Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses
Care for ill, injured, or convalescing patients or persons with disabilities in hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, private homes, group homes, and similar institutions. May work under the supervision of a registered nurse. Licensing required.
- Median pay
- $64,400
- Doing it now
- 666,900
- By 2035
- Up 3%
- Usually needs
- Postsecondary nondegree award
a year
across the country
51,800 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Observe patients, charting and reporting changes in patients' conditions, such as adverse reactions to medication or treatment, and taking any necessary action.
- Administer prescribed medications or start intravenous fluids, noting times and amounts on patients' charts.
- Answer patients' calls and determine how to assist them.
- Measure and record patients' vital signs, such as height, weight, temperature, blood pressure, pulse, or respiration.
- Provide basic patient care or treatments, such as taking temperatures or blood pressures, dressing wounds, treating bedsores, giving enemas or douches, rubbing with alcohol, massaging, or performing catheterizations.
- Help patients with bathing, dressing, maintaining personal hygiene, moving in bed, or standing and walking.
- Supervise nurses' aides or assistants.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Practical Nursing, Vocational Nursing and Nursing AssistantsSee 15 colleges that teach it
Who it suits
O*NET scores every occupation on six interest dimensions. This one leans hardest on these three.
Helping and teaching
Hands-on and practical
Organised and precise
Careers like this one
Where this comes from: the description and the task list are O*NET, which the Department of Labor maintains. Pay, workforce size, outlook and the education normally needed are the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections programme, 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections. Half of them earn more than $64,400 a year, which means half earn less, and what you would earn depends on where you work and how long you have been doing it. The fields of study come from the National Center for Education Statistics crosswalk.