LPN vs EMT?

What exactly is the difference? There is a job at a public school for an LPN. I am an EMT (or will be, pending my results next week) and it was suggested to me that "You can get hired under an EMT certification at a public school as a Health Assistant. The pay really sucks, but it is pretty good practice for assessment/first aid/medication administration."

I'm not sure if the Health assistant is just a different name for a school nurse or what. Either way, I'd still like to know what the difference is, besides the obvious pre-hospital vs hospital experience.

Thanks!

Update:

I guess I'm looking for an answer more in terms of scope of practice. I understand an LPN has a certificate from a community college and an RN has a 2 or 4 year degree but I'm not sure what the difference is in terms of scope of practice.

Comments

  • an LPN can carry out the same duties as a nurse that are just less complicated and they work under a nurse. not really anything close to am EMT :-s i don't think at least...

  • An LPN has to go to school longer and learn a lot different things than a EMT.

    LPN learns patient care in hospital, nursing home, etc. They learn the medications, side effects, dosages, body structure and function, dietary, etc.

    The EMT learns emergency medical response into more depth than an LPN and don't go into as much depth on patient care and long term care.

    I went to LPN school in the early 1970s and EMT in the 1980s and they were totally different except for the body parts section.

    I can see where a school would want an LPN before an EMT.

  • Well an LPN is a licensed practical nurse, which means that you can treat patients in a hospital setting (or maybe a school). I think an EMT is 'under' and LPN so I cannot imagine the pay is any good. An LPN program is usually 12 months. I hope this helped.

  • LPN, I think. They make $20 on average. You can also bridge to RN if you're an LPN.

  • emt rides around in the truck and are sent to emergencies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_medical_tec...

    an lpn is a nurse who works in a hospital or an assisted living facility

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LPN

    LPNs are nurses the only ones in charge of them or RNs after that it's nursing supervisors who are mostly RNs if there isn't an RN on the floor, who get paid more than an LPN but if there is no other RN on the floor than the LPN becomes the charge nurse

  • well for one i know lpn's have to take state boards and also have to go through all types of hands on experience for differnet levels of care, emt's usually is just on seen care, first responder, not to say that being an emt is not as important, but both are taught in different ways to handle things, dont know why that is but it is how the world works i guess, i would guess that they call you a health assistant because you are not licensed as a nurse

  • An LPN is like an associate degree......Its 2 yrs of nursing school. The RN is a 4 year degree. Of course RNs get more pay and have more responsibility.

  • An LPN can work in a more diversified setting and doesn't have quite as high of a burn-out rate that EMTs do.

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