LPN or RN - We Tell You Which Degree You Should Pursue

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.

If you need to get through nursing school and get back to work as quickly as possible, a degree in Licensed Practical Nursing is your best bet. 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 need is a high school diploma, and the ability to pass the entrance exam for the LPN school. This may involve some college level algebra.

Then, best of all, once you have gotten your LPN degree, you can take an LPN to RN online program - while you're working! And many employers will pay for this continuing education.

Also, you will be able to figure out if you want to proceed to an RN degree. Not everybody 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 become 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! Once you graduate with that degree, you will be able to choose from a multitude of job paths and work settings.

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.

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