I recently took a friend to a medical clinic for treatment. We were surprised by the lack of professionalism we received from the nursing staff. While my friend was waiting to be treated, we listened to a group of nurses complain that they were underpaid, should be paid as much as the doctors, and that $45 an hour was a low wage. One nurse was even leaning back in her chair with her feet up on the desk and flipping through a magazine and kept talking about going on strike.
All of this was disconcerting to view and made me wonder what happened to the emphasis on "caring" in health care versus the attitude of "I'm worth a million bucks". Several of the other patients in the waiting room didn't seem too pleased either. One lady with two kids leaned over to me and commented that she would be thankful to even have a job that paid $10 an hour because she had been unemployed for 8 months.
As a professional educator, I was distressed to see this selfish behavior. Our teacher's union voted to take a pay cut and have a cost of living freeze over the next 2 years in order to keep the schools open and to serve the public. None of us make anywhere near $45 an hour, but we didn't complain to the public about our situation. We saw it as our duty to sacrifice and serve the community because we care.
Over the past month I have asked friends, family and colleagues about their experiences with nurses and health care. Many have commented that a lot of nurses seem to put more emphasis on what they are worth than caring about their patients. One of my friends is an RN and she said the profession has changed over the past few years. She claims nurses weren't highly paid in the past and that most entered the profession because of the caring aspect. Now many of the nurses are there for the money and that the unions are demanding large increases in wages because of the shortages in licensed RNs.
I believe that nurses do contribute a lot to our society. It just concerns me that the occupation seems to be focusing more on earning more money and less on patient care. Hopefully the profession will take a proactive approach in curbing the emphasis on greed and focus on what really matters most to us all...caring about our community.
Thank you all for responding to the experience I shared. Some of you were very constructive in your comments and I can relate that we aren't always appreciated for what we do.
It is challenging every day for me to manage a class of 30+ students with inadequate resources, unhappy parents and a myraid of social problems. It isn't uncommon to be physically threatened by students or parents. However, none of us teachers complain to the students or public about the danger of our profession and our low pay. And yes to the one individual who didn't believe, we did get a pay cut and salary/cost of living freeze for this year and next year (we are in the middle of a recession and budget cuts right now!) I know healthcare has been fairly immune to the recession, but there are a lot of people hurting out there right now.
It is distressing to see how some of the posts were impolite in their tone. Maybe my incident is an isolated one, but that doesn't mean I should be called names and treated disrespectfully for sharing an experience. Ironic that several of you stated you didn't feel respected by others. My intent was never to offend any of you, but rather to understand why these nurses would be acting like this and to raise a flag that acting like this in front of the public makes us less sympathetic to your complaints.
My wife is an accountant and I told her that acccountants in Wyoming are making $70,000 a year. She wants to know when we are going to move because she makes $45,000 a year with a masters in accounting. She said very few accountants make over $55,000 a year where we live unless they join management. (She's not a very big fan of management either) My wife took a salary freeze too because the company she is working for was hard hit by the recession.
As far as my teaching salary, I'm hoping to reach $40,000 in a few years and until that time will do odd jobs to supplement our income and to pay for all of the continuing ed requirements (talk about jumping through hoops). I'm not rich and probably never will be, but I know that I'm making a difference every day. Who else is going to make a difference? My colleagues and I could all go on strike for better pay and working conditions. Schools would be shut down and our children would have to fend for themselves. Is that the right thing to do though? Would the public see it as "those poor teachers" or "those greedy teachers"? In every profession we make sacrifices and that is one of the reasons we're respected.
It is challenging every day for me to manage a class of 30+ students with inadequate resources, unhappy parents and a myraid of social problems. It isn't uncommon to be physically threatened by students or parents. However, none of us teachers complain to the students or public about the danger of our profession and our low pay.
Sounds a lot like nursing. It's challenging every day for me to manage my patient assignment without adequate resources, unhappy patients and families and a myraid of social problems. It isn't uncommon to be verbally and physicall threated by patients.
But for you to state that teachers don't complain to the public about their low pay is a bit untrue. I hear and read about it all the time. Teachers threaten to go on strike everywhere.
(That you have to supplement your income when you and your wife make a combined salary of 85,000 a year speaks volumes for our complaints that our salaries aren't enough either. Don't you think?)
Again, I agree it was very unprofessional of those nurses to complian in full ear of the patients.
Specializes in Trauma,ER,CCU/OHU/Nsg Ed/Nsg Research.
Originally posted by cannoli
Don't taxes pay for the schools in your state? They do in mine..
That's what I was thinking too. If the economy were better, wouldn't you be asking for better pay since it would be more of a reality? Personally, I am all for paying more taxes for better education, and for better working conditions for teachers. Just because the economy is preventing you from you from making better wages right now doesn't mean the same problem is going on in healthcare. Our problem is more of one of inequity of distribution I think. The healthcare industry continues to make money right now. Is it wrong for us to want the wages we deserve? Wanting to be justly compensated doesn't make us less caring about others, maybe it means we are becoming more caring about our selves and our families we have to support. On a side note, I have never seen nurses sitting at the nurse's station with their feet up reading magazines where I work, nor do I know of any nurses working in clinics making $45 an hour. I would like to know where this is happening, as most of the clinic nurses I know make less than the ones in hospitals or for agencies. Makes me kind of think the OP is bogus, too.
Dood! We have 3 threads now running with the lpn vs.rn debate and the rn vs rn debate...Why not rehash teachers vs. nurses? It always goes down in flames-just like the other threads....
First off I don't know of any clinic RN's making 45.00/hr. maybe in NYC or SF? Secondly, why is it wrong to want to be compensated. Nursing has changed my friend, gone are the days of the white capped nurse/Dr.'s handmaiden. Nurses are no longer claiming to be Mother Theresa in scrubs. It is now a proffesion in my opinion, nurses are highly skilled individuals offering their services to various hospitals/clnics/reasearchers/universities etc. Yes caring is part of our job, just as I would hope caring is part of a teachers job.
To be honest I don't think taking a pay cut and cost of living freeze was the best move on yours and the other teachers part, teachers as a rule are underpayed for their educational level as it is. Its amazing, out here in Little Rock, AR they can spend millions on frivelous tourist attractions (river walk anybody) but for some reason they can't give teachers an appropriate raise. I hate to say it but its a rat race out there, get payed what you think you are worth or move on.
Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
OK, I don't usually respond to what I suspect are bogus posts, but in defense of my state, I must say that the OP is right about the sorry state of education here: taxes DON'T pay for schools, at least not nearly as much as they need. Our economy is one of the poorest in the nation (that's why Oregon is called the Mississippi of the West!), thanks to the combination of mismanagement on the part of our state legislation and generalized stupidity on the part of the citizenry that got a filthy rich man named Bill Sizemore into politics, and his initiatives have been wreaking havoc on our tax system since 1990. :angryfire Our kids are using textbooks from the 1980s, parents have to foot the bills for everything from writing paper to field trips, and the buildings are falling apart.
And yes, I'd love to be a clinic nurse making $45 an hour, sitting on my rear with my feet up and complaining. I'd love to be making $45 an hour ANYWHERE, and I never "sit and complain". Ain't gonna happen. I deal with it. 'Nuff said.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
HOOO BOY.....welp, much the same could be said of teachers...
Here near Seattle, a whole district struck for 56 days straight or close to that I think)......
Yes, they felt they should be exempted from state pay scales/wages....hmmm....maybe, maybe not....all i know is,
..... lotsa kids were out of school til end of October. Graduating seniors really sweating whether or not they get to start COLLEGE in fall......parents left up in arms over what to do w/the kids for 7 weeks when they SHOULD be in school.......Guess it was not about the kids like they always say??? Or maybe it was........I can see both sides, after all......
and I have pulled my kids out of public school cause I don't think they have my kids' best interests at heart....but do I condemn teachers as a rule? HECK NO!!!!! That would be unfair.....
I don't want a war, but sheesh, you come to a nurses' board and makes these statements and darn, that gets me a bit.I know many, many teachers work way too hard for too little appreciation and money Guess what, I know quite a few nurses who do, too. (read Reader's Digest lately? Or Woman's Day?)......All I am saying here, is despite what you saw and over heard......
You do not know the whole picture....what you saw was awful and unprofessional to you (and if accurate, to me, too), but wait to make judgements til you have walked a few dozen miles in my stinky ole nurses' shoes.......Really, you just don 't know what I **AM** worth.....and yes I BET ,it's more than you are thinking!!
At least, you may realize this worth when one day, you are my patient...or your sister, mother, daughter or best friend is. MAYBE then you will see .....but then maybe not if you are like so many people who think nurses are not worth a darn.
My point is, Teachers, nurses, I think we are a lot alike, actually. All of us working way too hard for too many unappreciative people for WAY too little compensation, taking a lot of abuse along the way from administrators and family members. That is why there is a shortage of qualifed people who wish to do these things anymore....right???? anyhow....
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
P.S. ----so sorry but.....
I did *not* cast a vote cause I think money is just the *start* of the issue I have with compensation (or lack of it) for what we put up with in nursing today......in some cases, none of the figures quoted are enough as far as I am concerned.........
but suffice it to say, like I said before, I feel, as a nurse, I am probably worth more than YOU think I should be. :stone but it IS JMO....
I just had to laugh when Mike posted that teachers don't complain to the public about being underpaid :roll :roll Where are you living?! It's not a secret here, cause it is CONSTANTLY in the news and teachers are constantly threatenning to strike. It was a big election issue with one party campaigning on a promise to maketeacher strikes illegal.
oregonvolunteer
3 Posts
Thank you all for responding to the experience I shared. Some of you were very constructive in your comments and I can relate that we aren't always appreciated for what we do.
It is challenging every day for me to manage a class of 30+ students with inadequate resources, unhappy parents and a myraid of social problems. It isn't uncommon to be physically threatened by students or parents. However, none of us teachers complain to the students or public about the danger of our profession and our low pay. And yes to the one individual who didn't believe, we did get a pay cut and salary/cost of living freeze for this year and next year (we are in the middle of a recession and budget cuts right now!) I know healthcare has been fairly immune to the recession, but there are a lot of people hurting out there right now.
It is distressing to see how some of the posts were impolite in their tone. Maybe my incident is an isolated one, but that doesn't mean I should be called names and treated disrespectfully for sharing an experience. Ironic that several of you stated you didn't feel respected by others. My intent was never to offend any of you, but rather to understand why these nurses would be acting like this and to raise a flag that acting like this in front of the public makes us less sympathetic to your complaints.
My wife is an accountant and I told her that acccountants in Wyoming are making $70,000 a year. She wants to know when we are going to move because she makes $45,000 a year with a masters in accounting. She said very few accountants make over $55,000 a year where we live unless they join management. (She's not a very big fan of management either) My wife took a salary freeze too because the company she is working for was hard hit by the recession.
As far as my teaching salary, I'm hoping to reach $40,000 in a few years and until that time will do odd jobs to supplement our income and to pay for all of the continuing ed requirements (talk about jumping through hoops). I'm not rich and probably never will be, but I know that I'm making a difference every day. Who else is going to make a difference? My colleagues and I could all go on strike for better pay and working conditions. Schools would be shut down and our children would have to fend for themselves. Is that the right thing to do though? Would the public see it as "those poor teachers" or "those greedy teachers"? In every profession we make sacrifices and that is one of the reasons we're respected.
Mike