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.

Employment requirements

• Completion of a vocational, college or other approved program for licensed practical nurses is required.

• Registration with a regulatory body is required in all provinces and territories.

• Completion of the Canadian Practical Nurse Registration Examination is required in all provinces and territories except Quebec.

• Operating room technicians require either additional academic training in operating room techniques or on-the-job training.