Boston area pay, acute care, 2yrs exper.

U.S.A. Massachusetts

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Specializes in telemetry, cardiopulmonary stepdown, LTC. Hospice.

Just curious to find out what the job market is like for nurses with hospital experience in acute care? I'm in Cincinnati, OH at a Magnet hospital, have worked 1.8 years in cardiopulmonary stepdown with full patient load of 4 patients, and 6 months in tele/solid organ transplant with max of 5-6 patients. I am hearing that those without experience have a tough time finding anything, but wondered how it might be for me.

What is the pay like? I read that nurses average 75,000 a year in Boston...are they counting overtime? My husband and I are considering a move there in about 4 years, and we're just doing a bit of research to find out what my income would be like.

I also keep reading that there aren't any aides on the floor. Are you doing your own blood sugars and vitals and bed baths, then? At the hospital I'm at, we help the aides with those tasks but it's wonderful to have them helping. They even do lab draws on peripheral IV patients.

If there is anyone here who works in something like cardiopulmonary stepdown, do you have to carry a phone that is constantly ringing? What's a typical busy day like?

Just getting a feel for things. I was thinking of leaving acute care to do wound care nursing...anyone know what the pay is like for that?

Thanks so much for the info!

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Specializes in Pediatrics, ER.

Please please just research the info on this forum. There's so much out there that has been repeated many times. Also, as a general FYI, it's difficult for us to give advice to people who are years away from moving here. We don't know what the market will be like. In a few years' time it has gone from flourishing to paycuts to layoffs and hiring freezes. Who knows what it will be like in another four years, if the pay trend will be the same. What nurses make in Boston they pay for dearly with the cost of living out here. It's very very expensive. Starting pay in a Boston hospital for an RN is roughly $30 an hour give or take ~$2 depending on the hospital. Nurses with 5 to 10 years of experience are currently having difficulty finding employment. Three hospitals are on the verge of closing, one hospital is talking about laying off 100 core staff, and union hospitals are sending out letters talking about paycuts and freezing raises to prevent job loss. It's a tough time here right now and we're all doing the best we can to ride it out one day at a time. Boston hospitals generally have a 3-4:1 patient ratio, and not every floor utilizes nursing assistants, so you end up doing a lot of ADL care. I don't know of any hospital around here that allows techs to draw off an IV. Wound care nursing generally requires a special certification and a minimum of a bachelor's degree.

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thats a grim picture painted for boston nursing but at least sarabeth's post gives it

to you straight; and mass has mandatory healthcare no? i would think hosp. visits/

admissions would be up-while hiring is down?

i hope it turns around! boston is such a lovely city

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Specializes in Pediatrics, ER.

I think it's important for people to realize the health care reform didn't come from free money. There were a lot of budget cuts and taxes involved. You can clearly see who's feeling the brunt of it. Healthcare workers are suffering for the "greater good."

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i know im oversimplifying it but it seems crazy to me that" health care reform" is paid for

with saving money by cutting 'labor costs' aka nursing/allied health! its backwards isn't it?

there has to be a better way! any ideas? i know it has trickled down to nursing and will continue to do so...

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Specializes in telemetry, cardiopulmonary stepdown, LTC. Hospice.
Please please just research the info on this forum. There's so much out there that has been repeated many times. Also, as a general FYI, it's difficult for us to give advice to people who are years away from moving here. We don't know what the market will be like. In a few years' time it has gone from flourishing to paycuts to layoffs and hiring freezes. Who knows what it will be like in another four years, if the pay trend will be the same. What nurses make in Boston they pay for dearly with the cost of living out here. It's very very expensive. Starting pay in a Boston hospital for an RN is roughly $30 an hour give or take ~$2 depending on the hospital. Nurses with 5 to 10 years of experience are currently having difficulty finding employment. Three hospitals are on the verge of closing, one hospital is talking about laying off 100 core staff, and union hospitals are sending out letters talking about paycuts and freezing raises to prevent job loss. It's a tough time here right now and we're all doing the best we can to ride it out one day at a time. Boston hospitals generally have a 3-4:1 patient ratio, and not every floor utilizes nursing assistants, so you end up doing a lot of ADL care. I don't know of any hospital around here that allows techs to draw off an IV. Wound care nursing generally requires a special certification and a minimum of a bachelor's degree.

I'm aware that no one can tell me what the market will be like in four years, I was asking just about now. It's difficult to find the answers to the questions I have by searching, just because there is such a large volume of posts on this site and none of the answers seem to completely address what I'm talking about. It's easier to just ask it and hope someone will chat with me about it.

I'm sorry things are tough, they are like that here in Cincinnati as well. No one is moving to anything different in our hospital...we're just glad to have what we have. They have done away with virtually all the extra shifts. I didn't say that the techs drew blood OFF of IV's, they draw all labs from a person who has a peripheral IV...but not from it. The RN's draw labs from central lines.

Thank you for your point of view and help.

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Specializes in telemetry, cardiopulmonary stepdown, LTC. Hospice.
i know im oversimplifying it but it seems crazy to me that" health care reform" is paid for

with saving money by cutting 'labor costs' aka nursing/allied health! its backwards isn't it?

there has to be a better way! any ideas? i know it has trickled down to nursing and will continue to do so...

I don't know that a lot of the healthcare reform has even started to take effect yet. In our area, the problems are mainly that they have glutted the market with tons of nursing students to the point that there are no available jobs, and hospitals are losing reimbursements from Medicare for more and more things, so they keep making things more difficult for the nursing staff and doctors to keep things in line. With the economy the way it is, people are not coming to the hospital unless they absolutely have to, so costs are being cut everywhere they possibly can. With our hospital, they are also spending money hand over fist to get things like Magnet certification and making all rooms single occupancy rather than double, which I can't see is going to do anything but cut our number of patients and cut the amount of money that's coming in. They have also sworn to be the "most wired hospital in the area" and offer concierge service, meals can be ordered at any time they want between 7am and 7pm, no visiting hours, etc. But all we hear about is patient satisfaction and how we need to provide a hotel-like environment because of the competitive market out there. I don't think healthcare reform can be blamed for what we are seeing right now, I'm not sure how it will affect things in the next five years or more.

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.

I don't think you get it reqarding "healthcare reform".

The Mass. nurses are referring to the STATE mandated health care situation. You see, in that state, healthcare was "reformed" several years ago on the STATE level, to mandate health insurance availability/coverage. This has seriously affected reimbursement for care for several years.

This has nothing to do with current NATIONAL healthcare reform.

Thus they have been seeing the fall out from "reform" for several years now.

Add in the economic changes that are nationwide, and things may actually have plenty of reasons for being uglier there for nurses than many places in the nation.

As far as the pay rate being good, sure, but the cost of living is astronomical.

And you should have your BSN for many of the facilities there.

I will say that I like the conditions in the hospitals there for nurses.

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Specializes in telemetry, cardiopulmonary stepdown, LTC. Hospice.

Oh, sorry for the ignorance on that. I misunderstood. We'll have to give a lot of thought and planning to a possible move. If it's that bad for nurses there, it's possible we're better off staying here.

Thanks

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I don't think you get it reqarding "healthcare reform".

The Mass. nurses are referring to the STATE mandated health care situation. You see, in that state, healthcare was "reformed" several years ago on the STATE level, to mandate health insurance availability/coverage. This has seriously affected reimbursement for care for several years.

This has nothing to do with current NATIONAL healthcare reform.

Thus they have been seeing the fall out from "reform" for several years now.

Add in the economic changes that are nationwide, and things may actually have plenty of reasons for being uglier there for nurses than many places in the nation.

As far as the pay rate being good, sure, but the cost of living is astronomical.

And you should have your BSN for many of the facilities there.

I will say that I like the conditions in the hospitals there for nurses.

And just to add to this for those not from MA... just because Massachusetts mandates health insurance still doesn't mean that everyone has it. You get a tax penalty if you don't have health insurance coverage. Those who can't afford health insurance still can't afford it, and the tax penalty ends up costing less money than the insurance does. And unfortunately, the ones who abused the system before still abuse it now.

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I'm aware that no one can tell me what the market will be like in four years, I was asking just about now. It's difficult to find the answers to the questions I have by searching, just because there is such a large volume of posts on this site and none of the answers seem to completely address what I'm talking about. It's easier to just ask it and hope someone will chat with me about it.

I'm sorry things are tough, they are like that here in Cincinnati as well. No one is moving to anything different in our hospital...we're just glad to have what we have. They have done away with virtually all the extra shifts. I didn't say that the techs drew blood OFF of IV's, they draw all labs from a person who has a peripheral IV...but not from it. The RN's draw labs from central lines.

Thank you for your point of view and help.

In case you haven't seen them yet, here are some recent threads you might be interested in:

https://allnurses.com/massachusetts-nurses/looking-get-some-480406.html

https://allnurses.com/massachusetts-nurses/boston-nurses-what-467016.html

https://allnurses.com/massachusetts-nurses/what-bleep-happened-335581.html

To answer some of your questions, $75,000 is about right for nurses with a few years experience. That's not counting overtime, but probably does count shift differentials. It seems most hospitals in the area require nurses to work day/night or day/evening rotation schedules. The nurses with more seniority don't have to rotate. The tech situation might vary by hospital but they are on almost every unit where I work and they do help out with vitals, blood sugars, lab draws. Nurses still do most ADL care themselves though. As already mentioned, the patient:nurse ratio is usually 3-4:1. I don't know much about wound care nursing, but clinical nurse specialists seem to be responsible for assessing and recommending wound treatments in some hospitals.

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