Dialysis LPN: Responsibilities & Career Path

Typical duties for an LPN, or licensed practical nurse, include providing day to day patient care such as taking vital signs and dispensing medications. Whereas it takes about four years to get a degree as a registered nurse (RN), you can generally get an LPN certificate in less than one year.

Dialysis LPN

• When someone's kidneys fail to function normally, dialysis is required to help cleanse the blood. The dialysis LPN will collect vital data, such as blood pressure, temperature, height, weight and current medications. The dialysis LPN also helps the patient by explaining the procedure and answering questions.

Training

• To become a dialysis LPN you must learn all the functions of dialysis equipment and know how to administer the treatment to patients. The treatment can be administered either through a dialysis machine or by a catheter inserted into the patient's abdomen.

Certification

• You must first pass your state's LPN nursing exam. Thereafter, to become a dialysis LPN, you must take the Certified Dialysis Nursing Examination, which requires textbook study and hands-on clinical experience with dialysis procedures.

Salary Expectations

• As of October 2010, the average salary of a dialysis LPN in the United States was $41,000, which was $1,000 higher than the average salary of an LPN, according to Simply Hired.