Additional pay for being in charge or precepting orientees?

llg, PhD, RN · Sep 26, 2003

I support differentials for Charge and/or Preceptor duties and worked to get them instituted in my hospital a few years ago. It's not much, only $1.50 per hour, but it adds up.

I think people who take on added responsibility deserve to be paid a little extra for their efforts -- and I think a differential works better than a career ladder (having worked in hospitals with both). With a differential, the amount of reward is directly related to the amount of time spent doing the extra work. People who preceptor or take charge ocassionally, get a little extra pay. Those who do it a lot, get more pay.

With a clinical ladder, it is often difficult to assess the amount of "extra" that a person is doing to deserve the higher pay. Also, it can become problematic when an outstanding performer on a higher rung of the ladder needs to cut back a bit (or for some other reason does not perform at that high level for a while) -- it can be traumatic to cut their pay back to the lower level, but unfair to the others if the pay is not cut.

llg

grneyes676 · Sep 26, 2003

Currently there is no extra pay for being in charge or precepting!! I belive that thare should be...our contract is up next year and I have heard that this subject is going to be brought in durning negotiations.....

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Sep 26, 2003

I just found out the other day that we get an additional $.50/hr. for precepting, but only if we're "official" preceptors. I frequently take on orientees who are working 12's when I come in for my shift at 3PM, and I enjoy it a lot, but I don't get extra pay for doing it because I'm not on the list. I probably should be---I'm one of the better teachers on that floor---but I've never taken the required classes or attended the monthly meetings in order to become certified as a preceptor. Guess I'd better think about it, huh?

zambezi, BSN, RN · Sep 26, 2003

We have additional pay for both preceptors and charge. Somewhere in the 1.50-2.00 range for both.

Surgical Hrt RN · Sep 26, 2003

WE get a measly 50 cents per hour for charge and a big fat zero for precepting. I precept ALL the time. Just when I finish with one I have another orientee waiting. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE precepting but I think that it is worth something. We are taking these people and getting them ready to be independent functioning RN's. I think that we should get something for that. Those of you who precept know how demanding this can be, and challenging as well. I think people would be more apt to precept if there was a bonus along with it.

purplemania, BSN, RN · Sep 26, 2003

Texas Nurse Practice Act states we are all teachers. That said, I see no harm in paying for the extra work. I do expect our preceptors to attend training classes, because there is a right and wrong way to do everything. I have found some teaching "polices" that conflicted with actual policy but the nurse "thought it ought to be that way". We pay $1/hr for precepting new employees. Those who precept students get no pay, but the schools allow them CEU's.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Sep 26, 2003

It is built into our "Pay for skills". It's .50 for each skill. So if you do charge and orient/precept you're already making a dollar an hour, every hour whether you do it or not.

SmilingBluEyes · Sep 26, 2003

we get $2. an hour to charge.

big whoop. i will do without to NOT be in charge. I don't like it.

precepting?

that is just expected of us all, I guess. no extra pay for that. I agree, there should be. and I think charge pay should be at LEAST $5 an hour. too much responsiblity for too little $$$.

jnette, ASN, EMT-I · Sep 26, 2003

We USED to get charge pay at our clinic.. a whole one dollar/hr., but better than nothing. The "company" has taken that away as of two months ago. They state as an RN, this is part of your RN responsibilities and training and skills... not anything "extra" that should be elevated and "recognized" as being something special or "above and beyond"... that it simply falls into the category of what is expected of an RN..............:stone

kimmicoobug · Sep 26, 2003

As a recent orientee, I think that nurses SHOULD be paid more to precept. At my facility, a nurse usually didn't even know she had an orientee until that day. I had an experience where the nurse I was orienting with just isn't a good teacher and was overly critical. But, as a co-worker...she is just fine. Some people are better than others at precepting and want to do the work, and they should be compensated nicely. Others hate it, and they shouldn't HAVE to precept because they are assigned it. I don't think it helps the orientee OR the preceptor.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Sep 27, 2003

We get extra pay for precepting, charge and floating. First time I've ever gotten extra pay for floating, but believe me it cuts down on the histrionics when someone is asked to float!!

About precepting -- I agree that not everyone should do it. Unfortunately, here we have the "nicest" nurses doing the precepting, and not necessarily the ones with the ability to think critically, organize their time or teach. As a result, some of the newer (I mean less than 2 years) nurses are extremely high maintenence co-workers. And just when they start to catch on, they leave!

The itsy bitsy charge differential isn't really enough to compensate for the headaches -- but at least we know management understands that it IS a headache!