Only certain departments in hospital got a pay increase?

Nurses General Nursing

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Surgical, L&D, ER. Apparently they are the more 'lucrative' units, whatever the hell that means/matters. We're all out here working hard, we're all taking good care of our patients. What the hell?

Side note: Our employer does not give annual or merit-based raises so this is exceptional. I'm still making what I made four years ago.

Specializes in Critical Care.
What was the goal attainment rate for those units compared to other units? Did they meet their goal for CLABSI/CAUTI for example?

Are those units having trouble recruiting/maintaining quality staff?

They do not give raises just to give raises. I suspect there is a rationale that the OP is unaware of.

I agree it is probably not that these departments are making more money, but rather than there is a shortage of nurses willing to work without a raise and they are being forced to raise pay to keep the few workers they have and find more!

I've always received a raise, but only a 2-3% raise for years. One of the reasons I'm not at the max is because they adjust the min to max every couple years or I'd probably already be maxed out so I guess that's a good thing! Some hospital systems in my area who are also very profitable, took advantage of the financial crisis to freeze wages and forego raises for a year or too.

The MBA suits are driven to maximize profits and the easiest way to do this is to cut costs and nursing is a cost to them so they have no problem freezing pay or cutting raises. It keeps their profits up and ensures the yahoos at the top get their annual performance bonuses.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Don't be silly. The reward for meeting the CLABSI/CAUTI goal is a pizza party for the unit, or maybe a cookie tray from the cafeteria. Maybe a congratulatory email from management. Not actual money!

Isn't that the truth! LOL They do the same gimmicks where I work! One was we'd have a popcorn or ice cream party if we had no falls for 90 days. So ridiculous, with all the weak, unsteady and confused patients we can't be everywhere at once. No one lets patients fall, we simply can't prevent all the falls given the few staff on the floor! I will say they now use sitters more than ever so that does help prevent falls, obviously way more effective than a silly, stupid popcorn, ice cream or pizza party!

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The organization I work for has a lot of trouble recruiting employees. We have not had a pay raise in 3 years, and a competing company starts new grads at $25,000/year plus the same benefits. Guess why my employer has difficulty recruiting? I would leave but I am 3 years from retirement, I am just going to stick it out, it's not worth the trouble to change now.

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Isn't that the truth! LOL They do the same gimmicks where I work! One was we'd have a popcorn or ice cream party if we had no falls for 90 days. So ridiculous, with all the weak, unsteady and confused patients we can't be everywhere at once. No one lets patients fall, we simply can't prevent all the falls given the few staff on the floor! I will say they now use sitters more than ever so that does help prevent falls, obviously way more effective than a silly, stupid popcorn, ice cream or pizza party!

That is so offensive! The point of incentives is to encourage people to try harder. Incentives to prevent falls means they think you're not motivated enough to keep people safe. Basically, they're treating you like 3rd graders who need more motivation to do their schoolwork. I would be boiling mad at those implications.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Ask HR---not us.

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Surgical, L&D, ER. Apparently they are the more 'lucrative' units, whatever the hell that means/matters. We're all out here working hard, we're all taking good care of our patients. What the hell?

Side note: Our employer does not give annual or merit-based raises so this is exceptional. I'm still making what I made four years ago.

All I can say to that is what a punitive action by your employer. Sorry they are ******es

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The organization I work for has a lot of trouble recruiting employees. We have not had a pay raise in 3 years, and a competing company starts new grads at $25,000/year plus the same benefits. Guess why my employer has difficulty recruiting? I would leave but I am 3 years from retirement, I am just going to stick it out, it's not worth the trouble to change now.

Oh yeah it's worth it. I found my dream job at 61... sitting on my tookas at home. They just gave me a year's salary to retire.

Never sell yourself short.

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That's whay day shift gets. Nights gets crumbs and the resultant mess to clean up.

So true! when I worked nights they used to send us stale day old pastries while we had to clean up the pizza boxes from the other shifts, lol!

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Specializes in Critical care.

A certain department in my hospital received a substantial wage increase. Everyone was notified and given an explanation via email. Apparently we were spending a lot training for this department, but could not retain employees in it. Other area hospitals paid substantially more and the wage in that particular area was increased to be competitive. Maybe something like this happened at your facility. I appreciated the explanation for the increase.

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Specializes in Med-Tele; ED; ICU.
The MBA suits are driven to maximize profits and the easiest way to do this is to cut costs and nursing is a cost to them so they have no problem freezing pay or cutting raises. It keeps their profits up and ensures the yahoos at the top get their annual performance bonuses.
As more and more newbies flood the job market, this will get worse and worse.
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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

It is pretty well established in the world of nursing that the only way to get decent wage increases is to change jobs every couple of years.

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.
Isn't that the truth! LOL They do the same gimmicks where I work! One was we'd have a popcorn or ice cream party if we had no falls for 90 days. So ridiculous, with all the weak, unsteady and confused patients we can't be everywhere at once. No one lets patients fall, we simply can't prevent all the falls given the few staff on the floor! I will say they now use sitters more than ever so that does help prevent falls, obviously way more effective than a silly, stupid popcorn, ice cream or pizza party!

Riiiiight... you won't try your best to prevent falls for pt safety, but you would for ice cream? That's insulting.

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