Explainer
LVN and LPN are the same job with two different names
California and Texas call it a licensed vocational nurse. The other 48 states call it a licensed practical nurse. It is one occupation, one licensing exam, and one federal statistical category. If you are comparing an LVN post in Texas with an LPN post in Ohio, you are comparing two jobs with the same licence.
What is genuinely the same
The exam, the category, the work
Both titles are earned by passing the NCLEX-PN, the same computer-adaptive exam written by the same body, against the same test plan. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts both under one occupation code, 29-2061, “licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses”, which is why every wage figure on this site covers both.
Day to day the work is the same category of work: medication administration, wound care, vital signs, catheters, documentation, and a great deal of direct patient contact, usually under the direction of a registered nurse or physician.
What genuinely differs
Scope, which is set state by state
The name is cosmetic. Scope of practice is not. Every state board decides for itself what this licence may do without direct supervision - intravenous therapy is the classic example, and states differ on whether it requires extra certification, is limited, or is off the table. Two nurses with identical training can have different legal ceilings in different states.
So the question worth asking is never “LVN or LPN”. It is what your specific board permits, and whether your licence transfers where you intend to work. Both California and Texas have their own rules on endorsement from another state, and only one of them participates in the multistate compact.
Get that answer from the board itself rather than from a school’s admissions page: bvnpt.ca.gov for California, bon.texas.gov for Texas.
By the numbers
Where the two titles sit
The 48 practical nursing states employ 511,170 between them. The two vocational nursing states employ 140,410, roughly a fifth of the national workforce in two states.
| Title | Where | Employed | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Licensed vocational nurse | California | 82,850 | $79,750 |
| Licensed vocational nurse | Texas | 57,560 | $62,240 |
| Licensed practical nurse | Everywhere else | 511,170 | $63,760 |
The last median is the middle state rather than a weighted national figure, so it describes a typical state rather than a typical nurse.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025
Practical consequence
When you search for study materials, review books and question banks, search for NCLEX-PN rather than LVN or LPN. Material sold as “LPN review” is the same material; material sold as NCLEX-RN is not, and is a common and expensive mistake.