What's the difference between all the different types of nurses? I.e. RN, LVN, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Discharge Planner, etc? What's their scope of practice, general duties, where they're generally found, etc. is there a "pecking order" in terms of level of care (for example I know a Paramedic is higher than an AEMT, which is higher than an EMT-B and so on)
While I'm at it, where does a Physicians Assistant rank? And is there a difference between a Doctor and a Physician?
The Nursing pecking order is:
RN
LVN
CNA
Discharge Planners, Clinical Nurse Specialists, and so on all have their own scopes of practice and they're trained specifically for those jobs after they've completed RN school. Each type of RN has their own scope of practice and what that is depends upon the training/education they've had. For instance, an ICU nurse may be allowed to do more things than a Med/Surg nurse because of the education received during their unit orientation. A discharge planner RN may not have started a line or given meds in YEARS but would know all the facilities that are willing to take patients with a certain insurance provider and for what reasons.
The RN can do the admission assessments, can push meds, hang blood, hang antibiotics, and so on. They can supervise LVN's and CNA's. They have the widest scope of the nurse levels. The LVN/LPN is a lower level and may be allowed to start IV's, hang blood with an RN, but may not be allowed to hang antibiotics or any other piggyback med. Primarily they "collect data" and actually can do MOST of what an RN does, but there are just some things that only an RN can do. A CNA does a LOT of the basic grunt-work of nursing. Bed changes, bed baths, toileting, vital sign collection, feeding, and so on. Each level can do the duties of the levels below, so an RN can do all the things a CNA can do... but a good CNA can make an RN's or LVN's life so much easier.
The PA is a "mid level" provider, as is a Nurse Practitioner. They fit between the Physician and the Nurse. PA's are completely dependent upon the Physician for their OK to work, though the level of supervision may vary. The NP
may be independent or
may be required to have a collaborative agreement with a Physician. This is state-dependent. The NP is also going to be very specialized, where the PA is more of a generalist but can still get more training in a specific area.
As said before, go to
HTTP://allnurses.com for MUCH more specific info about what each level of RN does and how all the specialties fit together.
