How to Ask for Annual Raise in HH

[WeirdNurseKelly, BSN, RN]

I am fairly new to nursing, I have 2 1/2 years of experience. This is the first time I have been at a nursing job and hit my year mark (working full time that is). My first job was on-call, my second job was a complete disaster and lasted a long (too long) 4 months.

I am extremely happy in home health and have come a LONG way. I have learned so much in the past year. I can't believe I have finally hit my year mark.

My previous jobs I have always just taken what was given to me around the time I was eligible for a raise. Now I want to start learning some negotiationg skills in order to get what I feel I deserve from an annual raise. I did not get a raise at my 90 days.

The company I work for is hitting their year mark. They used to be called something else. We are growing, especially in the recent weeks and will continue to grow as we are having our hospice survey REALLY soon and will start transitioning some of our patients to hospice. My question is how do I approach the raise issue during my year review and how much should I be asking for?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am also posting this in the generaly discussion.

[AMN74]

Does your company do annual reviews? Every nurse should get a 90 day review to just let you know how you are fitting in with the new job and what you may need to work on. Most jobs don't offer a raise at that 90 day mark. But also for your professional benefit you should be getting an annual review. That is the time for your company to make sure your skills are up to date, your mandatory education for the job is up to date, your cpr is up to date, your tb screening is up to date etc. And you need an annual review just so you know that you are performing as your company wishes you to perform. It needs to be in writing for you to always have a copy in case something should happen down the road and suddenly you fall from being a great nurse to a crappy nurse, and also for their records. At the annual review time there is generally a 0-5% raise based on how you score on your eval. I know my company went from a 0-5% to a 0-3%, but every little penny helps. I have been employed with the same company for 15 years and I have all my evals, and each penny adds up. So if the company is on the up and up this should be happening.