Licensed Vocational Nurses are nurses who have completed a 1 year certificate program at an accredited college and then passed a state licensure exam (NCLEX-PN) administered by the Texas Board of Nursing. LVNs have a wide range of clinical skills, but by law, require RN oversight, which limits their functionality in hospital settings. Although this is necessary with LVNs with little experience, there are many cases in which an LVN has worked in their field for many years and has already garnered the knowledge equivalent to, or exceeding, that of an LVN to RN transition program.

LVN to RN transition programs do exist. These programs are one year long and most experienced LVNs have no trouble completing them, in fact, they excel; however, the availability of these programs is extremely limited and hampered by a lack of instructors…another casualty of the ever-present nursing shortage.

Even when the world is humming along in our normal fashion, we still need more Registered Nurses. That is a fact that is familiar to the whole of society. What is not well understood is the difference between an LVN and an RN. The main distinguishing factor is this: LVNs are educated to perform focused assessments and report any irregular findings to their supervising RN. The RN then assesses the patient and intervenes or reports up further to a doctor. But, when an LVN has worked in the field for 5-10 years, they have likely acquired the critical thinking skills and knowledge necessary to determine what interventions are called for, or if a doctor is needed. The RN is no longer needed in these cases and could be utilized in other areas. In MANY areas of healthcare, LVNs are already functioning at the level of an RN, less a few specialized tasks. The only problem is licensure.

The two nursing licensure exams in Texas are the NCLEX-PN (LVN exam) and NCLEX-RN (RN exam). The NCLEX-RN determines if a graduate RN has the obtained the knowledge and reasoning skills to become a licensed Registered Nurse. If an experienced LVN can pass the RN board exam, there is no reason they shouldn’t be licensed to practice as an RN, thereby increasing the autonomous nursing workforce in Texas.

I, myself, am a Registered Nurse and have been for 13 years. I have worked with LVNs that have taught me more than I could have ever learned in RN school; things only learned by years of hard work caring for patients and working with doctors and a myriad of other healthcare professionals. I have utilized LVNs as a resource person more times than I can count and know many RNs that would say the same. These LVNs occupy a greatly underutilized position in healthcare and if allowed to take the RN board exams, we could greatly expand the states nursing workforce, which is sorely needed in this time of crisis.

On behalf of ALL nurses, I thank you for your consideration and support.