How can you say you're not paid well?

Specialties Emergency

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Could someone please explain to me why the nurses are complaining that they're not being pad well. In case my math is wrong this is the figure that I come up with.

3 day/12 hour shift at average $28/hr in New York

12 hours *$28=$336 per day*3 days $1008 per week* 52 Weeks that's $52,416 per year......that's just the average in New York. If you do 4 days you pull in almost $70,000.

So, what the all the complaining about not getting paid? I just don't understand.

Am I missing something?

Aaron

PS: I didn't even include any sign on bonus or night differential pay.

I guarentee you that the salary for a medical technologist (4 yr Bachelors degree) doesn't start out at what a nurse (2 yr associate) starts at and we sure don't get any of the nursing perks (higher pay, sign on bonus, call pay, charge pay, bonus for additional shifts, etc, etc, etc). And if it is about responsibility, I can kill a patient in the blood bank as fast as you can at the bedside.

I agree. My mom has been a Medical Technologist for almot 30 years. At our hospital, they are one of the most overworked and abused departments there is. They do staggering amounts of lab work for inpatients, outpatients, and the local vets. Most poeple don't realize how much education they are required to have. I know her pay after being at the hospital where we both work for 6 years is about 2 dollars more than a new grad RN gets.

I find it frustrating when I talk to friends in other fields who continue to improve their standard of living as a reward for hard work, continuing education, loyalty, ingenuity, etc. They get paid to come in for meetings and inservices, they can't understand why in the world you would go without a meal break, or have to eat in 5 minutes while standing up, much less not be able to go to the bathroom some days for 7 or 8 hours. I remember when I was having a baby, my friend also delivered. She worked, with a 2 year degree, for the cable company. Her delivery had zero out of pocket expenses for her and she got 8 weeks paid time off. I had the same length of service at the hospital I worked at, got 2 weeks of paid time off and a deductible and 20% copay. Oh, and she didn't even have to pay any premium for her health insurance, either. Sometimes you just can't look at how much you get paid per hour, its other factors, too. Not to mention all the other stressful responsibilities as stated by others in previous posts. One thing for certain in healthcare, though, people will always need nurses. Despite nursings' compensation concerns, several of my husband's business-mfg. employed friends, who's salaries quickly surpassed his RN salary (which they thought was hilarious), have been through a number of jobs due to 'downsizing" while he has steady work. Now he doesn't look quite the fool to them anymore. Stress of a different kind for them.

Specializes in Public Health, DEI.
I HIGHLY disagree with that statement. My husband makes less than $20/hr and we have lived off his income alone for the past 7 years. It's not easy. We hardly get to go out to eat or do anything recreational, but we CAN live off it. That's with a $700/month house payment and almost $500/month car payment. We own a home, so we have all the added utility bills, insurance, etc. Not to mention a 5 year old and a 7 year old. We DID splurge and sign our girls up for softball this season though. :chuckle

But I just wanted to say that it IS possible. Maybe we don't have the big house that I would love. Maybe we have to say "no" to our friends when they ask if we want to go out to eat or to the movies. Maybe by kids can't get books from the school bookfair each time it comes (isn't that what the LIBRARY is for???). There is a lot we CAN'T do, but who needs all that stuff anyways?

Two things. First, many places in this country have out of control, cuckoo, housing costs. My mortgage, for our modest 1200 square foot home, is twice your's, and it isn't at all unreasonable for this area. Two, I would have to say that one of the advantages of getting an education and working hard is providing my family with a certain standard of living. I happen to believe that my son should enjoy the fruits of my labors. He doesn't get everything he wants, but he gets a lot, and I am delighted that my husband and I can provide it for him. I grew up poor. I don't think it is the worst thing in the world, but I decided long ago that it wasn't for me. I certainly think the value of my work entitles me and my family to more than living paycheck to paycheck and worrying about the cost of participating in youth softball!

Specializes in Inpatient Acute Rehab.
Two things. First, many places in this country have out of control, cuckoo, housing costs. My mortgage, for our modest 1200 square foot home, is twice your's, and it isn't at all unreasonable for this area. Two, I would have to say that one of the advantages of getting an education and working hard is providing my family with a certain standard of living. I happen to believe that my son should enjoy the fruits of my labors. He doesn't get everything he wants, but he gets a lot, and I am delighted that my husband and I can provide it for him. I grew up poor. I don't think it is the worst thing in the world, but I decided long ago that it wasn't for me. I certainly think the value of my work entitles me and my family to more than living paycheck to paycheck and worrying about the cost of participating in youth softball!

I could not have said it better myself Mercy!!!! I, too, grew up poor, sometimes wondering if I would get to eat. I never had nice clothes or toys, or anything that most kids get to enjoy. I , too, do not give my children everything they want, but they do get enough that they are not made fun of at school,they get nice clothes and toys. I like my job, and would probably work even if I did not have too, and I want my children to reap the benefit of it. My children will never have to live like I did.

Specializes in ER!.
I live in Memphis, TN. I went back to school and got a diploma in nursing. I have a BS in Bio. I make $20.28 hr plus shift diff. I work in one of the top 10 busiest ER in the country. On a daily basis I am spit at, cussed out, have pt take a swing at me, doctor's bitc*ing b/c lab lost the blood on the pt we had to fem stick.

Did I mention due to recent budget constraints. Nurses will now draw all their own blood. Transport all pt going to tele beds. And we cut your staffing numbers. Obviously since we had been working short every night, they could just cut the number and call us even.

No I don't think I get paid enough. When an alert labs gets called in I get it do the doc and get orders. I convince the little old lady in acute renal failure that she does need to stay in hospital even if she feels ok. I tell the family that their loved one is very ill and to come the the ER immediately, I tell the wife of a pt with a K level greater than 8 who is complaining aout it just being lab work and why did they have to come in tonight that if he didn't have a pacemaker he probably would have died, I bust my a$$ to get the acute MI to the cath lab in time to save his heart muscle. All the while taking care of 3 other patients. Thankful I brought soup for dinner b/c I don't have time to chew.

Angel :angryfire

Angel, do you work at the Med?

THe pay is not bad. The problem is it took 30 yrs to get that pay status. There is no longevity. Also benefits could really improve for the nurses. We are the Healthcare of society but how many of the nurses know of other professions(GM, FORD, teachers, etc.) whom get better healthcare coverage & retirement benefits then nurses??????

All nurses should strive for standards of benefits. We have worked hard to become nurses & continue to work hard to strive for the best optimal care for our patients.

er rn wrote:

Could someone please explain to me why a physician can make a 6 digit-plus salary and the nurse who is the next highest level of education in the hosptial only starts out a couple of dollars higher the the cna's or the nurse techs.

____

actually rns are some of the least educated professionals in the health care system. less than 30% of bedside nurses have a bachelor's degree.

dieticians, physical therapists, social workers and pharmacists have at least that, if not their master's degree.

I really agree with you regarding the physicians. In the ER I often work with residents or fellows that are moonlighting. I can't count the times that my collegues or I have kept them from making potentially bad mistakes. I think the AMA should subsidize our salaries. Would'nt that be appropriate? :coollook:

Specializes in ER, PACU.

I live in NY, and yes we do make a decent salary. HOWEVER think about this..

I think about what I do during an average shift (not only me but all nurses). Then think about all the sh-- you put up with in one busy hour of that..Running around like crazy, saving lives, whatever. And at the end of that hour someone hands you $25. I could go mow somebodys lawn or mix a drink at a bar and make that kind of money.

What I keep hearing from the nurses I represent is not really that they are ticked off about money exactly -- it is more closely related to lack of respect their profession recieves, the long hours they work, the fact that they are not compensated for higher education, they put themselves in some extremely dangerous situations at high levels of risk of exposure to deadly things and recieve no compensation for the added risks there...... and we wonder why there is dissatisfaction? Add to that the medical field has trained many physicians to view these competant professionals as their slaves, that they deserve to be treated with limited respect and should be blamed for every possible error in judgement that they (the physician) can possibly blame them for-- and God forbid that nurses be considered ad a valued part of the medical team!!! YEAH! under-paid seems to be the tipp of the ice burg in my office!

Angel, do you work at the Med?

Actually, Methodist. They both make the list, doesn't that say a lot about us.

Angel :)

Specializes in oncology, surgical stepdown, ACLS & OCN.

we have a way to go in the salary dept. Nurses are definately underpaid, when you consider all we do, and all the responsibility we are accounted for, how long do you think it would take for most pt.s to code if there weren't any nurses in the hospital.

If they didn't code there health status would definately decline. doctors and surgeons

may bring the money into a hospital, but nurses help them get well enough to go home, so docs can do more surgery and we can give more chemo. It is a never ending cycle that will soon be compromised drastically w/ the nursing shortage,maybe someone in administration will wake up and smell the coffee.

I know it probably won't happen for a long time.

Specializes in oncology, surgical stepdown, ACLS & OCN.
Continuous inflation, progression of technology to the point that humans are not needed for production of products, EXTREME increase in population, maybe? :rolleyes:

Got news, docs and nurses will always be needed as long as we have human beings walking this earth, you can't expect robuts and computers to take there place, not in this lifetime. People are not products. :uhoh21:

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