It's a Myth that it takes thousands of dollars to train a new Grad RN

Nurses New Nurse

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Let me begin by giving some background about my situation. I graduated from a nursing school with an ADN in May 2012 from a school in California. Academically I was # 2 in a class of about 60 students. I looked for a new grad RN position in CA; but, no one would hire me. I would like get some feedback on this myth that hospitals spend thousands of dollars in order to train a new Grad RN (here I am not talking about Versant residency or any training into special units like ICU, NICU etc).

I was hired by and I am currently working in a medical school affiliated hospital with a level 1 trauma center in the state of Texas. The unit that I am currently working in is the Cardiac Step down unit. It's one level below Cardiac ICU and one level above regular Med-Surge floor.

My current wage level is in the mid 20s with differential for nights, weekend, and afternoon. I have received a total of 6 weeks of training. I was signed off on almost all my skills during the first week of hire (Vent, Trach care, Med pass, Blood draws, IV start, Foley, NG etc, etc). During the last 5 weeks of my training my preceptor has been mostly reviewing my charting and helping other Nurses. Here are the hard numbers. I have received total wages of less than $6,000.00 for the 6 weeks of training (this also includes house orientation and computer training (lasted only 6 hours). I don't know how much my preceptor has earned in those 6 weeks; but, I can assume it wasn't more than 9k (70,000/52weeks X 6weeks). I have handled the same pt load as an experienced nurse after my first week on the unit. While most of the time my preceptor has been helping out other nurses on the unit.

I am not including the wages for the instructors for house orientation because there were more than 30 individuals including nurses, techs, dietary, HUC (secretary of the units), maintenance etc, etc. Moreover, since the hospital is in the process of going to computer charting, there were about 35 nurses including new hires and veteran nurses that were present during the computer training.

So the way I look at it, this hospital has spent about a maximum of 10K (wages that my preceptor received during the training) training me. If I wasn't there, the same number of pts would still be cared by an RN. The only difference is those pt were cared by a rookie RN rather than a veteran RN. Also again my preceptor was usually helping out other nurses during this training. It wasn't like she was hovering over me while I was providing care to the patients. Since very few hospitals will hire a new grad, for providing me 10K worth of training for 6 weeks, I will be working for this hospital for at least a year and the hospital will be saving about 20-30K in wages paying me instead of a veteran RN. So for this scenario in the end, the hospital comes out making a profit of at least 10k-20K. Furthermore, I will be replacing an expensive nurse from resource department along with decreasing the overtime wages for the whole unit. So that just goes to increase the profit margin for the hospital.

Finally, I have purchased independently and the hospital also provides for malpractice insurance for nurses. So again I would like to know where is this myth of hospitals spending thousands of dollars to train a new grad coming from. What am I missing here????

To me COBRA statement is like a hospital bill if you don’t have insurance “HIGHLY INFLATED” Not real at all. About a year ago when I was attending nursing school and I received a quote of about $380.00/month for the similar plan that I currently have. Mind you that in the individual insurance marketplace, the consumer has no power what so ever, while the corporations can negotiate and do negotiate discounts all the time. It’s the same as hospital charging $5.00 for 1 81mg aspirin, that I can get 30 at the grocery store for a buck or two!!!!!!

“4:49 am by kylee_adns

I think maybe the additional costs can be from the additional certifications and training besides the preceptorship. I am a newer grad (dec 2011) on a similar step-down unit, and our orientation is almost double yours (10-12 weeks). This of course increases the price. Also there is a lot of additional education besides the orientation. I know I have 100s of hours of computer based training and many, many classes. These include Care of cardiovascular surgery patient, care of thoracotomy patient, ICDs, Pacemakers, ACLS, cardiac drips, etc. I cannot even remember all the classes I have done, and I have 4 in the next month. This is a big investment by the hospital, especially if the nurses do not end up sticking around.”

I don’t think the additional courses that you have taken or will take end up costing hospital 10K. Just google for critical care courses in Southern California and you will come up with companies teaching that course for less than $1,000.00. I already had paid out of my own pocket for ACLS ($240.00) and PALS ($240.00) and arrhythmia certificate course($120.00) before I was hired to the unit. Furthermore, the hospital is not paying the full advertised price for those courses that I had paid. Finally, shockingly the two code blues that did happen during my orientation that I was involved with first hand, the docs failed to follow the ACLS guidelines precisely.

Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.

You are way off base regarding COBRA. The COBRA payment amount is the amount the employer is paying for your health insurance to the insurance company plus a 2% administrative fee to cover the cost of administering the plan.

$60,000 to train a new grad is what managment told me in our preceptor class back in 2007

I can pull out a number from anywhere myself and tell you that it cost this or that amount to train a new grad RN. My original post has specific numbers for my case and if someone else has other numbers than please share. It would be kind of pointless for me to believe that it cost $60,000.00 without any specific costs or breakdown of where this number is being generated from

“4:33 am by ColleenRN2B

There are costs associated with running a business, lots of behind the scenes costs that you can't even begin to imagine. Why don't you straight up ask someone in HR about this "myth" and see what they can tell you? Present your figures and see if they agree with you or can pull out the numbers that will add up to what you've heard it costs to train a new hire.”

I did exactly that about a week ago and the HR lady didn’t have an answer for me. She was surprised that someone would even ask this type of question. I didn’t press the issue further, since I didn’t want to rock the boat and get on a bad side of anyone in the organization.

There are certainly cost associated with running a business. I have ran and sold 2 small business myself. I have also worked for Blue****insurance company and I can and do imagine these costs.

I don't know where managment got their figures from. I'm just swallowing the managment Kool-aid like a good little nurse

I on the other hand like to question everything and don't like to believe anything on it's face value. I use my own critical thinking skills that was ingrained in the nursing school; however, I have found that the more critical thinking I use, the more trouble I get into

“5:26 am by Multicollinearity

You are way off base regarding COBRA. The COBRA payment amount is the amount the employer is paying for your health insurance to the insurance company plus a 2% administrative fee to cover the cost of administering the plan.”

You may want to call a local insurance rep that deals with multiple health insurance company and ask for a quote for a 28 y.o male for a similar or same type of insurance. In CA it will run you less than $500.00. You also may want to research about the tax breaks that the corporations receive for providing insurance to you. They inflate this number so that they can get a bigger deduction on their taxes.

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
You may want to call a local insurance rep that deals with multiple health insurance company and ask for a quote for a 28 y.o male for a similar or same type of insurance. In CA it will run you less than $500.00. You also may want to research about the tax breaks that the corporations receive for providing insurance to you. They inflate this number so that they can get a bigger deduction on their taxes.
The member to whom you're responding (Multicollinearity) is a second-career nurse who worked for many years in the insurance industry prior to entering the nursing field. She dealt with insurance policies on a daily basis, administered them, and knows the nooks and crannies of the business.
Specializes in Cath Lab & Interventional Radiology.
“5:26 am by Multicollinearity

You are way off base regarding COBRA. The COBRA payment amount is the amount the employer is paying for your health insurance to the insurance company plus a 2% administrative fee to cover the cost of administering the plan.”

You may want to call a local insurance rep that deals with multiple health insurance company and ask for a quote for a 28 y.o male for a similar or same type of insurance. In CA it will run you less than $500.00. You also may want to research about the tax breaks that the corporations receive for providing insurance to you. They inflate this number so that they can get a bigger deduction on their taxes.

I know that I have purchased my own insurance in the past for a similar price as what I pay to my employer now. That insurance in NO way compared to the comprehensiveness of my insurance that i obtain through my employer. I also remember that I had to pay an added premium if I wanted it to cover me if I got pregnant. I had to pay that premium for an entire year before it would cover a pregnancy.

The member to whom you're responding (Multicollinearity) is a second-career nurse who worked for many years in the insurance industry prior to entering the nursing field. She dealt with insurance policies on a daily basis, administered them, and knows the nooks and crannies of the business.

Dealing with the insurance companies for the purpose of selling it to consumers doesn’t tell you the true cost of providing the service. There is an inherent bias that comes into play since your income is completely dependent upon selling the insurance. Each person that you sell the insurance to, the Big insurance company will pay you a commission. Since your income is directly coming from the insurance companies itself, you tend not to question the status quo. It’s similar to what happened in the mortgage business and banks. The banks sold shoddy mortgages to consumers. The auditors were sleeping or missing in action so to speak. While the sales people paddle those shoddy mortgages to consumers. Yet, some of these same sales person had 10 or 20 years in banking experience.

Therefore, I would believe in my own research rather than believing someone else and as I had stated earlier I can get the same or similar type of health insurance for less than $500.00.

I know that I have purchased my own insurance in the past for a similar price as what I pay to my employer now. That insurance in NO way compared to the comprehensiveness of my insurance that i obtain through my employer. I also remember that I had to pay an added premium if I wanted it to cover me if I got pregnant. I had to pay that premium for an entire year before it would cover a pregnancy.

It may be the state that you are in. The insurance that I am looking at has similar if not the same schedule of benefits as one provided to me by employer and it doesn't cost a $1,000 per month in premium.

Now let me give you some details about the plan. Out-of Pocket Maximum for individuals for both insurance is $6000.00. PCP deductile is $25 for both insurance. Specialist is $50.00 for both insurance. For the insurance provided by the hospital prescription drugs are $15.00 per prescription for 1st Tier Formulary and $30 for 2nd Tier non-formulary. The self insured prescription drugs are $20.00 per prescription for 1st Tier Formulary and $35 for 2nd Tier non-formulary.

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