Job description Licensed Practical Nurse (L.P.N.) in Canada

Find out what work is like for a licensed practical nurse (L.P.N.) in Canada. This work description is applicable to all Licensed practical nurses (NOC 32101).

Licensed practical nurses

Description

Licensed practical nurses provide nursing care usually under the direction of medical practitioners, registered nurses or other health team members. Operating room technicians prepare patients and provide assistance to medical practitioners prior to and during surgery. Licensed practical nurses 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 employed in hospitals.

Job duties

Here are some of the main activities and tasks that Licensed practical nurses have to perform, and some of the physical demands they involve:

  • Licensed practical nurses
  • 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 and document effectiveness of nursing interventions and collaborate with appropriate members of health care team
  • Provide safety and health education to individuals and their families.
  • Operating room technicians
  • 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
  • Monitor patients' status during surgery, such as intake, output and loss of blood, and communicate and document any changes
  • Clean and sterilize the operating room and instruments.

Physical demands

Physical demands are the physical activities that the job requires the worker to do. Physical demands are selected according to the likeliness that workers will have to perform them for at least half of the time they spend at work.

Work environment

The work environment refers to the physical setting in which people work. The characteristics and conditions of the work environment are selected according to the likeliness that workers will be exposed to them at least once a week.

Physical proximity from others

Physical proximity from others refers to the physical distance between individuals in the workplace. The likeliness that the job requires to perform tasks while being physically close to other people is rated on a scale with 3 levels: "Somewhat close", "Close" and "Very close".

Related job titles

Here are some other related job titles that are found in the same occupational category (NOC 32101), and a list of similar occupations:

  • graduate nursing assistant
  • licensed practical nurse (L.P.N.)
  • operating room technician
  • registered nursing assistant (R.N.A.)

Similar occupations Help - Similar occupations

Similar occupations

This section lists other occupations that are part of the same broad occupational category as Licensed practical nurses in the National Occupational Classification (NOC). These occupations involve similar core qualifications but involve different responsibilities. To see more similar occupations, use the Job Transition Tool.

Sources Occupational and Skills Information System & National Occupational Classification

Labour Market Information Survey
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