Which Is Better For You: LPN or RN?

When considering nursing school, you may be wondering if you should seek an LPN or RN degree. LPN stands for Licensed Practical Nurse, and RN stands for Registered Nurse.

The choice is easy actually, and depends on your current situation. If you're after a degree that you can finish more quickly and then get work right after, an LPN degree is the more practical choice. It only takes one year to complete if you are attending full time - some programs finish as quickly as 9-11 months. You do not need to have completed all of the prerequisites that you need for a registered nursing degree; all you should have is a high school diploma, plus you would need to pass the entrance exam to get into the LPN school. This may require some knowledge of college level algebra.

What's best about choosing an LPN degree is that you can hold a job much faster, and then proceed to getting that RN degree while working. There are many online LPN to RN programs, and there are even some employers who are willing to shoulder your expenses for continuing education.

Also, you will be able to figure out if you want to proceed to an RN degree. Not everyone does. Registered nurses are in managerial positions. That is a lot of responsibility, and not everybody wants to be a boss.

However, many people DO want to be registered nurses. The pay scale is significantly higher. They can rise through the ranks and get more promotions. Some hospitals will only hire RNs. There are generally more career opportunities for registered nurses.

If you are at a point in your life where you can take a two year associate's program straight through, or a four year bachelor's of science in nursing program, by all means, do it! With a nursing degree tucked under your belt, it would be easy for you to to choose from a wide range of of job paths and work environments.

However, only do this if you can afford to work at most part-time for those two to four years, and perhaps even not work at all. Nursing school is arduous, and you do not want to start just to find out that you can't financially handle not working for that length of time.