LPN Employment Opportunities
As a nurse, whether LPN or RN, the opportunities for employment are wide ranging. This is one of the reasons why I love being a nurse. If I find myself growing tired of the area I currently work in, I can easily switch to something else. Everything from traditional nursing to research to Parish nursing, the choices are seemingly endless. Not only are the employment opportunities widely varied, so are the locations.
Of course, everyone has their favorite niche. Often, once you’ve found the type of employment you enjoy the most, you still with that for most of your career. Don’t hold yourself to finding that perfect fit in your first job. It might take a few years and a few different employment opportunities to discover the area you feel fits you the best.
The largest facilities, hospitals and nursing homes, employ the largest number of nurses. Even in hospitals you will find a wide range of employment opportunities: emergency care, acute care, sub-acute, cardiac, rehab, surgical, operating room, ICU, telemetry, education, management, prompt care, oncology, pediatrics, wound care, communicable diseases, etc. Depending on the size of the hospital, the list can be lengthy and cover the breadth of nursing practice. Working hours in both types of facilities go around the clock.
Next LPNs can find employment in clinics, doctor’s offices, schools and home health. Here hours run during the day, and occasionally into the evening, rarely into night shifts. Many run Monday through Friday, with occasional work on the weekends. The LPN employment opportunities vary widely in these locations as well. Clinics encompass dialysis, out patient surgery, stand alone prompt care, cancer treatment centers and walk-in clinics. Doctor’s offices include family practice, pediatrics, orthopedics, internist, oncologist, endocrinologist, etc. Employment in schools always includes working mostly with children, but you will also care for the staff. As a home health nurse, you will see a wide range of patients from children to the elderly, postnatal mothers to the physically disabled.
Finally, LPNs can find employment in some unusual places. Occupational health nursing involves working at places outside of health care facilities – involving preventative health counseling, emergency care and screening. In Hospice nursing LPNs can be employed either in a hospice facility or in a person’s home. Public health nursing involves care similar to home health but is directed by the government. LPNs can also find work in correctional facilities, adult day care centers, government agencies, rehab facilities, blood banks, insurance companies, psychiatric facilities, group homes, Parish nursing and military nursing (LPNs work as medics).
Not only can employment opportunities in nursing involve a wide variety of types, but can be influenced by location. Depending on where you live, will depend on what kind of nursing is available. Everything from physical location of living in the north or south to rural areas verses cities will affect the types of nursing you will be able to perform. Different disease and conditions are more prevalent in different locations, while rural areas will see different types of emergency care than others. Even things like proximity to colleges, factories, areas like oil drilling will bring different types of cases for you to care for.
One of the best ways to explore the many employment options and locations is through travel nursing. Generally you are required to finish a year of nursing on a general medical floor of a hospital after graduation prior to becoming a travel nurse. Once you get started, the opportunities are endless. Most travel nursing involves working in different hospitals, but you will be able to travel around the country (and sometimes even the world) and into various specialties. A great type of nursing employment to go with if you’d like to try out diverse areas of nursing practice.
One of the best things about nursing involves the wide variety of employment opportunities. From working in a hospital to working with an insurance company, from newborns to the elderly, you should never be bored in your nursing career. While you may find areas you do not like or even loath, nursing practice continues to contain such variety that you will not have any difficulty in finding the right place for you.