Vocational Nursing
Vocational Nursing, as an important part of the healthcare team, blends nursing skills with human understanding in care delivery. In hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, private homes, and similar facilities, licensed vocational nurses (LVNs) provide care for ill, injured, or convalescing patients or persons with disabilities under the direct supervision of doctors and registered nurses. The graduate will be eligible to take the National Council Licensure Examination–Practical Nurse after finishing this program (NCLEX-PN). The California Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians regulates the registration and certification requirements for taking and passing these exams (BVNPT).
Available in:
Length of Study
Career Level
Delivery Type
Duties
- Observe patients, chart, and report changes in patients’ conditions, such as adverse reactions to medication or treatment, and take any necessary action.
- Measure and record patients’ vital signs, such as height, weight, temperature, blood pressure, pulse, or respiration.
- Administer prescribed medications, noting times and amounts on patients’ charts.
- Provide primary 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.
- Record food and fluid intake and output.
- Assemble and use equipment, such as catheters, tracheotomy tubes, or oxygen suppliers.
- Collect samples, such as blood, urine, or sputum from patients, and perform routine laboratory tests on samples.
- Prepare or examine food trays for conformance to the prescribed diet.
- Help patients with bathing, dressing, maintaining personal hygiene, moving in bed, or standing and walking.
- Prepare patients for examinations, tests, or treatments and explain procedures.
- Apply compresses, ice bags, or hot water bottles.
- Provide medical treatment or personal care to patients in private home settings, such as cooking, keeping rooms orderly, seeing that patients are comfortable and in good spirits, or instructing family members in simple nursing tasks.
- Make appointments, keep records, or perform clerical duties in doctors’ offices or clinics.
- Set up equipment and prepare medical treatment rooms.
- Wash and dress the bodies of deceased persons.
- Clean rooms and make beds.
- Inventory and requisition supplies and instruments.
- Assist in the care or feeding of infants.
- Duties vary according to the employment setting. providers to achieve departmental and corporate objectives.
Career Opportunities
Day in the Life
Job Outlook
California has a projected growth of 15% between 2018-2028, with a median annual salary of $61,600.