Welcome to the Articles section. Here you will find useful information about nursing and related fields. For those of you who are new to nursing, it is a surprisingly vast field with many arcane abbreviations. Here are some abbreviations that may be useful to know:
- CNA - Certified Nursing Assistant. CNA's help nurses to carry out their tasks. Usually there is not much education required to become a CNA, depending on the state it can take from 6 to 12 weeks usually, plus a passing score on a certification exam.
- LPN - Licensed Practical Nurse. This is the basic level of nursing. LPN's are involved in primary patient care. A year long course, plus a passing score on the NCLEX-PN exam. LPN's form the base of the healthcare profession, without them the whole system would grind to a halt.
- LVN - Licensed Vocational Nurse. Same as a LPN, but some states, like Texas and California, refer to LPN's as LVN's.
- ADN - Associate's Degree in Nursing
- BSN - Bachelor's Degree in Nursing
- MSN - Master's Degree in Nursing
- RN - Registered Nurse. Probably the most well known type of nurse. RN's are the ones that are commonly the right hand of the primary physician. To become an RN you will need to do an Associate's Degree in Nursing (2 years) or a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing (4 years), and a passing score on the NCLEX-RN. If you are already an LPN/LVN you will get certain exemptions while doing other degrees. The advantage of doing a BSN over an ADN is that as an RN you will be able to specialize.
Furthermore, you will find other articles about various topics that are of interest to nurses and students of nursing.
