Healthcare · Helping & Teaching
Registered practical nurse: what the job actually is
Hands-on nursing care for stable patients, from giving medications to watching for the small change that means something is wrong.
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The work
What this job actually is
- A regulated nurse who provides direct patient care: giving medications, dressing wounds, taking vital signs, monitoring patients and recording everything. You are with patients more than almost anyone else in the building.
- In Ontario, RPNs, registered nurses and nurse practitioners are all regulated by the College of Nurses of Ontario. RPNs and RNs share a lot of work and overlap in many settings, but the education is different and so is the scope. For example, the RPN entry-to-practice competencies are a separate document from the RN one.
- RPNs work in hospitals, long-term care homes, retirement homes, home care and doctors' offices. Job Bank lists hospitals, nursing and residential care and home health care among the main employers.
- The work is often about many patients at once: a medication round, a dressing, a patient who needs help getting up, a family member who needs an answer.
- Each setting has its own character. A long-term care home is a different job from a hospital ward, and it is worth experiencing both before choosing.
A Tuesday
What a normal day looks like
Not a good day or a bad one. The ordinary version, which is what you would actually be living.
- 6:45 — Arrive for a day shift, take handover from the night nurse and read which residents or patients had a bad night.
- 7:30 — Medication round. Right patient, right drug, right dose, right time, checked each time, with the same patients asking when breakfast is.
- 9:00 — Wound care for one patient, a blood pressure and temperature check for another, and a call to the RN or doctor about something you do not like the look of.
- 10:30 — A patient who is confused and frightened. You spend ten minutes you do not have, because it matters.
- 12:00 — A short, fast lunch break, ideally at a table and ideally uninterrupted.
- 12:30 — Charting. Everything you did and observed is documented, because if it is not written down it did not happen.
- 13:30 — A family member is upset. You listen, explain what you can and know when to bring in somebody more senior.
- 15:00 — Second medication round and a fall that has to be checked and reported.
- 17:30 — Handover to the evening team. You give them a clear picture of every patient, in order of who needs attention first.
- 18:00 — Home. Your feet hurt, your head is full and you are already thinking about tomorrow.
Honestly
Who loves this, and who should not do it
The second list is the useful one. Nearly every careers page leaves it out, which is why nearly every careers page reads like an advert.
- You want to work directly with patients for most of the day, not behind a desk.
- You are patient and calm with people who are frightened, confused or in pain.
- You like a job with a clear, structured routine and a team around you.
- You want a college route into healthcare that does not need a university degree first.
- You are comfortable with the physical, personal side of care.
- You cannot do shift work. Hospitals and care homes run all day and night, including weekends and holidays.
- You find caring for patients who are dying, confused or in distress too heavy. You will see a lot of it.
- Physical demands bother you. Lifting, turning and moving patients is a real injury risk, and long hours on your feet are normal.
- You dislike being stretched thin. Many settings have more patients per nurse than anybody wants.
- You want the same scope as a registered nurse. The education and the scope are different, and some RPNs later bridge to RN for that reason.
- Getting in is competitive. One Ontario college says admission to its practical nursing programme is highly competitive and applicants are ranked on academic strength.
The route in
How you actually get there in Ontario
Finish high school with English, maths and sciences
Seneca Polytechnic lists an OSSD or equivalent, with Grade 12 English, Grade 12 maths or Grade 11 university maths, Grade 11 biology and a physics or chemistry course. Check each college you are interested in, because the lists vary.Complete a CNO-approved practical nursing programme
At Seneca it is an Ontario College Diploma over five semesters, which is two years. The College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) says you must have CNO-approved or recognised nursing education and that RPN registration includes an examination.Pass the REx-PN
The Regulatory Exam for Practical Nurses is the RPN registration exam. The CNO says there is no limit on the number of attempts, you can write up to six times per year with at least 60 days between attempts, and your application stays open for two years.Register with the CNO, then decide whether to bridge later
Only CNO registrants can call themselves nurses in Ontario. Later, some RPNs choose to continue their education to become registered nurses, which is a separate programme and a separate registration.
Where this comes from: College of Nurses of Ontario — Become a nurse · CNO — RPN registration examinations (REx-PN) · Seneca Polytechnic — Practical Nursing admission requirements
The money
What it pays in Ontario
Job Bank's own figures, quoted rather than summarised, with the period they describe — so you can tell how old they are and go and check them.
- $25.32
- Low (hourly)
- $31.00
- Median (hourly)
- $37.94
- High (hourly)
Ontario, NOC 32101. Reference period 2023-2024, last updated by Job Bank on 19 November 2025. Wages vary a lot by region inside Ontario and by how long you have been doing it — the low figure is roughly where you start, not what the job is worth.
Source: Job Bank — Registered practical nurse wages in Ontario
Where it is heading
The outlook for the next three years
Job Bank publishes a three-year outlook for every job in every province. It is the closest thing to an honest forecast, and it moves, so read it as a weather report rather than a verdict.
Good4 out of 5 stars
- Employment growth will lead to several new positions.
- Not many positions will become available due to retirements.
- There are a small number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation.
What that rating means: how many openings Job Bank expects in Ontario for this kind of work against how many people are likely to be looking — not whether it is a good job. A “limited” rating means more competition for each opening; it does not close the door, and it can change before you are ready to walk through it.
What is changing in this work
- Increased need for health-related services to support the growing and aging population in Ontario
- Greater demand on the health care system because of the backlog of medical procedures and patient care needs
- Major investments in health care facilities
- Initiatives to improve home and community-based patient care services
Who hires for it
- Hospitals
- Nursing and residential care facilities
- Home health care service providers and offices of physicians
- 23,600
- people work in this job in Ontario
- 89%
- are women (48% across all jobs)
- 5%
- are self-employed (15% across all jobs)
Source: Job Bank — Licensed practical nurses job prospects in Ontario (NOC 32101). Outlook updated by Job Bank on 10 December 2025; read by us on 5 October 2026.
Before you leave school
Things you can do now
- Take the sciences and maths courses a practical nursing programme asks for. The admission is ranked on marks.
- Do your volunteer hours somewhere that involves caring for people, such as a long-term care home, a hospital volunteer programme or a seniors' centre.
- Ask your school about co-op placements in health care. A week on a ward or in a care home tells you more than any pamphlet.
- Read the CNO's pages on RPN and RN side by side so you understand the difference before you choose.
Test it
Do this before you decide anything
Reading about a job tells you almost nothing. This is designed to be done alone, this week, for free.
Spend an afternoon doing personal care well
About 90 minutes- Ask a relative, neighbour or family friend who would like company whether you could help with a task, such as a walk, tidying, reading aloud or a meal. Do not provide medical care.
- Pay attention to how you feel being close to someone slower or less able. Do you find patience easy, or are you counting minutes?
- Look up the CNO's explanation of the difference between RPN and RN and write down which description fits you better.
- Read the admission requirements for one college practical nursing programme and note which you already meet.
What it tells you. If the afternoon felt worthwhile and the patience came without effort, that is a real signal for work built on closeness and routine care. If you found yourself restless, or the personal side of care made you uncomfortable, it is better to learn it now, because the job is exactly that for many hours at a time.
Better than any article
Questions for somebody who does this job
Most people say yes to a teenager who asks good questions. These are the ones that get real answers rather than encouragement.
- “What is the difference between your work and an RN's in your workplace?”
- “How do you cope with the physical side of the job?”
- “What is a long-term care home like compared with a hospital?”
- “How do you manage the emotional side when a patient dies?”
- “Would you recommend the RPN route, or going straight for RN, and why?”
- “How do you handle shift work and family life?”
Could you own one of these?
The part other career sites never mention
Occasionally. Job Bank's workforce data shows a small share of RPNs are self-employed, for example providing private care or running a foot-care or home-care service. It brings insurance, clients, scheduling and the regulator's rules, so most RPNs are employees.
Not sure this is the right list to be reading
Start from yourself, not from the job.
Future Finder is free, takes about ten minutes, needs no account and stores nothing. It will tell you which kinds of work you lean toward, and which of these pages are worth your time.
Parent of a teenager weighing this up? Career coaching for teens gets them talking to people who do the work, anywhere in Ontario.
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Wages and training requirements change. Every figure on this page is linked to the body that publishes it, and the review date above says when we last checked. If you find something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.