and findings in the medical world and students with health care career training will have to use their discernment and experience to determine what is worth listening to and what does not apply to their work environment.

To read the complete article mentioned in this post, please visit

http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/hospital-workers-fail-report-86-patient-harm-events/2012-01-09?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

and

http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-06-09-00091.asp

Surprising Stats on Reporting Patient Harm is a post from: Unitek College Blog

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Unitek College’s Sacramento Campus is proud and very excited to announce that our career training programs have received accreditation from the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC).  ACCSC is recognized by the United States Department of Education as a private, non-profit, independent accrediting agency that is dedicated to ensuring a quality education for 250,000+ students who pursue career education at 800 accredited institutions.

ACCSC stimulates nurtures, verifies and recognizes ongoing educational quality and integrity in institutions offering programs of a vocational and career-oriented nature. ACCSC’s mission has an objective to assure students and the general public of the quality of educational training provided by ACCSC-accredited institutions and their programs.   

Navraj Bawa, COO, Unitek College commented, “We are excited that our Sacramento Campus’s vocational training programs are now accredited. This underscores the high standards of quality education we impart in our vocational courses. Students looking to advance their careers can rest assured that they are making the correct decision by enrolling in our high-quality training programs.”

This is encouraging news for those students who have been pursuing career-training programs offered by Unitek College in Sacramento including the Vocational Nursing Training, and Medical Assistant Training programs. To read more on this announcement, please proceed here- Healthcare Training School Campus Gets Nationally Accredited.

Sacramento Campus Gets Nationally Accredited is a post from: Unitek College Blog

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The nursing field is booming and nurses are in high demand for hospitals, clinics and in the private sector. Are you having a hard time finding an LVN job? Check to see if you are making these mistakes.

On Scrubsmag.com, there is an article providing by NursingLink that gives five reasons why some nurses are having difficulties landing a position:

1) Read the job description – If the job is requiring a certain amount of experience or training that you don’t have and you apply anyway, you’re probably wasting your time and the interviewers. “With so many job applicants, recruiters are naturally going to pick the best of the best, and that means you’ve got to meet every single one of the job requirements, at the very least. But that doesn’t mean you should give up, either. If you find yourself not meeting a certain job requirement time after time, do something about it! Take a certificate course, or brush up on your bedside manner. Nothing shows dedication like taking action.”

2) Word play – Make sure your resume is free of spelling and grammatical errors. Also, use the key words used in the job description to re-emphasize your qualifications. I would also recommend asking a fellow nurse or even a professor to look over your resume to get their opinion on your word usage.

3) Job search tactics – Where are you looking for your job listings? Classified ads, human resources and hospital job boards are outdated and not always up to the minute. “The right social network can connect you directly with the job you want. Use Monster to find jobs in your field, post a resume and find your calling with their new Career Mapping tool, and LinkedIn and NursingLink to maintain your connections.”

4) Not the right fit – You could do everything right and still not get the job. Shake off the dust and trust that there is a better job just waiting for you.

5) Too high expectations – Are you aiming for a salary that is too high? Do you expect primo benefits? Are you only willing to take certain shifts? Sometimes you have to compromise to get your foot in the door.

Looking for a job is nerve wracking and stressful but when you know the right things to do, the doors will open. When you have your LVN degree, you’re halfway there to a brand new future!

To read the complete article mentioned in this post, please visit
http://scrubsmag.com/why-you-arent-getting-hired-as-a-nurse/

Having Trouble Finding a Job? is a post from: Unitek College Blog

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