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| No. 50 | 
Jul 01, 2004, 05:28 PM
Originally Posted by teelaticeNY RN4NICU,
I am thinking you have never been and CNA, because if you were you would never make some of the statements you are making. We all make a difference in this profession and we are all accountable for our actions no matter what our job title is.
__________________________________________________ __________
"Can't wait til its over Dec 04 RN 2 be"
Whether or not I was ever a CNA has no bearing on the facts. As an RN, I am legally responsible for the patients under my care. I never said that CNAs do not make a difference, DID I? I did point out that they do not carry the same level of legal accountability as the RN - and they do not. It is a fact.
 | | Advertisement Sponsored Links | | | | No. 51 |
Jul 01, 2004, 05:52 PM
Originally Posted by RN4NICU I value the CNAs as well, but I disagree about them not being rewarded enough financially. It is not about the work, it is about the level of ultimate responsibility. They do not have it.... Yes, they are knowledgeable. But I think they are appropriately compensated for their level of education and responsibility. JMO.
I respect your opinion and understand your rationale. This is mine. I take blood and run EKGs, as well as perform general assistive tasks, all of which, if done incorrectly or negligently, can result in a poor patient outcome. Even though I have no license to lose (I am an unlicensed tech), the responsibility is nevertheless mine to perform my job with skill or I will not have a job. There is also talk of us unlicensed personnel taking some reponsibility for medication administration.
Now consider this. A barrista at a Starbucks starts off at $7 per hour, plus tips. A tech at "X" hospital starts off at $9. I don't believe the responsibilities can be compared yet the pay scales are very similar. I do not believe we are compensated adequately for our work IMO. If I make a poor cup of coffee, what's the harm. But if I incorrectly move a new hip, ????? There is skill and education involved.
| | No. 52 |
Jul 01, 2004, 06:43 PM
LOL...I started at $7.75 six years ago...I got a few raises and ended up making $13.76. Then we all got a cost of living adjustment and there was an error discovered on my rate of pay and i got bumped down to $13.65. A few raises later, I'm at $14.75 with a $2.00 differenetial for nights and a $2.00 differential for weekends.
We're also starting to get "hardship" pay...anytime we work short staffed, they take the amount that the "missing" nurses would have made and divide it among the staff that was working that shift. Makes working short a little easier to bear.
| | No. 53 |
Jul 01, 2004, 06:57 PM
Updated
Jul 01, 2004 at 06:59 PM by RN4NICU
Originally Posted by RNKittyKat I respect your opinion and understand your rationale. This is mine. I take blood and run EKGs, as well as perform general assistive tasks, all of which, if done incorrectly or negligently, can result in a poor patient outcome. Even though I have no license to lose (I am an unlicensed tech), the responsibility is nevertheless mine to perform my job with skill or I will not have a job. There is also talk of us unlicensed personnel taking some reponsibility for medication administration.
Now consider this. A barrista at a Starbucks starts off at $7 per hour, plus tips. A tech at "X" hospital starts off at $9. I don't believe the responsibilities can be compared yet the pay scales are very similar. I do not believe we are compensated adequately for our work IMO. If I make a poor cup of coffee, what's the harm. But if I incorrectly move a new hip, ????? There is skill and education involved.
The cable repair guy makes $30/hr. I make the same. I don't believe the responsibilities can be compared yet the pay scales are very similar. If he doesn't fix my wireless internet connection, I'm inconvenienced. If I give a baby 1cc of a med rather than 0.1cc...could mean no more baby.
No one in health care is compensated adequately for the work. (I was referencing the CNA salary being appropriate within the current salary "tier" system - I thought that was understood). We are dealing with the lives and well-being of other people, after all. But to listen to some folks talk, it seems that they feel that CNA's/techs should make as much as the RNs, if not more. Well, if that is the case, what did I throw away all that time and money earning a degree for? Someone argued that the tech's work is physically demanding - I made the point that most professions pay more for formal education that for physically intensive labor. I still believe this to be true.
Of course one must be skilled and knowledgeable to be a tech (or to be a good one, anyway), but do you think that your skill and knowledge equals that of the RN? Do you not feel that formal education should be recognized and rewarded?
| | No. 54 |
Jul 01, 2004, 09:35 PM
RN4NICU, I agree that CNAs shouldn't make what LPNs or RNs do...however, do you think it is fair for them to get paid not much more than minimum wage? Most nursing homes might pay CNAs 50 cent more than min wage. I think McDonald's does better than that.  | | No. 55 |
Jul 01, 2004, 09:51 PM
[Of course one must be skilled and knowledgeable to be a tech (or to be a good one, anyway), but do you think that your skill and knowledge equals that of the RN? Do you not feel that formal education should be recognized and rewarded?[/quote]
Oh goodness no. If that were not so, I wouldn't be currently pursuing my RN.
| | No. 56 |
Jul 01, 2004, 11:02 PM
Originally Posted by michelle95 RN4NICU, I agree that CNAs shouldn't make what LPNs or RNs do...however, do you think it is fair for them to get paid not much more than minimum wage? Most nursing homes might pay CNAs 50 cent more than min wage. I think McDonald's does better than that.
I was puzzled by your comment until I looked at your location...FL. It all came together then. FL has great weather, but its health care system has a bad case of headupthebuttitis. Hospitals there like to say "we pay in sunshine", to which I had to say, "until I can pay my bills in sunshine, I'm going to have to go where they pay money."
Nursing homes where I am pay CNAs MUCH more than any 50 cents over min. wage. In long term care, they make about $8-9/hr. They don't make quite as much in hospitals (maybe 7.00-8.20) b/c most of them have done away with the certification requirement and started bringing in OJT candidates to be patient care assistants (or some related title, most places have their own title for it, but it used to be a CNA).
| | No. 57 |
Jul 02, 2004, 09:51 AM
"we pay in sunshine", to which I had to say, "until I can pay my bills in sunshine, I'm going to have to go where they pay money." 
Yeah, it's pretty sad...that's part of the reason I went to nursing school. I loved being a CNA, but, for the work...the money just didn't cut it.
| | No. 58 |
Jul 05, 2004, 09:37 PM
I'm surprised more folks haven't been shocked by the decrease in pay that the British Columbia government imposed upon the LPNs. A 15% decrease in pay? And more hours?
Wow! I haven't been so shocked as when I discovered several years ago when the state of California had reduced the disability payments by $100 A WEEK (something which has since been rectified; but who knows with Arnie at the helm. This was like from $350/wk to $250/wk.)
In California, the RNs are unionized in what seems to me to be a quasi-professional quasi-union organization, the california nurses' assocation. I'm not sure of what pay rates in other parts of California are, but I know in the SF Bay Area, starting pay is supposed to be $60-$70K/yr. I haven't personally run into the $70K, though I do know a hospital in Monterey was at a school I was going to last spring and indicated that they started grad nurses out at $30/hr. The RN info meeting indicated RNs in Spring 2003 said something like RNs start out making $32/hr.
I will say this: I spent 20 years in Silicon Valley doing software-related work. Within the last couple of years I interviewed for a job at Paypal which paid $70K/yr--no overtime--and they made sure I understood there would be weekend work (not every weekend, but some). $70K/yr and no overtime and most likely well over 40 hrs a week? I'll take nursing, thank you. (I'm more interested in health care, anyway.)
As far as health care professionals with lots of responsibility who don't make much money: look at EMTs and Paramedics (those that work for a private ambulance company. Big city fire department EMT and paramedics can be a pretty sweet deal--though there's a lot of information about decrease in lifespan due to stress among FD and EMS personnel.)
heart, EMT, Student RN (March 2006)
| | No. 59 |
Jul 05, 2004, 09:55 PM
Originally Posted by barbiedee I am an LPN in BC, Canada. We USED to make about $22.00 Cnd an hour (about $16 US). The government just cut our salaries by 15%...making around $19.00 hr Cnd. (About 13.OO US) The government imposed a contract making our work week longer, and the 15% wage cut. That contract covered LPN's, CNA's, housekeepers, laundry and kitchen workers, maintenance, etc. (RN's were not in the same union). I wonder....does that mean we can do 15% less work???? I wish. 
You mention LPNs are not in the same union as the RNs. I have seen that consistantly over the past 30 years.
The problem keeps the LPNs down. The RNS are usually represented by the ANA and LPNs whatever union the other departments have. LPNS need to stand out as nurses and not as support staff!
Do not join the same union as other staff. If you are going to go union, get the LPNs together and go for your own! I know it will be difficult but it must be done or the ANA will continue it's so far very successful efforts to have us removed from nursing altogether!
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