Sign on bonuses

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I know in Las Vegas a lot of the hospitals do a lot of sign on bonuses and have a lot of incentives to come to their hospital. Do you see a lot of that where you live?

Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.

Some hospitals offer bonuses because they are located in parts of the country where there really is not a glut of competent nurses.

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LadyFree, you will find that pretty much, what you hear is the "spin" made for your ears. Taking out UAP is a money saving move - not an appreciating the skill/value of nurses move UNLESS in doing this, they also reduce patient to nurse ratio, and set a max with acuity considerations. You bought in hook line and sinker, so it worked. Lots of different things being tried.

It's all about increasing profit. Some places around me are begging for very experienced NPs to change out MDs from specialty supervisory roles - they don't want to pay for MDs. Others want to train techs/MAs for many of the things RNs currently do - they don't want to pay for RNs. I see weird things going on in offices owned by the large networks. Using RNs as some kind of extender - not NPs. Calls for very experienced RNs to leave for office positions - they are already over and done with paying NPs in some areas. Also centralized triage in a call center for all private practice offices within a network. How can this work you say? Once you have EPIC, everything can be observed/controlled by others - those networks that have heavily invested in extreme EMR infrastructure can do this now. All staff can be interchanged with any office ...so can MDs within specialty (coming soon).

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
LadyFree, you will find that pretty much, what you hear is the "spin" made for your ears. Taking out UAP is a money saving move - not an appreciating the skill/value of nurses move UNLESS in doing this, they also reduce patient to nurse ratio, and set a max with acuity considerations. You bought in hook line and sinker, so it worked. Lots of different things being tried.

It's all about increasing profit. Some places around me are begging for very experienced NPs to change out MDs from specialty supervisory roles - they don't want to pay for MDs. Others want to train techs/MAs for many of the things RNs currently do - they don't want to pay for RNs. I see weird things going on in offices owned by the large networks. Using RNs as some kind of extender - not NPs. Calls for very experienced RNs to leave for office positions - they are already over and done with paying NPs in some areas. Also centralized triage in a call center for all private practice offices within a network. How can this work you say? Once you have EPIC, everything can be observed/controlled by others - those networks that have heavily invested in extreme EMR infrastructure can do this now. All staff can be interchanged with any office ...so can MDs within specialty (coming soon).

They reduced nurse/pt ratio.

Trust me, I understand the side of "phasing out." I was an LPN that working in a highly acute rehabilitation hospital. Upper management wanted LPNs to get RN license because they were a magnet hospital. If they didn't do it in enough time, they planned to lay them off. I got in a bus accident. Fractured my neck, couldn't go back and work at a physically demanding job because my physical therapy treatment was not over, so, after FMLA, I was let go. I got this job AFTER I left ANOTHER magnet hospital, who were phasing out LPNs...yes, the "RN satisfaction" label is used as a term to squeeze more blood from a stone, but it is still up to us to have our career on our terms where safety and competency rules, not just the bottom line...and in my area, I see that wind changing in the "talent and competent" direction...it is more monetary incentive for those academic hospitals to retain great talent, rather than cut corners, especially where the state that I am malpractice levies significant treble damages against staff AND the hospital, and good nurse and doctor organizations that organize together and are active in legislative and activism with a history of positive outcomes when It comes to nurses and doctor's ability to provide safe, effective care.

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I got a sign on bonus in Philly, of all places. It wasn't advertised and was totally unexpected. I was a new grad too.

Congratulations!

How do you like it there? I mean both Philly itself and your work environment?

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Every hospital in my area offers one. $7500 is the minimum, two hospitals offer $10,000. All sign on bonuses are for two years. It's really not worth it after taxes.

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Posted by RNsRWe: "Only for experienced/well-qualified in critical need areas. And most of the time, if they're offering big bucks as incentives, you don't want to work there!"

I don't think that's always true. I've worked for the same hospital and department as a PCT for the past 8 years and I hope after I finish nursing school to return to the CCU. I know earlier this year the hospital advertised nationally for experienced ICU/CCU RN and the sign on bonus was $15,000 plus relocation reimbursement.

So, what you're saying is that what I said in my original post is actually quite true....contrary to what you posted here.

You might not work for a miserable employer, but my statement still stands: EITHER they will pay big bucks for a nurse with the right level of experience in an area of critical need (which is what you described) OR they'll pay anyone with a license a sign-on bonus---and you would not want to work there.

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Specializes in None - yet ;).

There's only travel agencies and LTC facilities offering sign on bonuses in my area. I haven't seen a hospital offer a sign on bonus in I-don't-know-when. And the LTC facilities that offer them are NOT worth it. They are severely understaffed (thus the bonus) and can't keep the staff they do have. I would much rather not have a sign-on bonus and work in a well-staffed hospital and have less stress than get $10,000 sign-on (before taxes), have no staff to speak of, have tons of added stress, and be stuck in that job for the length of my contract. Ugh.

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Specializes in ICU/CCU, Med Surg.

Sign-on bonus...isn't that the nursing world's unicorn?

In all seriousness, I think I've only seen them offered by travel agencies.

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Bonuses are taxed as unearned income. 33 1/3 percent tax bracket.

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

All of the sign-on bonuses I have seen--and that's not too many in this economy--have been aimed only at experienced nurses in a specialty area or involve agency/travel nursing.

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Specializes in Med/surg, Quality & Risk.
Even if you do get one...those puppies are HEAVILY taxed!!!!!!!

Are we talking about actual taxes here or are we talking about the withholding of money from your paycheck? My bonuses and my husband's have never actually been taxed as anything but additional wages. There's only one line on the W2 at the end of the year for "wages tips and other compensation," and they all go into the same place on the tax returns. There are rules requiring employers to withhold more, but to my knowledge the money is not actually taxed differently. If the employer withholds too much, you'll get the money back as a refund at tax time.

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Congratulations!How do you like it there? I mean both Philly itself and your work environment?
Philly is a dirty, mean, unsafe, trashy city. I actually don't live in the city anymore thankfully. My job was great though- not without its share of issues, but I got a great orientation and my coworkers were great. I liked the work I was doing, but felt the commute was too much so left for a job closer to home.
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