Many healthcare employers, from hospitals to nursing homes and long-term care facilities, now prefer to hire RNs due to their greater range of skills and depth of knowledge. RNs are allowed to carry out many more nursing jobs that LVNs are not allowed to due to state statutes. These jobs include developing and implementing patient care plans, giving injections and starting intravenous lines, although this varies between states. LVNs also work under the direct supervision of RNs or physicians and perform less complicated nursing tasks, such as monitoring patient vital signs, administering medications and dressing wounds.
Application criteria vary between schools. In general, however, all schools will expect the applicant to maintain a current and valid LPN license, submit to background, criminal and health checks and have all vaccinations prior to beginning the course. The LVN-RN Bridge at the College of the Sequoias requires students applying for the LVN program to achieve at least 67 percent on the TEAS exam and have "C" grades or a 2.5 minimum GPA in prerequisite courses. At Mendocino College, all potential students will need to pass the TEAS with a minimum score of 67 percent. Applicants to Mission College must also have a minimum 2.5 GPA, 67 percent on the TEAS and complete science subject prerequisites.
The LVN-RN Bridge at the College of the Sequoias requires students to complete corequisite subjects before applying for the LVN program. These include subjects such as psychology, communications, nursing or sociology. Mission College requires the completion of subjects such as human anatomy, human physiology, microbiology, English, psychology and communications. At Mendocino College, students must complete courses in English and various biology subjects such as anatomy, microbiology and physiology.
The LVN-RN Bridge at the College of the Sequoias requires students to complete additional courses in general education such as humanities, government and mathematics in order to earn an associate's degree. Students at Mission College must complete the Role Transition LVN to RN and Role Transition Clinical before proceeding during the fall semester into nursing courses such as community-mental health nursing, intermediate medical surgical nursing, critical thinking (with 54 hours in a clinical lab) and 216 hours of intermediate clinical practicum. They must also complete courses in advanced maternal-child nursing, advanced medical surgical nursing, 270 hours of advanced clinical practicum, as well as leadership and ethics classes. As LVNs they will also be granted advanced placement credits. Mendocino College students must finish transitions course of critical thinking, nursing diagnoses and pathophysiology. The student must then pass an exam with a minimum score of 90 percent in order to continue to the RN portion of the LVN-to-RN Bridge. Nursing courses include complex medical-surgical nursing, mental health nursing and pharmacology. Clinic-based teaching hours are also required in the second and third semesters.
In all states, a basic eligibility criteria for becoming an RN is successfully completing an RN training program. Therefore, all graduates of the above programs can take the National Council of Licensure Examination Registered Nurse (NCLEX-RN) to qualify as an RN.