What is Vocational Nursing?

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Vocational nursing is a standard of nursing where licensed healthcare professionals are under direct supervision of physicians or registered nurses. These nurses usually work in physician’s offices or convalescent centers or rehabilitation facilities.

Relevance

Even though there are still vocational nursing programs available, this area of nursing is quickly becoming obsolete. Salaries for vocational nursing are definitely not increasing, as they should. Competition of the Associate and Bachelor degree-holding nurses totally overshadows opportunity for vocational nurses in the better facilities. Vocational nurses simply are at a severe disadvantage when it comes to advancement and specialization.

Educational Bridging

Licensed Vocational Nursing programs often prepare their graduates to “bridge” their training into degreed programs later on. Therefore, some professionals view this pathway as a waste of time and tuition. Why not go ahead and get an advanced degree, as opposed to spending time in a vocational career that is severely limited?

Some LVNs venture out into non-traditional settings in the military, industrial venues, schools, home health agencies, and correctional facilities. Although these facilities offer a certain level of autonomy, liability should always be a consideration. It is truly dangerous for licensed vocational nurses to act on their own and depending on state laws, they can lose their license even when practicing prudent nursing care because of lack of supervision and support.

Preferred autonomy for these individuals might be attained through choosing the less popular shifts like evening and night shifts. There is less political activity among co-workers and the professional is better able to set and stick to a schedule that works well for him or her.

In many venues, the LVN is the shift supervisor. In charge positions, as well as the less popular shifts, a differential is often good incentive for vocational nurses to maintain autonomy and a slightly higher salary rate.

Online Programs

There are many online programs for vocational nursing. The most important thing to do before signing up is to do some comparative shopping. Many online programs are overpriced and cannot provide accreditation credentials, which are required by most states in order to sit the nursing exams. If the training institute is not accredited with the proper panels, a student may waste much time and money.

Researching success rates and reviews from previous students is important. No one wants to invest hard earned money into programs that have a 50% pass rate. Program with a pass rate below 80% for one year are required to submit a Self-Study Report to Board Staff following Board guidelines. Seven VN programs will be required to write a Self-Study Report in 2014 based upon the 2013 NCLEX-PN examination pass rate. Five programs had a pass rate below 80% for two consecutive years and one program had a pass rate below 80% for four years.

Advantages

Alternatively, vocational programs can be invaluable because they can place a nurse in a working position and allow him or her to earn money while developing a plan for continuing education to go ahead with specialty or degreed programs. If an LVN or LPN has a job with a facility or company that offers bridging and tuition reimbursement; it can be quite advantageous to people who are just starting a career in the healthcare professions.