Yet for the 60 percent of the nation's 2.6 million RNs who work in acute-care settings, the money is apparently less important than the arduous conditions of the job itself.
"I've left work sometimes and my feet hurt so bad they don't stop hurting for two days," says Leslie Remington, a Kansas City, Mo., nurse. "Twenty-year-old nurses are getting back injuries, and people are going for 12 hours without even being able to go to the bathroom. It's the slave labor conditions that are the real problem."
According to a recent survey of 700 current and former nurses conducted by the Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, an AFL-CIO-affiliated union, 84 percent of those surveyed said they believe there is a moderate or severe nursing shortage. Half of the currently employed nurses said they've considered leaving the patient-care field, and 20 percent said they plan to quit soon. The primary reason cited for leaving, or contemplating it, is the desire for a lower pressure and less physically demanding job. Of the respondents, 56 percent gave job conditions as the biggest problem, versus 18 percent who cited compensation.
Wow!
If
that isn't a telling indictment - I don't know what is!
cheers,
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