$$$ How are you paid? PICC RNs & IV RNs

Specialties Infusion

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Hello all. I am just curious as to how IV nurses and PICC nurses are paid at other facilities. I am a member of an IV team at a 535-bed Level II Trauma center. We average around 200 PICCs per month. Our department is staffed 24/7 for IV services and PICCs. Right now PICCs are placed from 0700 until 2200 and starting in a month we will be placing PICCs 24/7, except during the hours of 11p-7a only urgent PICCs will be placed because there are only 2 IV nurses at night, one of which is a PICC nurse. Our department asked our manager if we should be paid specialty pay because we provide a service that a "regular" floor nurse cannot do. We could float to others depts, but we are not required, but other depts could not float to us. Do any of you receive specialty pay or are compensated for your skills? Thanks so much.

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good question. My husband is a nurse with fewer years of experience, and he makes more than I do because he works in a critical care position. IV and PICC are not considered "critical care".

I don't care. I've done critical care and ER and PACU and MedSurg and just about everything else. I'll take less money, this, I love.

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A PICC nurse should be on the same level as an ICU nurse. Similar expectations of knowledge level,specialization and liabilities. Consider this--some outside PICC contractors charge up to $150 per placement.

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I think a PICC nurse should have specialty pay. Inserting a PICC line is no average nurse task. It requires special education and special skill. If you are able to do what other nurses around you can not....you should get paid more. That is my opinion and I am not a PICC nurse.

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Almost all of us are PICC certified, we staff 24/7, we do not get any differential in pay, but I don't think our critical care areas get any special pay incentive either. In fact, we don't get time and a half for working holidays, which I think is wrong. Even the military get "combat pay" and I think we should get incentive to work in higher stress areas doing more complex/risky procedures. We use ultrasound to place about half of our PICCS, and rarely have to send someone to radiology to have one placed because we can't get the PICC in.

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Almost all of us are PICC certified, we staff 24/7, we do not get any differential in pay, but I don't think our critical care areas get any special pay incentive either. In fact, we don't get time and a half for working holidays, which I think is wrong. Even the military get "combat pay" and I think we should get incentive to work in higher stress areas doing more complex/risky procedures. We use ultrasound to place about half of our PICCS, and rarely have to send someone to radiology to have one placed because we can't get the PICC in.

I'm a military nurse (also PICC certified) and I don't get paid anything to place PICCs...I do it on my days off and before/after my shifts...for free :D I also work full-time in the hospital so no "combat pay" here ;) Seriously though, combat pay (a whopping $225/month) is available in very few deployed areas and for what we get paid otherwise...the sacrifices we (and our families) make...and the commitment required of us...is no joke. So the fact that "Even military get "combat pay""....is a weak justification for your statement.

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I didn't mean to offend you about the "combat pay", I have many friends and coworkers in Iraq right now, and my first husband was active military and I only knew about "combat pay" from my previous experience as a "dependant". You are so right about the sacrifices of the military and their families, and 225 is certainly nothing to brag about. Shameful in fact. My only point was that if you have more certifications/skills, you should be compensated for them. jb

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I didn't mean to offend you about the "combat pay", I have many friends and coworkers in Iraq right now, and my first husband was active military and I only knew about "combat pay" from my previous experience as a "dependant". You are so right about the sacrifices of the military and their families, and 225 is certainly nothing to brag about. Shameful in fact. My only point was that if you have more certifications/skills, you should be compensated for them. jb

Understood, thanks. I think overall I knew what you were getting at, just a little hypersensitive lately about this b/c I don't live in the most supportive community. My husband is over there now and I'm set to go as soon as he returns home...just part of the deal. Regardless I respect nurses who work to improve our working conditions and pay.

Take care :)

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In home infusion, PICC RN's are paid $150/line. This has come down in the last 15 yrs, it use to be $300/line.

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so are home health agencies more willing to use picc line nurses. i really love to start i.v.'s and it is a passion of mine. so i think that i would thoroughly enjoy the picc line aspect, but because they are not approved at my facility or anywhere around here. i want to know that my skill will be used before i go and fork out the money to get certified. anyone with any advice?

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Specializes in Tele, Med-Surg, CVICU.

I work cvicu and micu and have place picc lines for about 2yrs now. I have never recieved extra pay for a picc line placement. I became interested in picc line certification and placement because i wanted to advance my own skills and beef up my resume. However, I do not think it is fare that we are not payed anything extra as i am requested to place picc lines on the floor while i am in the unit with a pt load and i must rely on the charge nurse to cover my pts while i go to the floor for the hour or more that it takes to place the line and do all the paper work, wait on cxr verification, ect. associated with it. I have only recently started talking to my unit manager about compensation for picc line placement but doubt it will happen due to one or two nurses who are willing to come in on there days off or dont mind handing over there pt load for a couple hours to go to the floor to complete the insertion for no extra pay. I respect there diligence but believe that Picc line placement is an advAnced skill for an RN and therefore should be compensated as such. Until my facility agrees to start compensating me for PICC line placement, i have decided not to place them anymore and will refer the request to the nurses who dont mind practicing the advanced tech and accepting the responsibility that comes with it for NO extra pay..... Ok i guess i'll get off my soapbox now. Sorry for the rant.

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I work cvicu and micu and have place picc lines for about 2yrs now. I have never recieved extra pay for a picc line placement. I became interested in picc line certification and placement because i wanted to advance my own skills and beef up my resume. However, I do not think it is fare that we are not payed anything extra as i am requested to place picc lines on the floor while i am in the unit with a pt load and i must rely on the charge nurse to cover my pts while i go to the floor for the hour or more that it takes to place the line and do all the paper work, wait on cxr verification, ect. associated with it. I have only recently started talking to my unit manager about compensation for picc line placement but doubt it will happen due to one or two nurses who are willing to come in on there days off or dont mind handing over there pt load for a couple hours to go to the floor to complete the insertion for no extra pay. I respect there diligence but believe that Picc line placement is an advAnced skill for an RN and therefore should be compensated as such. Until my facility agrees to start compensating me for PICC line placement, i have decided not to place them anymore and will refer the request to the nurses who dont mind practicing the advanced tech and accepting the responsibility that comes with it for NO extra pay..... Ok i guess i'll get off my soapbox now. Sorry for the rant.

That is SO typical of nurses and the nursing profession. One attains additional skills, the PTB decide they can use your advance skills free of charge, in the meantime, when you put your foot down and ask for more money, you have some, "Martyr Mary", who will come in do it free of charge, thereby undermining your attempt to make the hospital pay for your advanced skills. Which they should.

I feel the same way about my Critical Care skills. No, I did not learn to be a Critical Care Nurse in nursing school. I learned it by taking a Critical Care course, (At my expense), obtaining a job in Critical Care, and working in Critical care for over 25 years. No, med surg nurses cannot work in ICU. They do not have the education and training. Just like Cardiologists don't deliver babies, and Pediatricians don't do Open Heart Surgery.

The big difference is that Doctors have the power, clout, and $$$ to get what they want, which is more pay, and control over their work, and they BILL for their services.

I will say it again to refresh everyones' mind, because it is worth repeating:

As long as a Nurses' Professional Practice is rolled into the room rate, laundry. housekeeping, and the complimentary roll of toilet paper, we will never be seen on a patients' bill, or on the "Asset" side of the balance sheet. And the PTB want to keep it that way, to keep nursing invisible, and powerless.

JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Somewhere in the PACNW

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