The LPN/LVN degree course work covers both classroom and patient care instruction, which prepares nursing students to perform basic nursing tasks, such as measuring a patient's height, weight and vital signs; performing simple laboratory tests and blood collection; moving patients; assisting with patients' feed and personal hygiene; and dressing wounds. After receiving the LPN/LVN certificate from an accredited online or traditional vocational school, you will also need to pass your state-required practical nursing exam before beginning work as a nurse. Nurses with an LPN/LVN degree are typically employed by hospitals, assisted-living facilities, doctors' offices and home health care agencies, and LPN/LVNs working in hospitals are often assigned to the cardiac care, emergency, intensive care, obstetrics or surgical units.
According to RN Degrees, the A.D.N. degree "offers the quickest path to becoming an entry-level registered nurse (RN)," and in 2008, about 59 percent of aspiring nurses taking the NCLEX-RN certification exam did so after completing an A.D.N. degree. Course work for the A.D.N. degree includes pharmacology, information literacy and health care, family nursing, as well as nursing practice, where students study patient care technique and apply classroom learning in a clinical setting. Like graduates of LPN/LVN programs, RNs also usually work in doctors' offices, acute care hospitals, nursing homes and extended-care facilities; however, About Nursing notes that RN salaries are typically $15,000 more a year than those of LPN/LVNs. Higher salaries are paid to RNs because they are trained to perform more complicated nursing tasks, such as giving patients medication, maintaining intravenous lines and consulting with doctors on patient care.
The University of San Francisco College of Nursing says that the B.S.N. degree "prepares men and women for beginning positions in nursing, provides the means for personal and professional advancement, and qualifies them for progression into programs that offer advanced degrees." In addition, the general education courses required for an undergraduate degree, B.S.N. students study anatomy, physiology, microbiology, psychology, nutrition and pharmacology, and receive hands-on training in the use of laboratory equipment as well as instruction on patient care in local hospitals and health care centers. Like ADN degree graduates, B.S.N. students also are required to pass the NCLEX-RN certification exam before working as an RN.