Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN)

This is practical nursing work in the care and treatment of individuals with a mental or physical injury or illness and / or developmental disability or the care of individuals having difficulty meeting their daily living activities at a Commonwealth facility.

A resource implements nursing care plans by performing a variety of practical nursing and individual / patient / resident / inmate care duties including preparing, administering, and recording medications and treatments prescribed by the physician and observing and reporting changes in the physical and emotional behavior of individuals / patients / residents / inmates with a mental or physical injury or illness and / or developmental disability or individuals having difficulty meeting their daily living activities.

Work also includes taking and recording vital signs, collecting specimens and preparing and maintaining progress notes and other administrative reports as required.

Work also involves participation in carrying out the total treatment program to include habilitation and rehabilitation programs as established by the interdisciplinary treatment team and include daily living and leisure time activities.

Work may also involve charge responsibility for a living or patient care area, including responsibility for maintenance of prescribed treatment and therapeutic regimens;

overseeing unlicensed personnel; and requesting professional evaluation, treatment or emergency care, as needed. Work is performed in accordance with established laws, rules, and regulations, and appropriate practical nursing standards and nursing procedures.

Supervision may be received from a Licensed Practical Nurse Supervisor however, by law, nursing duties which require licensure are performed under the direction of a Registered Nurse or a Physician who reviews the work in progress, through reports and by ward or living area inspections and observations.

Nurses are expected to be competent in the following areas at a minimum but not limited to : airway insertion, first aid, catheter insertion, AED, administering oxygen,, IV therapy, heparin lock insertion and irrigation, medication administration, injections, treatments , vital signs, nursing protocols, participating in the plan of care, ambu bag, audiogram testing, medications, telebinocular testing, universal / standard precautions, catheter care, catheter insertion, perineal care, documentation of IV therapy, heparin lock insertion, and irrigation, initation and care of tubing, care of a heparin well, parenteral management , secondary medications, use of IV infusion pump, use of manual flow regulator.