Can we talk about the Travel Nurse Cap?!

[CardiTeleRN]

Why are some states considering capping travel nurse pay?? What is the purpose? To help with the nursing shortage? I'm not sure if someone informed the decision makers that nurses left staff jobs due to low pay so lowering the travel pay will only make nurses leave the profession entirely. I already plan to go back to school for PT to have that under my belt as soon as travel nurse pay is capped. I refuse to go back to misery. The low pay wasn't even the meat and potatoes of it - the issue was the toxicity. The unsafe ratios, long mandated hours, physical/emotional/mental abuse from patients, coworkers, and doctors, and rarely having planned time off approved. I wouldn't even care if the time off was paid or not. Travel nursing allows the freedom of having vacations. One week is more than enough to recover from nursing fatigue. Why haven't they capped the pay of other healthcare specialties? Why are they bullying nurses so much after everything we endure day and day out and not to mention the sacrifices of pandemic work (risking our lives and potentially bringing it home to our loved ones)

[ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP]

On 12/15/2021 at 10:52 PM, CardiTeleRN said:

Why are some states considering capping travel nurse pay?? What is the purpose? To help with the nursing shortage? I'm not sure if someone informed the decision makers that nurses left staff jobs due to low pay so lowering the travel pay will only make nurses leave the profession entirely. I already plan to go back to school for PT to have that under my belt as soon as travel nurse pay is capped. I refuse to go back to misery. The low pay wasn't even the meat and potatoes of it - the issue was the toxicity. The unsafe ratios, long mandated hours, physical/emotional/mental abuse from patients, coworkers, and doctors, and rarely having planned time off approved. I wouldn't even care if the time off was paid or not. Travel nursing allows the freedom of having vacations. One week is more than enough to recover from nursing fatigue. Why haven't they capped the pay of other healthcare specialties? Why are they bullying nurses so much after everything we endure day and day out and not to mention the sacrifices of pandemic work (risking our lives and potentially bringing it home to our loved ones)

"One week is more than enough to recover from nursing fatigue."

...on what planet? If I plan for vacations, I plan for AT LEAST two weeks of PTO, scheduled in a way that I have almost three weeks off. 

[rn771]

Love this idea!  See article:  'Cap hospital CEO pay,' travel nurses say ...

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/compensation-issues/cap-hospital-ceo-pay-travel-nurses-say.html

 

[tigerlogic]

A good interview talking about why the pay cap discussion is garbage.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-it-could-happen-here-30717896/episode/the-million-nurse-march-92567297/

[Rexie]

Apparently it has happened in Massachusetts:

https://www.mass.gov/regulations/101-CMR-34500-rates-for-temporary-nursing-services

[tigerlogic]

1 hour ago, Rexie said:

Apparently it has happened in Massachusetts:

https://www.mass.gov/regulations/101-CMR-34500-rates-for-temporary-nursing-services

They're capping it at about $100/hr and stipends in MA are already pretty high, so I'm not too mad about that.

[Rexie]

Granted, the money is good but what other professions have had their salaries capped?  Personally, I am uncomfortable with the concept of capping salaries.  But if we are going down that path, why not hospital CEOs?  Why not accountants?  Why target nurse?  And now that this door has been opened, where will it lead?

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

What concerns me is that they are hiring new grads for travel positions, which, last I knew, travelers were supposed to be experienced and fairly autonomous. We have lost quite a few new hires to travel positions and it scares me. 

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