Dialysis staff nurse salary in US

Specialties Urology

Published

Hello,

I just want to ask if anyone here knows the salary or an average salary of a dialysis staff nurse in New York or in any other state in US? Thanks. :)

DaVita does not have personnel that arrive at a hospital or out patient clinic & take over. The staff at a hospital or dialysis clinic is divested by the current owner & acquired by DaVita. There is a limited number of DaVita employees, for example an experienced FA that will come in & assist the newly acquired staff to learn & start following DaVita policy & procedures. A CNS will have a training day or 2, teaching the specific's of DaVita policies. The newly acquired staff is expected to read all policies, & take numerous on line training classes or competencies. Of course some staff will quit or refuse to work with DaVita, so new employees are hired. This doesn't happen in a few weeks or months. More like a year or more before the realities of the acquisition are in place.

There are some hospitals, where the hospital keeps their own staff, pays their own staff, but DaVita manages them. I don't know how that works. In hospitals where the staff is "acquired" by Davita, there is a big culture shock for nurses that used to work together. For example, a hospital owned dialysis nurse, is doing everything for the pt. when the pt. is in their care. Changing IV's, changing Pain pump bags or syringes. If it's a hospital where DaVita now employs the dialysis nurses, all of that comes to a screeching halt. The DaVita RN is hired/paid to do dialysis only. The majority of all pt. care is to be done by the hospital personal. Of course a dialysis nurse does give some pain meds & other meds that are ordered by the nephrologist. A DaVita dialysis RN will give emergency care until the hospital nurse or team is there. You follow the nephrologist orders. If another dept. Dr. comes in and orders xyz dressing change now, the hospital nurse will need to come and do that.

I do not know the specifics of Aurora. I do not know if the hospital kept their nurses or divested them to DaVita. In general hospital staff will consider dialysis staff lazy when all of a sudden they are refusing to hang IV's & other care, when in the past they did all those things.

DaVita Dialysis personnel function like any other contracted employees that come & do a specific task. You can compare them to an EEG technician who comes in & prepares the pt. & does an EEG only. If the IV pump beeps, the hospital nurse has to come fix it, if the pt. needs specific care, an NA or RN will be called in to do it. Hospitals who had their own dialysis RN's can be extremely spoiled. They send the dialysis pt. to the dialysis nurse when they feel like it. Maybe after other tests have been done all day. There is a lot of down time for hospital owned dialysis nurses. They create work for themselves, waiting for pts. sort of like an ER staff waiting for pts.

When a "for profit" dialysis company is contracted to take care of dialysis pts. They don't pay RN's & tech's to sit around waiting for pts. or take one pt each to get their hours, etc. It's time management & efficiency. If there are no pts. you go home. If there are no orders for the following day, you don't come in. There is of course someone on call for emergent runs. DaVita managers have to learn the business end or they are gone in a hurry. Some DaVita managers have business degrees. Everything is done according to the contract.

You have got my curiosity up now. I will find out one way or another if Aurora divested their staff or if they kept them. If DaVita has to manage a dialysis unit, staffed by personal that is paid by the hospital. That could be a real challenge. DaVita would need to be doing frequent audits. When someone is sitting there with a clipboard watching your every move, it isn't a whole lot of fun. If you are a nurse that has been "acquired" you go from being a respected, well liked teammate to being treated like a "leper" by the teammates you used to work with.

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.

I work in Ohio

Ohio has for over 10 years required Dialysis techs to do the Bonnet exam and become licensed, a few years ago it became a requirement for the rest of the country.

There have been so many changes within the dialysis community since 2011 when Bundling came to be part of our reality.

Davita offers high quality training and a great career ladder for staff, it is true it is a business but it also cares.

I know here in Ohio there are so many opportunities for nurses and techs, lots of education and no expense spared.

There are lots of rules and regulations but they are there to protect the patients, there is a policy and procedure in place for all aspects of Dialysis from the water room, through treatment and to the pt leaving the building.

Best practice is the key.

Yes you are busy, yes you do have fun, yes there are days! (but what position in health care doesn't have those days).

No company is perfect but Davita is pretty much perfect in my eyes!

Acquisitions are painful especially if you were physician owned or hospital based, Dialysis companies have so many more P&P than hospitals and here in Ohio, the state can be vicious and they hold dialysis companies accountable.

Acquisitions probably take 12 months - 18 months to settle, it is a hard process both for the acquired staff and the training staff. Resentment and negativity are normal, but it is what it is and jobs tend to be secure.

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Sophiesmom, are you an RN or LVN?

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Just hired by Fresenius in Nashville $28.50 hr! No experience in dialysis

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Acute/Chronic Hemodialysis.

Texas I make 32/hr with experience.

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New nurse, no experience $29.50 an hour, NJ.

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Specializes in Dialysis.

New nurse, no experience $28 AZ

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hi fellow RNs! Just want to share that I am receiving $10 per hr as Staff RN in a dialysis center (x1.5 after 8hrs)... I have no experience... I accept the job because no employer would hire an employee without related-experience... I live in southern California!

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Specializes in Nephrology, Dialysis, Plasmapheresis.
hi fellow RNs! Just want to share that I am receiving $10 per hr as Staff RN in a dialysis center (x1.5 after 8hrs)... I have no experience... I accept the job because no employer would hire an employee without related-experience... I live in southern California!

Excuse me, you are working for $10/hour?! How is this even possible? In California?! This is ridiculous! You need to find a new job ASAP and don't settle for something this low with your education!

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hi fellow RNs! Just want to share that I am receiving $10 per hr as Staff RN in a dialysis center (x1.5 after 8hrs)... I have no experience... I accept the job because no employer would hire an employee without related-experience... I live in southern California!

What?? 10/hr for RN? That couldn't be possible. They're definitely taking advantage of you. I'm an LVN and I make more than that (no offense) I, too live in SoCal. ;/

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Excuse me, you are working for $10/hour?! How is this even possible? In California?! This is ridiculous! You need to find a new job ASAP and don't settle for something this low with your education!

Thank you for your concern. At first, I was hesitant to accept the job, but on second thought, I might as well grab this chance to earn experience because nobody hires me because I have no experience. For now, I am hopeful that they will adjust my salary when I finish my 3-month probationary period... and that will be next month! Hope they will give me the wage scale that is due a BSN-RN.

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What?? 10/hr for RN? That couldn't be possible. They're definitely taking advantage of you. I'm an LVN and I make more than that (no offense) I, too live in SoCal. ;/

Hi! Likewise, I find it hard to believe that RNs can possibly be paid with a very low wage. You certainly have a point, but on the other side, I thought I might as well accept this job- earn a bit, and get the most experience! Otherwise, I will forever search and apply to employers who would not hire RNs that doesnt have a minimum experience of 1yr in acute setting!!

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