Like much of the rest of the country, Atlanta is suffering from an acute shortage of qualified nurses to fill the growing number of Atlanta nursing jobs. This shortage is a result of the aging population of existing nurses and a lack of capacity in the region's training centers. Most of these Atlanta nursing job openings are in hospitals and home care agencies. Atlanta's largest hospitals include: Grady Memorial Hospital, St. Joseph's Hospital of Atlanta and Emory University Hospital.
Licensed practical nurses (LPN) working in Texas or California are called licensed vocational nurses (LVN). Licensed vocational nurses provide basic bedside patient care under the direction of physicians and registered nurses. Training programs last about a year, offered at community colleges, vocation schools, and technical colleges. An individual must pass the NCLEX-PN, which is a state licensing examination, required to work as a licensed vocational nurse. License vocational nurses oversee the bedside care provided by nursing assistants. Licensed vocational nurses are also known as registered practical nurse in Ontario, as enrolled nurses in Australia, and as state enrolled nurses in the United Kingdom.