Is your hospital requiring more out of nurses?

[alc0325]

I am just curious as to how other states and hospitals are changing. I work at a hospital in North Carolina that has just voted that by 2015 they will only hire BSN nurses. On top of this they are requiring those of us that do clinical ladder to jump through hoops to maintain it. RNIII and IV's are now required to have BSN and national certification. Those that have been at the top of clinical ladder for years are now facing demotions for not acquiring these.

[Misskala]

2-3 years is a big commitment?? That statement amazes me.

Let me clarify, what if the nurse's husband changes jobs and they need to relocate when the nurse is within her first year or even her second year on the job, and has yet to complete a certification. It makes it hard to apply for a job when you are "just" BSN with no cert. That's what I was intending by "makes it difficult".

[mtngrl, ASN, RN]

So no LPN's in the hospitals? In TN when I worked in a hospital most staff nurses were LPN's, seemed they hired just enough RN's to have one or 2 on the floor for each shift and the rest were LPN's.

[HGTVrn33]

My thing is as long as the compensation reflects it. I'm waiting to hear when they want higher than a MSN for entry level nursing.

[Misskala]

But it's not. the compensation in my area has been stagnant for the past 5 years....probably longer. And it's been within the last 5 years that the push for BSN and clinical ladder and magnet status requirements have been implemented heavily where I am. So I have not seen salary increases keep pace with job requirements. In fact, my one nursing friend just had her 1 year review, and got a 10cent/hour raise for cost of living increase. OUCH!

[Altra, BSN, RN]

Changing jobs every couple of years is a sure-fire way to remain in the "advanced beginner" stage ... for a long time.

[Caffeine_IV]

I don't have a problem with the requirements but I agree that compensation should follow. I would like more than a pat on the back and extra 40 cents/hour for completing a degree.

I can't recall the specific amount but for an MSN degree as a floor nurse the additional income was less than $2 at my previous employer.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

So no LPN's in the hospitals? In TN when I worked in a hospital most staff nurses were LPN's, seemed they hired just enough RN's to have one or 2 on the floor for each shift and the rest were LPN's.

They're getting away from it. Some of our local hospitals laid the LPNs off a few yrs back. An LTACH I worked at made a deadline by which the LPNs had to earn their RNs (ADN or BSN).

[TU RN, DNP, CRNA]

A few of the floors in my hospital took away CNAs overnight, one of them removed the position altogether. The way they compensated was decreased ratio for the nurses. The ratio is better, however the workload is expanded. I apologize for my skepticism, but I'm sure there's someone at the head of all this counting the money they're going to save in the budget. I am new and inexperienced myself, but it isn't that complicated. Hospitals are businesses, they're run by businessmen, and a businessman's primary goal is to increase profit for the business.

Some nurses find their "niche" in business so they become nurse managers, some find it in research, some in informatics, pharmaceutical sales, insurance companies, home health, clinic, doctor's office. I do wonder how many find their "niche" in medical surgical nursing? Or in telemetry or stepdown or any other variety of bedside nursing? Especially these days in nursing (apparently they're worse than my more experienced cohorts' memories provide). I haven't read anything on this particular comparison, but I'd wager employee satisfaction is lower across the board in bedside nursing jobs versus non-hospital nursing jobs. I surmise this would have something to do with the bigger investment in areas of financing and business management that lower level employers are subjected to when part of larger institutions (ie hospitals).

Home health agencies, clinics, and doctor's offices tend to be smaller companies. Insurance and pharmaceutical companies don't rely on nurses for their business. Here's an interesting couple of numbers:

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/compensation-issues/16-statistics-salaries-and-cash-compensation-for-hospital-and-system-ceos.html

Now maybe the sight of someone making $470,000 yearly inspires shock and awe in someone such as myself, who will never come close to having such compensation, but it's a lot of money. That's more than Barack Obama, President of the United States makes (from his government paycheck at least). Does one person in one hospital institution deserve to be compensated more than the single most powerful individual in the world? The institution's profit provides for that individual's overinflated salary on the sweat and tears and ruined bones of lower level employees (nursing is a big one).

OP, nurses are powerless to change. We have to take these changes on the chin. There are flocks of unemployed nurses out there who also have lives and families to provide for. It all boils down to your passion for this line of work, and will to power through all the politics that control your practice.

[Misskala]

What exactly does this mean? :)

[TU RN, DNP, CRNA]

Here's a definition of politics: "use of intrigue or strategy in obtaining any position of power or control, as in business, university." I believe that applies to nearly the entire body of my previous post. Go re-read it.