Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses
Care for ill, injured, or convalescing patients or persons with disabilities in hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, private homes, group homes, and similar institutions. May work under the supervision of a registered nurse. Licensing required.
648,410 people do this job in the US. $64,400 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 8%
- 0%
- 92%
Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 4.4 h long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 1%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 8%. Today's estimate: 8%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
The tasks
Sorted by . 22 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supervise nurses' aides or assistants.Done daily by most who do it. | 15% | 25 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Work as part of a healthcare team to assess patient needs, plan and modify care, and implement interventions.Done daily by most who do it. | 13% | 38 min17 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Provide basic patient care or treatments, such as taking temperatures or blood pressures, dressing wounds, treating bedsores, giving enemas or douches, rubbing with alcohol, massaging, or performing catheterizations.Done daily by most who do it. | 8% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Observe patients, charting and reporting changes in patients' conditions, such as adverse reactions to medication or treatment, and taking any necessary action.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 17 min8 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Provide medical treatment or personal care to patients in private home settings, such as cooking, keeping rooms orderly, seeing that patients are comfortable and in good spirits, or instructing family members in simple nursing tasks.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Help patients with bathing, dressing, maintaining personal hygiene, moving in bed, or standing and walking.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Administer prescribed medications or start intravenous fluids, noting times and amounts on patients' charts.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Evaluate nursing intervention outcomes, conferring with other healthcare team members as necessary.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 17 min8 min to 38 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Set up equipment and prepare medical treatment rooms.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Assemble and use equipment, such as catheters, tracheotomy tubes, or oxygen suppliers.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 17 min8 min to 33 min | Stays with people | |
| Answer patients' calls and determine how to assist them.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 7 min3 min to 17 min | Stays with people | |
| Sterilize equipment and supplies, using germicides, sterilizer, or autoclave.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).