Equal Pay

[NoCarolinaRN]

Is it fair for a hospital to give an increase to critical care nurses in an inpatient setting but not to the critical care nurses in an outpatient center of that same hospital (who do the same job and are required to have the same skill set and certifications)?

[SillyStudent, ASN, RN]

Well, I think so, under certain conditions.

If you are talking about a hardly-any-weekends, hardly-any-holidays clinic type of setting, sure. It's easier to get people to work there, because the working conditions and schedules are better. They can pay those people less, and the jobs will stay full because the job offers the employees a better life.

If the outpatient setting is 3 12's (or the equivalent), nights, holidays and weekends...then no. They should make the same pay.

[Wendy_RN]

I do not understand how an outpatient nurse could possibly do the same job as an inpatient nurse. There is a difference in the acuity of the patients. I understand that some responsibilities would be the same, but they are two different jobs.

[sharann, BSN, RN]

I am guessing you are talking about PACU maybe?

[NoCarolinaRN]

Yes, I am referring to PACU and the acuity of the patients can be higher as an inpatient, but sometimes the outpatient PACU patients are just as high.

[Crocuta, RN]

What is fair is what the market will support. If there are nurses willing to work for those wages, then a mutually agreeable relationship has been established. There's nothing more fair than that.

If the wages are too low for the market, they'll have trouble filling positions and if they want them filled, they'll raise prices closer to the inpatient wage rate.

[NoCarolinaRN]

They gave an across the board increase to all critical care areas with the exception of 2 outpatient PACUs.

[AMBER ICURN]

our hospital just gave the icu nurses an across the board raise also. this was done for a couple of reasons... we are required to maintain more certifications than other departments (bls,acls,pals, tncc), we are also required to be dual licenced and float between 3 icu's in 2 states. and the biggest was because we were having so much trouble getting and keeping qualified staff.

the pacu is not part of the icu division at our hospital though. they also don't recover icu inpatients and if a pt is staying vented post op even if it was an out pt they alot of times don't recover them either or they do it on the unit for 20 min and call it done. so we thought it was fair for us to get the raise especially as we are required to work weekends, holidays and 12 hour shifts nights. hope that helps with your question.

[november17, ASN, RN]

outpatient critical care?? lol ***

[elkpark]

I think you'll find, if you look, that outpatient jobs, with better hours, holidays off, etc., pay less than the inpatient jobs in the same specialty in every specialty. That's been my experience over the years, anyway.

Someone who really wanted the higher rate of pay could always apply for a job in the inpatient ICU.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

The acuity in an outpt setting is significantly less than inpt. The additional "perks" of better hours also serve as an intangible incentive. I would guess this hospital system has no problem filling the outpt PACU positions but inpt might be another story.