Archive - Licensed Practical Nurses (NOC 3233)
If you are interested in working as a Licensed Practical Nurse in Canada, you will be pleased to know that the job outlook for your occupation in Canada is extremely positive.
You can use this overview of the Canadian employment prospects in your field to start planning your immigration and settlement in Canada.
Important statistics for this occupation:
- Canada is in need of health workers across the country, as demand for health services is growing faster than the labour market can meet.
- More than half of Licensed Practical Nurses in Canada were over 54 in the year 2006, meaning that vacancies are likely to grow as more nurses retire.
- Nurses in Quebec must receive provincial certification in order to practice in Canada.
- Graduates in nursing fields have the highest rates of employment out of all occupational training fields.
- 51% of Licensed Practical Nurses work in hospitals, 37% in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, and 4% in community health centres.
- Women hold more than 90% of jobs in this field.
- This job often includes flexible hours and schedules.
- In Ontario, workers in this field make on average $50,000 a year.
Duties for Licensed Practical Nurses
Licensed practical nurses provide nursing care usually under the direction of medical practitioners, registered nurses or other health team members. They are employed in hospitals, nursing homes, extended care facilities, rehabilitation centres, doctors' offices, clinics, companies, private homes and community health centres. Operating room technicians are included in this unit group.
Description of Main Duties
Licensed practical nurses perform some or all of the following duties:
- Provide nursing services, within defined scope of practice, to patients based on patient assessment and care planning procedures
- Perform nursing interventions such as taking vital signs, applying aseptic techniques including sterile dressing, ensuring infection control, monitoring nutritional intake and conducting specimen collection
- Administer medication and observe and document therapeutic effects
- Provide pre-operative and post-operative personal and comfort care
- Monitor established respiratory therapy and intravenous therapy
- Monitor patients' progress, evaluate effectiveness of nursing interventions and consult with appropriate members of healthcare team
- Provide safety and health education to individuals and their families.
- Operating room technicians perform some or all of the following duties:
- Prepare patients for surgery by washing, shaving and sterilizing the patients' operative areas
- Assist in surgery by laying out instruments, setting up equipment, assisting surgical teams with gowns and gloves and passing instruments to surgeons
- Clean and sterilize the operating room and instruments
Example job titles for Licensed Practical Nurses:
- Certified nursing assistant (CNA)
- Licensed nursing assistant
- Licensed practical nurse (LPN)
- Operating room technician
- Registered nursing assistant (RNA)
- Registered practical nurse (RPN)
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