32101 Licensed practical nurses

What this occupation covers

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.

Official main duties

The NOC profile lists 11 main duties for this code.

• 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.
• 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.

Do not copy these lines into your reference letter. The letter has to describe what you actually did, in your employer’s words. DUTYPROOF flags wording lifted from the NOC as something to review, and an officer reading a letter that mirrors the NOC reads it the same way.

What DUTYPROOF screens for

This is DUTYPROOF’s screening threshold, not IRCC’s decision. For this NOC, screening requires at least 2 of its 11 official duties to be evidenced in your own words, plus the required letter elements. IRCC asks that you performed the actions in the occupation’s lead statement and a substantial number of its main duties — so treat the duty coverage as the number that matters, not the badge.

Codes this one is confused with

The NOC profile names these itself. Choosing the wrong code of a look-alike pair is the most common way genuine work experience fails to establish eligibility.

• 44101 Home support workers, caregivers and related occupations
• 33102 Nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates

Excluded from this code

• Home support workers, caregivers and related occupations (See 44101 Home support workers, caregivers and related occupations)
• Nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates (See 33102 Nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates)

Job titles filed under this code

A title on this list does not by itself put your experience in this code — the duties in your letter decide that.

certified nursing assistant (CNA) · graduate nursing assistant · licensed nursing assistant · licensed practical nurse (L.P.N.) · medical technician - Canadian Armed Forces · nurse educator - cannabis · nursing assistant (registered - Québec) · operating room technician · operating room technician - Canadian Armed Forces · operating room technician - nursing · registered nursing assistant (R.N.A.) · registered practical nurse (R.P.N.) · surgical nursing assistant · surgical technician - nursing

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 a registration examination is required in all provinces and territories.
• Operating room technicians require additional academic training in operating room techniques.