I have the want to help my patients, and I respect their dignity. I don't like not having a raise in two years, and I don't like the shrinking bottom line of money. I have heard chatter of well I am not in this for the money, and I am only hear to help others.....
I call these statements drivel. Everyone needs to eat, pay mortgage, have gas money to get to work....so please don't devalue what you do by saying I don't need a good paycheck....
Yes, but if they give raises they can't afford, they'll go out of business and all their employees will be unemployed.
Hard to buy that argument when the CEO is making millions! Look at Walmart the family is rich while the workers are making practically minimum wage and many are being subsidized via govt benefits such as medicaid and food stamps since Walmart refuses to pay a living wage for the many in order to enrich the few at the top!
Maybe to you it's a career alone, but to others it may be a calling. It's a calling to me and I'm not a nun. If you did it for money then more power to you, but don't make a generalized statement about it being an excuse.
Once you've been working for a while in the real world you'll probably forget all about your calling! Are you willing to be underpaid and short staffed because it's your calling? I hope not because that is part of what's wrong with nursing today! Too many people who feel they are too virtuous to demand decent pay, benefits and staffing like the rest of the ordinary workers.
As a person who is currently being shoved along the nursing path by the good Lord, I can understand why some might feel it as a calling. Personally, I feel much about it as you do, but never expected to enter nursing. It wasn't a path I ever considered, but during a long stretch when I was miserable as a CNA, casting around for any other job, and constantly praying for guidance, I kept being directed to stay where I am and move up. Over and over. When it came to applying for school, even then I was balking and unsure, but whenever I did something to work on that app, even when it cost me money I could ill afford, I felt at peace and like I was doing what I'm supposed to. As I wait, the desire for school grows, but I'm still not one of these people who will just die if I never become a nurse. I'm being pushed, and I have to trust that there is a reason.
It's difficult for a person of faith to explain this to a nonbeliever. God still reaches out, but people who refuse to be open and accept that will have a hard time understanding how powerful the influence can be for those of us who seek it. We have the gift of free will, so God doesn't force it, which means that those who don't hear or feel these promptings will have a hard time understanding. Heck, even those of us who do, who beg for guidance and want to be prompted, don't understand clearly a lot of the time.
I don't think a person needs a calling to be a nurse. I think if you are doing a low paid entry level job such as CNA it is simply a smart and sensible option to look for how you can realistically advance to a better paying job. I'm not thrlled with nursing these days, but I can't imagine living on a CNA or secretaries wages for the rest of my life. I'm surprised more people don't look for a way to make a good living. Why so many people are content to eke out an existence that doesn't even pay a living wage. The worst of it is even if someone managed to get by on a CNA pay, I don't even know how that is possible, but once you factor in health insurance and out of pockets one illness could drive you to bankruptcy!
Once you've been working for a while in the real world you'll probably forget all about your calling! Are you willing to be underpaid and short staffed because it's your calling? I hope not because that is part of what's wrong with nursing today! Too many people who feel they are too virtuous to demand decent pay, benefits and staffing like the rest of the ordinary workers.
I HAVE been working for awhile and NO I will never forget my calling. Enough with this. Yes, if it's my calling and I'm getting underpaid then so be it. Wouldn't you think that if I believe in God and trust God, that as long as I'm doing what I'm supposed to, I shouldn't focus on pay? This thread is getting ridiculous now. I'm done here.
Yes, but if they give raises they can't afford, they'll go out of business and all their employees will be unemployed.
Just remember every year without a pay raise is actually a pay cut when you factor in inflation. The govt COLA under represents the true inflation such as gas, healthcare, education etc. I don't know about you, but I can't afford a pay cut!
This wouldn't be happening if nurses were unionized to the degree that public teachers in America are! There is no doubt, without unions workers wages are stagnating and benefits are being cut. I really don't see any other solution for the average worker. Politics aside unions offer better wages and working conditions and even indirectly help the non union workers of other hospitals who compete by offering similar pay and benefits! But that said, all unions are not the same and some are plainly better than others! I would take the National Nurse United of CA anyday!
Here is my question to everyone. There are many jobs that offer a higher salary than nursing. So why choose nursing if it is only for the pay check? Why not do something else that cost more ? My husband has a four year degree working in web design and make way more than I do, better hours and less stress. As a matter of fact, his degree four year degree in buisness did not get him his career, a short 2 year program did. Just curious as to why some people choose nursing over other higher paying jobs.
Probably because they go to what they know or have heard about. Haven't we heard the nursing shortage in the media for years? Yes you can make good money in IT. I know someone who makes a six figure salary, but there are not as many job openings available as nursing. Also it is easily outsourced to India and the Phillipines. While you can't outsource nursing, some hospitals have in sourced and brought nurses from India and the Phillipines to the US.
Union dues would lower my paycheck even more, and be used to support political candidates and causes I would never support. I also prefer the right to negotiate my own value with my employer as an individual based on my own merits.
Specializes in critical care, ER,ICU, CVSURG, CCU.
Shinnichi said:
Wait, what?! I'd love to know what industry/region/companies those are as my IT hubby gets a 3-4% raise and none of those perks! Our health insurance with him is more expensive and provides less coverage than what I had when I worked for Costco. ?
Why choose nursing if it is only for the paycheck? Several reasons....easier entry for a second career, low cost ( for me personally), decent paycheck ( I doubled my non nursing pay and will see that increase more when I attain my RN).
And now to respond to the original intent of the thread
Any person who does a respectable job, performs the functions of that job well, provides a NECESSARY service, should be compensated appropriately. The idea that nurses should be paid less because of a 'calling' just rubs me raw.
If I wanted to be underpaid, I could do it in any job, not one that required years of education, continuing education after licensing, UPKEEP of that license, etc etc etc ad nauseum.
I could volunteer at a literacy center and be paid nothing, and be proud of what I did there. But I'd also have no $ invested nor would I be facing potential legal liability every day I walked into the library. To take on THAT level of responsibility is going to cost the person who wants those services from me much more dearly.
So what is MY 'calling'? My family. Whatever provides for them the best. My career, the thing that puts food on my table, clothes and educates my kids, offers my family a decent standard of living...? that needs to be maintained, THAT is sacrosanct, and if someone wants my nursing care in their employ, they will need to compensate me accordingly.
So what is MY 'calling'? My family. Whatever provides for them the best. My career, the thing that puts food on my table, clothes and educates my kids, offers my family a decent standard of living...? that needs to be maintained, THAT is sacrosanct, and if someone wants my nursing care in their employ, they will need to compensate me accordingly.
Here is my question to everyone. There are many jobs that offer a higher salary than nursing. So why choose nursing if it is only for the pay check? Why not do something else that cost more ? My husband has a four year degree working in web design and make way more than I do, better hours and less stress. As a matter of fact, his degree four year degree in buisness did not get him his career, a short 2 year program did. Just curious as to why some people choose nursing over other higher paying jobs.
Nursing provides a fit for me; the ability to enjoy science, troubleshoot, educate and manage humans holistically as well as make policies and produce effective change ; along with the ability to avoid working five days a week.
I have also had the ability to be an independent contractor, and enjoy the tax beaks that come along with it.
In most of my years in the business, I have been able to travel extensively, own property, timeshares and the like, and when I wanted to be off for a month, be able to pay bills and enjoy myself and the people around me.
Too many of the other occupations don't give me the same liberties that nursing gives me; we can get paid more, certainly; that can be remedied if more nurses are willing to have these discussions openly and provide more of an input, collectively at the state and national level; I am sure those thoughts and discussions are going on now here on AN; a particular thread comes to mind; I wouldn't be too surprised if there are the "right" people looking at a particular thread and wheels are turning.
Until then, I have no qualms being actively involved in my profession and helping to support other in making that income stagnation disappear.
brandy1017, ASN, RN
2,910 Posts
Hard to buy that argument when the CEO is making millions! Look at Walmart the family is rich while the workers are making practically minimum wage and many are being subsidized via govt benefits such as medicaid and food stamps since Walmart refuses to pay a living wage for the many in order to enrich the few at the top!