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Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses

Care for ill, injured, or convalescing patients or persons with disabilities in hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, private homes, group homes, and similar institutions. May work under the supervision of a registered nurse. Licensing required.

What you’d do

  • Observe patients, charting and reporting changes in patients' conditions, such as adverse reactions to medication or treatment, and taking any necessary action.
  • Measure and record patients' vital signs, such as height, weight, temperature, blood pressure, pulse, or respiration.
  • Administer prescribed medications or start intravenous fluids, noting times and amounts on patients' charts.
  • Provide basic patient care or treatments, such as taking temperatures or blood pressures, dressing wounds, treating bedsores, giving enemas or douches, rubbing with alcohol, massaging, or performing catheterizations.
  • Answer patients' calls and determine how to assist them.
  • Supervise nurses' aides or assistants.
  • Evaluate nursing intervention outcomes, conferring with other healthcare team members as necessary.
  • Work as part of a healthcare team to assess patient needs, plan and modify care, and implement interventions.

Skills that matter

  • Service Orientation
  • Coordination
  • Social Perceptiveness
  • Active Listening
  • Monitoring
  • Speaking

How to get there

Medium preparation: usually vocational school, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree

Also called

  • Charge Nurse
  • Clinic Nurse
  • Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN)
  • Pediatric LPN (Pediatric Licensed Practical Nurse)
  • Clinic Licensed Practical Nurse (Clinic LPN)
  • Home Health Licensed Practical Nurse (Home Health LPN)
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