Licensed Vocational Nurses And Registered Nurse

When looking at the roles for Licensed Vocational Nurses and Registered Nurses one might notice the core of all nursing is the same. But upon further investigation, the licensing structure makes for a well-oiled machine in the mechanisms of patient healthcare. The following pages will compare and contrast the various roles of the Licensed Vocational Nurse and the Registered Nurse, as well as legal obligations and limits.

Scope of Practice

The comparisons of Licensed Vocational Nurses (LVN) and Registered Nurses (RN) are simply the bases for all nurses. LVNs and RNs protect the patient’s privacy, provide safe environments, and administer medications and treatments. The Texas Administration code (2007) says all nurses will, “accurately and completely report and document: the client’s status including signs and symptoms; nursing care rendered; physician, dentist or podiatrist orders; administration of medications and treatments; client response(s); and contacts with other health care team members concerning significant events regarding client’s status”(D). Nurses are to maintain a professional nurse-client relationship; it is their responsibility to know and recognize what that entails. Nurses are bound by law to provide nursing care without discrimination regardless of age, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, religion, health problems or socioeconomic status. Some other similarities include measures to prevent the spread of infectious pathogens, collaboration with other health care team members and patient, prevent patient harm.

Alternately, LVNs and RNs have some distinct differences. RNs can work independently, while LVNs cannot. LVNs must report any new findings to the RN. The RN can determine the predictable ...

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...is causes injury or not is an example of unsafe practice. This act could also be categorized as careless or repetitive conducts that puts a patient in danger. Drug diversion is a type of drug dealing, nurses have access to many drugs and it is a part of the nurses’ responsibility to ensure those drugs go where they should, precisely document and closely supervised. Criminal conduct can happen in the work place or on personal time. If a nurse is convicted of a crime, such as Driving While Intoxicated, it could affect their ability to practice nursing. It is out of a RNs legal scope of practice to medically diagnose any patient, order a medical treatment or conduct a medical treatment that has not been ordered by a physician. It is the nurse’s duty to their patient’s to exhibit sound clinical judgment, with in their scope of practice to ensure patient safety.