How can you say you're not paid well?

[Speculating]

slobgob]there are rns making less than $20/hr around the country... $28 is pretty good, but you'd also have to figure in the high cost of living.

i think the point isn't: nurses can't survive on their salary.

more like: nurses aren't paid well enough for such huge responsibilities and hard work. you have so many lives in your hands... and you're in a position where one error could end that life.

[quote=well put slobgob, but i think your wasting your time trying to explain to a wanna be nurse what it's like to be a nurse. i think the best we can do for this poor soul is to tell them to go to college become a nurse then to come back and tell us they're making plenty money. apparently malusport you've been lucky in life so far and have not needed the service we nurses render in saving the life of one of your loved ones. the just of most of posters is it's the principle of the matter. when a plumber makes more than me i believe something is wrong. unlike most jobs i can't leave mine at the door when i go home it goes everywhere i go. i see and do things that no human being should ever have to see in a lifetime - daily! even on my days off people are calling "i have fever what should i do' ' i have a wound oozing pus what should i do." a couple of months ago i had an ambulance come in hot and hand me a lifeless four month old baby. i did everything i possible could and more but i had nothing to work with. then i had go out and explain to this 16 y/o mother of twins that one of her babies isn't coming home. aaron tell me or explain to me once again how you think i'm over paid! i don't know what you do for a living we nurses save lives you can't put a dollar amount on that. we should all at least be able to comfortable pay the bills. in the game of life we're the hero's out there not the quarterback of a football team making millions.

[mrdoc2005]

I live in NE Alabama where the start pay in $17.50-18 depending on the hospital.

My brother (who has a two year electrical degree) works in a box mill in Rome, GA (about 30 mins from here) and he makes $19.00. Don't mistake what I say, I am very happy for him, but if he screws something up it is just a box not a life.

High School teacher in this area makes $30-35K per year. Keep in mind they get 3 months off in the summer and 2 weeks off at Christmas plus other holidays. Also, weekends off (if they do not bring it home).

Auto mechanic makes around 30k.

Get my point.

Just like everyone else has said....look at what we do and compare our pay to others.

[MrsWampthang, BSN, RN]

In my area, the starting pay is usually $16-18. per hour plus shift diff. I make well less than $28. per hour unless I am working an extra shift. There is no extra incentive to stay. Most of the nurses get a 2-3% raise every year. No extra for the number of years as a nurse. The only certification that matters at our facility is ACLS and then only if you work ER or ICU. I am about to take the CEN and the hospital is not paying one cent extra for the certification.

I guess I should start a new topic with this question, but I am interested in how your facility staffs its ER.

HMMMM. You must work at my hospital. Our ER doesn't even encourage CEN, let alone pay extra for it. They let a couple of people go to TNCC every once in awhile, but again, there is no extra pay for it. They require us to have PALS but don't ever schedule classes that the whole department can go to. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. We do have premium pay for weekend option which is 35 dollars for days and 38 dollars for nights with benefits. However, our hospital only gives a 3% cost of living wage every year, and periodically we get market adjustments which are sometimes substantial. Still, my regular hourly wage is still less than 22.00 an hour and I have been a nurse for almost four years.

[lee1]

Yes I do make good money working nights and as many weekends as possible. Of course then you have to take out my retirement savings, insurance and taxes. Between my husband and I we are able to make a mortgage payment, have two fairly new cars and go out to eat a couple times a week. If I need more money I work overtime which there is usually plenty of.

I have been a nurse almost 4 years, I have already had one back injury. My joints hurt so bad when I come home I am limping. I make life and death decisions for the patient with the help of the doctors (sometimes).

I make enough to live on, but with the level of responsibility I carry for 12 hours...not enough. Add in the fact that I can't do this the rest of my life ( my body will wear out).

Besides all of the above, tell me what/where nurses get pensions, are able to retire at 55, get medical benefits of anykind when they retire other than medicare, etc. etc. Don't we for the most part also have to give up other other weekend, every other holiday? We should be getting something akin to what police/teachers get when they retire.

[Speculating]

Could someone please explain to me why the nurses are complaining that they're not being pad well. In case my math is wrong this is the figure that I come up with.

3 day/12 hour shift at average $28/hr in New York

12 hours *$28=$336 per day*3 days $1008 per week* 52 Weeks that's $52,416 per year......that's just the average in New York. If you do 4 days you pull in almost $70,000.

So, what the all the complaining about not getting paid? I just don't understand.

Am I missing something?

Aaron

PS: I didn't even include any sign on bonus or night differential pay.

Oh yes, malusport remember when your looking up at me from that ER stretcher begging me to save your live from that gas pain you think is a heart attack that I'm majorly stressed out because I just spent my last dollar trying to pay the rent and I'm pissed off.

[PMHNP10]

Could someone please explain to me why the nurses are complaining that they're not being pad well. In case my math is wrong this is the figure that I come up with.

3 day/12 hour shift at average $28/hr in New York

12 hours *$28=$336 per day*3 days $1008 per week* 52 Weeks that's $52,416 per year......that's just the average in New York. If you do 4 days you pull in almost $70,000.

So, what the all the complaining about not getting paid? I just don't understand.

Am I missing something?

Aaron

PS: I didn't even include any sign on bonus or night differential pay.

We need all of that extra money to pay for our attorney fees, and court costs when we accidently incorrectly transcribe celexa instead of celebrex and the family decides to sue everyone's shorts off within a 10 mile radius.

.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

$28.00/hr for a new grad with sign-on bonuses is very good. I've got 15 year experience and don't make that much, and don't get any bonuses. I'm making 26/hr. I don't complain because I started out making 12.00.

Looking around this board, you really don't read to many complaints about the money.

The complaints you hear are more about the working conditions. So read some posts around here, make a list of what the issues really are for us. Not making enough money is one of the concerns, but I'd venture to say that working conditions and issues with coworkers, and nursing school issues, are greater concerns.

[txspadequeenRN, BSN, RN]

Sometimes, I think people start threads just to see how many people they can piss off. One of the first things here is everyone doesent live in New York!!!! And when you grow up and your profile reads RN or LVN then the nurses that respond may actually take what you have into consideration. Until then you are going to get flamed.:angryfire :angryfire :smiley_ab . This thread promted me to see what I make a hour. I have been working at the same place for years and just go to work and really havent paid attention to my slary. I know what I started out at and that is good enough for me. Anything above that is better. At 21.52/hr I have three jobs for the price of one. I am the weekend on call staffing nurse, most of the time the charge nurse and the peion that goes and settles all disputes on the units. If my DON says "you need to go to X unit and take over the unit" Guess what I go to X unit and take over. I get paid to be that flexible. I also work just weekends and 18 hour days to boot. So when you work so hard that you have to stop and take a shower midshift because you have done nothing but run. NO, I DONT MAKE ENOUGH MONEY!!!!!!!!

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

I might also add that most of my raises were due to promotions and market adjustments. But the last several years I've been getting like 40 cent and 50 cent raises. This last years raise hasn't covered the cost of rising gas prices, so I'm no better off.

[Speculating]

Sometimes, I think people start threads just to see how many people they can piss off. One of the first things here is everyone doesent live in New York!!!! And when you grow up and your profile reads RN or LVN then the nurses that respond may actually take what you have into consideration. Until then you are going to get flamed.:angryfire :angryfire :smiley_ab . This thread promted me to see what I make a hour. I have been working at the same place for years and just go to work and really havent paid attention to my slary. I know what I started out at and that is good enough for me. Anything above that is better. At 21.52/hr I have three jobs for the price of one. I am the weekend on call staffing nurse, most of the time the charge nurse and the peion that goes and settles all disputes on the units. If my DON says "you need to go to X unit and take over the unit" Guess what I go to X unit and take over. I get paid to be that flexible. I also work just weekends and 18 hour days to boot. So when you work so hard that you have to stop and take a shower midshift because you have done nothing but run. NO, I DONT MAKE ENOUGH MONEY!!!!!!!!

And a mother of five whatever my complaint fails in comparison.

Hey and Tweety well said your input is always refreshing.

[casper1]

I live in upstate New York th hourly salary you quoted is not the average nursing salary in my area. Nurses start at $19 to $20 an hour. You work weekends you work holidays. Considering the amount of responsibility you have I do feel we are somewhat underpaid.

Raises are 2% to 3% a year.

[UM Review RN, ASN, RN]

How can you say you're not paid well?

Oh heck, I just compare what salary comes in to what expenses go out, and then it's easy. Nowadays, it's just harder to make a living than ever before, but it's nearly impossible to imagine that back in the '50s, one person could work and another could actually afford to stay home, and the kids still got to live in a real house.

What happened to that anyhow?