The latest edition of Nurseweek has an interesting article on hospitals that are doing away with using agency nurses. (For those of you who don't receive the publication, go to http://www.nurseweek.com to read it)
My hospital stopped using outsiders last month (ahead of our March/2004 goal). The money that was being saved will go to a general raise after the first of the year (last raise was in August) and a nursing scholarship fund.
Perhaps the AAS pay rate is negotiable, but this particular AAS nurse is a male who works exclusively critical care and he showed us his paycheck. $43 hr for nights. He will not work for less and doesn't understand why all nurses don't do what he's doing. Now he gets zero benes or housing with this rate, (but neither do I at $28 hr base +3 bucks diff=$31 hr.) Not everyone likes different workplaces, but for someone who loves to travel this sounds like a nice option.
It is simply something to consider. I currently work for HCA and know how they are, just seems to me if I can tolerate 'em for $28 hr I can tolerate 'em for $43.
I'm positive there are tax incentives and/or other benefits to keeping agency nurse payments 'in the corporation'. HCA IS all about $$$.
This might explain why they prefer to use a AAS contract nurse when we cheaper pool nurses are willing to fill in nearly FT when needed. I assume it is a corporate directive or similar, as my supervisors say they have little choice.
Anybody in the DFW area need a good critical care PRN night nurse? I'm being AAS contracted out of most of my hours...
Our hospital has tried to do away with agency nurses multiple times. They are now trying to do it again. If we can't staff the ER with reguar staff or hospital registry then we work short. This is a huge problem. The hospital would rather save money than save lives. It makes the work load unsafe and put's my license at risk. We (the nurses) welcome agencyhelp whenever we can get it.
I am an agency nurse working at HCA hospitals. In the Houston area AAS is paying $37 or $ 38 per hour for their nurses. That is with or without a contract. This is in the critical care or tele area's.
Since there is such an enormous nsg shortage occuring....and the prediction is forecast to get worse......most hospitals have to utilize staff/agency nurses to keep their staff from burning out with mandatory overtime.....not to mention the high pt vs nurse ratios.....how is your hospital making up for those nurses?If it is by placing more patients on you.......,I am not so sure Id want the raise.Take care of yourself and think ahead in these situations.
.....not to mention the high pt vs nurse ratios.....how is your hospital making up for those nurses?If it is by placing more patients on you.....
I'm in California, so with the new staffing ratio regulations there is no way we can give nurses more patients than the law allows. Management got very pro-active after the regulations were passed....heavy duty recruiting (I believe we only have 15 FT/PT openings right now which is pretty good for a large LA hospital), but more important than recruiting is our nurse retention. Nurse retention committee was formed about 2 years ago. Issues were: retirement (which the hospital increased by 8%), salary (market adjustments are looked at and improved if needed every 6-mo), and benefits (currently there is a sub committee working on that). Staffing hasn't been a big issue in the last year since the hospital realized the ratios were coming and worked on staffing accordingly, i.e., in-house registry. We certainly aren't perfect, but at least you don't go to work worrying that you will be working with a stranger.
Perhaps the AAS pay rate is negotiable, but this particular AAS nurse is a male who works exclusively critical care and he showed us his paycheck. $43 hr for nights. He will not work for less and doesn't understand why all nurses don't do what he's doing. Now he gets zero benes or housing with this rate, (but neither do I at $28 hr base +3 bucks diff=$31 hr.) Not everyone likes different workplaces, but for someone who loves to travel this sounds like a nice option.
It is simply something to consider. I currently work for HCA and know how they are, just seems to me if I can tolerate 'em for $28 hr I can tolerate 'em for $43.
Sounds like he signed a travel contract but is taking the housing money as salary instead. That's perfectly legal- they are taxing his housing money as income. But you can't really compare that to most travellers. Anyone who needs housing provided won't make that much.
Recruiters that I trust have told me that AAS is absolutely not negotiable with them- they pay this much, and the traveler's contract must have certain restrictions in it. No flexibility at all. They might be willing to negotiate with nurses who work directly through them- I dont' know.
I've heard that the HCA hospitals in FL won't hire a traveler who lives less than 50 - 75 miles from the hospital- an attempt to get them to go on staff instead of working through agencies. Maybe this nurse lives in TX, or even DFW somehere, and got the housing $$ put into salary. This will only work for someone who lives close enough to commute or who can stay with family/friends between shifts.
If AAS is willing to turn his housing money into salary money, you could do the same thing. You would have to resign, though, and they might have a rule that prevents you from working through any agency for a set amount of time. If they're desperate, though, and if it's their in-house agency, you never know.
gomer..........wow.......your hospital really has it together.I say if you can get rid of the agency nurses and improve your work pay and environment it is GREAT!!!!!!!I am still stuck in a state where they do NOT have mandated maximums for nurse pt ratios......so when I hear "get rid of the agency nurses" i get scared!!!!!!!But in a situation like yours ....wow!!!!!!Thats so great foryou guys!!!!
I'm in California, so with the new staffing ratio regulations there is no way we can give nurses more patients than the law allows.
Gomer,
Ya gotta tell me how y'all did it. I'm dyin' to know! Does California law apply to all clinicals areas, like ER? I lived in Southern California for 10 yrs, and my friends out there are forever trying to get me to move back out. You can private mail me with details if you'd prefer not to post them. I still got lotsa friends in LA/Orange/San Diego/San Bernadino/ and Riverside Counties, and I would send my license fee to Sacramento right now if things are as good as you are telling me. Please private mail me anyway, since I'm not working and have several resumes pending.
What I really want to know is who, and how was this legislation enacted? Did the CNA make it happen? I've been on their web site and it looks to me like they are the only nurses union worthy of the name. If they didn't make it happen do you think it would have happened if ANA was still around?
You can learn all about my painful union experiences by reading my last post on another thread--I forget which one it is, but you can find it from my profile. Please view my other posts, that deal almost exclusively with the health care mess.
You told us about all the good stuff that happened after your hospital was forced to treat Nurses as valued resources rather than as their biggest expense.
Are you in a union hospital? If so, do you think your union is helping to implement improvements, or do you think you might be better off without them? If you are in a non-union hospital, do you think you would be better off with them?
I haven't talked to any of my California friends recently, and I don't know any other nurses out there. Please tell me, has Arnie checked in on health care yet, or is he too busy dealing with the fires in the Southland and in Sacramento?
Thank you for a ray of sunshine from the Golden State.
We are not unionized (personally I hate unions). The legislation was sponsored by the unions (CNA) and because Gov. Davis was always kissing the tushes of special interest groups he signed the regulations. (We all know what happened to Davis after that). My hospital is still far from perfect but it's a great place to work and the administration coupled with the mission statement really does support the staff. You might want to wait a couple of months and see how we and the rest of the medical community do. I still worry about many of the hospitals who have not or can not find good nurses. My greatest fear is that beds will be closed or entire hospitals will be closed. Rumor has it that Tenet (who else) will be closing a hospital in LA in a couple of months and moving staff to another Tenet facility. I would suggest you get your CA license (the backlog is about 2 months) and start applying as soon as you've got it....I welcome you back to the sunshine state (although it's about 44 degrees right now and rain is expected)
I just wanted to give you an update. I searched the travel nurses forum for DFW assignments for the last 3 months and put a post up asking recruiters for what they could pay in DFW.
The search showed 2 positions for $30 an hour, 2 for $35, and one for $32. The only recruiter who has answered me so far says that $26 - $30 is what he could pay a nurse based on what AAS pays them. That's including housing and health insurance, though. He also confirmed my guess- $43 an hour is "almost" what AAS pays them for the nurse.
The nurse you work with likely has no housing, no insurance, and works through AAS directly. The vast majority of travelers you work with don't make that much. Heck, travelers in New York, Boston, and San Francisco don't make that much.
My hospital relies heavily on agency who make twice what I make. If they used this money to keep more nurses on staff- and used these nurses so that we would have better nurse to patient ratios- I would work extra shifts- no problem. But when they call me to come in- I know we will be staffed bare boned and with agency nurses who may or may not be familiar with our hospital. So I say no. We could save a lot of money and do better for our patients. Some of our agency nurses are great- but they don't know the floor.
IMHO if your keep your staff nurses happy- you will rarely need agency nurses. And I would like to add that I do not mean any disrespect to agency nurses.
I work in a 267 bed hospital in a rural area. We stopped using agency about 3-4 years ago, and it has worked great. We expanded our prn pool and give bonuses to fulltime staff that work extra hours. It is wonderful. And it has helped with retention as well.
mattsmom81
4,516 Posts
Perhaps the AAS pay rate is negotiable, but this particular AAS nurse is a male who works exclusively critical care and he showed us his paycheck. $43 hr for nights. He will not work for less and doesn't understand why all nurses don't do what he's doing. Now he gets zero benes or housing with this rate, (but neither do I at $28 hr base +3 bucks diff=$31 hr.) Not everyone likes different workplaces, but for someone who loves to travel this sounds like a nice option.
It is simply something to consider. I currently work for HCA and know how they are, just seems to me if I can tolerate 'em for $28 hr I can tolerate 'em for $43.
I'm positive there are tax incentives and/or other benefits to keeping agency nurse payments 'in the corporation'. HCA IS all about $$$.
This might explain why they prefer to use a AAS contract nurse when we cheaper pool nurses are willing to fill in nearly FT when needed. I assume it is a corporate directive or similar, as my supervisors say they have little choice.
Anybody in the DFW area need a good critical care PRN night nurse? I'm being AAS contracted out of most of my hours...