Clinical Ladder Program at your hospital?

[Anaclaire]

I'm wondering how prevalent "Clinical Laddering Programs" are around the country. They were pretty popular in the past but I've not heard much talk about them lately.

I'd imagine they have different names but work similarly. They are basically retention programs for RNs which offer money annually for our extra participation and education above and beyond the normal job description. Each rung correlated with a different pay amount ($1000, $1500, $2000, and $2500). It also looked good on our yearly evaluations and promotions. If we didn't feel like "laddering" one year, for any reason, we didn't have to.

Our "Ladder" program had 4 rungs and each rung had different requirements. We got points for things like how long we had been working at the hospital, if we were on committees, if we volunteered to work in health fairs, if we were instructors in BLS, ACLS, PALS, or NRP, if we took college classes toward a higher degree or had our BSN, if we were Preceptors in our department or were members of our departments "Mentor Program", if we developed and taught an inservice program, were on a transport team, etc.

[altomga, ADN, BSN, MSN, DNP, RN, APRN]

your clinical ladder sounds pretty much like my hospital's. Although I have climbed the ladder and doing it again I really feel that I am jumping through a bunch of hoops. The pay increase is only 5% of your basepay. If you fail to maintain the ladder you will lose that 5% also!! But shoot...how else are we to get a little extra money? I guess I shouldn't talk to harshly about it; especially since I am the clinical ladder rep for my area:):)