Home health licensed practical nurse job description
A home health licensed practical nurse makes the nursing visits an RN case manager has planned. They compare vital signs with the ordered limits, do wound and catheter care, give shots and teach patients. When something changes, they call the RN the same day.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, home health care agencies · BLS, May 2025
We're looking for a Licensed Practical Nurse to make skilled home health visits under the direction of our RN Case Managers. You'll follow each patient's plan of care: checking vital signs, caring for wounds, giving treatments and teaching within your scope of practice, and reporting any change to the RN right away.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Make the skilled nursing visits ordered in the plan of care, within your state's scope of practice for LPNs.
Leave comprehensive assessments, OASIS, and plan of care changes to the RN Case Manager.
Check vital signs and symptoms, and compare them with the parameters in the physician's orders.
Give wound care, catheter care, injections, and other treatments the orders call for.
Teach patients and families about medications, diet, and warning signs to watch for.
Report changes in condition to the RN Case Manager the same day, and right away when urgent.
Document each visit accurately in [your EMR].
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Review your visit list and any new orders before heading out.
Call patients ahead to confirm visit times.
Make [5–7] home visits in your assigned area.
Call the RN Case Manager about any patient whose readings fall outside the ordered parameters.
Restock your nursing bag and wound supplies.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Visits completed as ordered: [your target].
Visit notes completed on time: [your target].
Changes in condition reported the same day: [your target].
Documentation errors found on review: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
Active [State] LPN license (LVN in California and Texas), or a multistate LPN license under the Nurse Licensure Compact if your state is a member.
[1+] years of LPN experience.
Current CPR certification at the BLS level.
Valid driver's license, reliable transportation, and auto insurance at the levels we require.
Passes a background check as your state requires.
Keeps patient information private under HIPAA.
6. Preferred Experience
Home health or long-term care experience.
IV or wound care training, where your state allows LPNs to do that work.
Experience documenting on a tablet in [your EMR].
7. Physical Requirements
Driving between homes and walking into homes with stairs and uneven ground.
Bending, kneeling, and reaching to give care, and helping patients move up to [50] pounds with help or equipment.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Patients' homes across [your service area].
Working alone in homes with pets, smoke, clutter, or little space, with the RN Case Manager a phone call away.
Exposure to blood and body fluids, with gloves and other PPE provided.
Schedule: [weekday visits], with a weekend rotation: [your rotation].
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new licensed practical nurse gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
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In a nursing home or hospital, an LPN can usually find an RN down the hall. In home health the RN is a phone call away, and Medicare's rules and the state board decide what the LPN does on each visit.
An RN supervises the nursing
Medicare's rules define a home health LPN as someone who finished a practical nursing program, holds a license from the state they work in, and gives care under a qualified RN's supervision. In practice the LPN works from the RN case manager's plan of care, inside the state's LPN scope. Before anything about the care changes, the LPN checks with that RN. Source: 42 CFR 484.115: Personnel qualifications (Cornell LII).
Working with no RN on site
State boards of nursing set the terms for LPN practice. South Carolina's board, for one, has written guidance for LPNs who work in homes without an RN on site. It says the LPN should have at least a year of good clinical practice, with skills checked and documented by a supervising RN. It also expects a plan for reaching the RN by phone at all times, and a named backup when that RN isn't available. Source: South Carolina Board of Nursing: Advisory Opinion 33, LPN practice without on-site RN supervision (PDF).
Each visit has to need a nurse
Medicare counts a service as skilled nursing only when it needs a licensed nurse's skill, given how complex it is and how sick the patient is. A task the average person could do safely without a nurse supervising isn't skilled, even when no one at home can do it. Teaching the family a task doesn't make the nurse's own work unskilled. The LPN's note should show what needed a nurse. Source: 42 CFR 409.44: Skilled services requirements (Cornell LII).
Aide supervision stays with the RN
Federal rules let only an RN or a therapist make the supervisory checks on a home health aide's work. An LPN on the same case can pass along what they see. But that visit doesn't count as the aide's supervision. Schedulers need to know this before they put an LPN on a visit the RN was due to make. Source: 42 CFR 484.80: Home health aide services (Cornell LII).
Readings outside the orders go to the RN
Orders often set limits for readings such as blood pressure, weight or blood sugar. When a reading falls outside them, or the patient seems different, the LPN calls the RN case manager that day, or right away when it's urgent. The agency then has to alert the ordering doctor or practitioner promptly if the plan may need to change. That alert depends on the LPN's call. Source: 42 CFR 484.60: Care planning, coordination of services, and quality of care (Cornell LII).
How much home health licensed practical nurses make
The closest BLS group for home health licensed practical nurses is licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses. Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses who work for home health care agencies earned a median of $30.57 an hour ($63,580 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about the same as the $64,400 median for licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses in all industries. About 80,990 of the 648,410 licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses in that survey work for home health care agencies.
Hourly or per visit, plus mileage between homes. However you pay, track hours worked, because federal overtime rules cover most LPNs.
Home health care agencies
$63,580$63,580 median Middle half $58,820–$75,130 10th–90th $50,340–$90,950
All industries
$64,400$64,400 median Middle half $59,000–$76,030 10th–90th $49,740–$83,440
$40k$50k$60k$70k$80k$90k$100k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Home health care agencies
$50,340
$58,820
$63,580
$75,130
$90,950
All industries
$49,740
$59,000
$64,400
$76,030
$83,440
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Steady LPN skills in wound care, injections and vital signs, within your state's scope
Calls the RN with clear facts: the reading, the order and what the patient said
Works alone and keeps supplies and paperwork organized out of a car
Charts every visit the same day, accurately
Treats each home and family with respect, whatever its condition
Teach these on the job
Your EMR on a tablet, from visit notes to e-signatures
What Medicare counts as a skilled visit and how to show it in the note
Your route planning and visit confirmation calls
Your nursing bag setup and supply ordering
When to call the RN case manager and when to call the on-call line
LPNs document each visit in the EMR on a tablet and carry a nursing bag with a blood pressure cuff, thermometer, pulse oximeter, glucometer and wound supplies. If you supply the tablet and the bag, or pay a mileage rate, put that in the ad.
Home health licensed practical nurse interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
Start each target from what your LPNs do now, from the EMR's visit and note reports, and raise it as routes and caseloads settle.
Visits completed as ordered
Visits made in the week the plan of care calls for, out of all ordered visits, from the EMR's missed visit report. Each missed visit gets a reason and a note in the chart.
Visit notes completed on time
Notes finished and synced within your policy's window after each visit. Check the late note report every week; a steady pattern of late notes often means the route has too many visits.
Changes in condition reported the same day
Out-of-range readings or new symptoms in visit notes, matched to a same-day call or text to the RN. Audit a sample of notes each month for changes that were charted but never called in.
Documentation errors found on review
Errors found in a monthly sample of this nurse's notes, such as missing readings, unsigned entries or care not in the orders. Count them per note reviewed and coach on the most common one.
Career path
Home health aideLearns home visits and personal care, then finishes a practical nursing program.
Licensed practical nurseMakes skilled visits under an RN case manager's plan of care.
Intake coordinatorSome LPNs move to the office to check referrals and orders before start of care.
RN case managerCompletes an LPN-to-RN bridge, passes the RN exam and takes a caseload.
Can an LPN do the start of care visit in home health?
No. A registered nurse makes the first assessment visit and completes the full assessment. The exception is a therapy-only case, where a therapist can do both. CMS's OASIS manual says an LPN or LVN can't be the one who completes the assessment and OASIS. Once the RN has opened the case, an LPN can make many of the ordered visits in between.
How much does a home health licensed practical nurse make?
Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses who work for home health care agencies earned a median of $30.57 an hour ($63,580 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $58,820 and $75,130 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
Are home health LPNs exempt from overtime?
Generally not. The Labor Department says LPNs don't count as exempt learned professionals, however much experience they have. The reason is that an advanced degree isn't a standard entry requirement for the job. So they are owed overtime. That holds whether you pay hourly or per visit. Track every hour worked, charting time included, and ask your payroll provider or employment lawyer how per-visit pay becomes an overtime rate.
How much experience should a home health LPN bring?
The template sets a floor of one year as an LPN, with home health or long-term care as a plus. Nursing home LPNs know wound care, chronic illness and families who ask a lot of questions. What they need to learn is working alone, planning a route and writing a note that shows why the visit needed a nurse.
How many visits a day is fair for a home health LPN?
The template leaves a bracket for you to fill. Set it from your own routes, not another agency's number. A day of quick checks in one town is very different from three long wound care visits an hour apart. Count drive time, charting time and the calls to the RN, then ask your LPNs whether the day you've drawn is one they can finish.
