Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) job description

The license is the gate, and reaching it takes about a year in a state-approved practical nursing program plus a passing score on the licensing exam; the typical credential is a postsecondary nondegree award. Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses care for people who are ill, injured, or recovering, tracking vital signs, giving prescribed medications, keeping patients comfortable, documenting everything, and reporting up to registered nurses and physicians. Nursing and residential care facilities hold 37 percent of the 666,900 jobs counted in 2025, hospitals 16 percent, home healthcare services 12 percent, and physicians' offices 11 percent. Shifts can run past eight hours and land on nights, weekends, or holidays. Median pay was $64,400 in May 2025, or $30.96 an hour, from $49,740 at the tenth percentile to $83,440 at the ninetieth.

Core Duties and Responsibilities

Nothing in the task list outranks observing patients, charting and reporting what changes, including an adverse reaction to a medication or treatment, and taking the necessary action. Vital signs come next, then administering prescribed medications or starting intravenous fluids and noting the time and amount on the chart. Basic treatment fills much of the rest: dressing wounds, treating bedsores, catheterizations, and assembling catheters, tracheotomy tubes, and oxygen equipment. An LPN also supervises the aides and assistants on the floor, collects blood, urine, and sputum samples, runs routine tests on them, and checks food trays against the prescribed diet.

Common Skills and Technologies

The skills add up to watching people closely and telling someone in time: putting the patient first, then coordinating a floor and reading them accurately, then monitoring what changes. Charting happens in Epic Systems, eClinicalWorks, or MEDITECH. Zoom turns up as well, and inventory software, which is what the supply cupboard runs on in home care and long-term care.

Education, Training, and Career Path

Education across the field spreads wider than the credential suggests. The largest group arrived with some college courses behind them, the next largest with a certificate from a training program, and the rest hold an associate degree or a bachelor's. Army 68C Practical Nursing Specialist is the cleanest match in the Military Crosswalk, since it points straight at this license rather than at adjacent work. Reported titles reach from clinic and triage nurse to private duty and radiation oncology nurse.

Sources: O*NET 30.0, 29-2061.00 Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses, https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/29-2061.00. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, 29-2061, https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes292061.htm.