If healthcare reform resulted in salary caps of $40k for nurses would you stay?

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I'm not asking for a debate about wether or not healthcare reform would result in salary caps, I just want to know would you stay in nursing if your salary was capped at $45k? what about $35k? where would you draw the line? for arguments sake lets say advanced practice nurses got a $10k premium.

Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.
A hypertensive crisis might not be out of the question though....

:lol2:

Jokes, and jokes, and jokes, and jokes...

Sorry 'bout that.

Carry on.

Me thinks you maybe correct; still, I wouldn't have to push drugs or chart, huh?

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Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.

The bottom line is this: I have been a nurse for a looooong time. In my department, we have over 300 years of BEDSIDE experience alone. It would be an insult to these super experienced individuals to be told they will have to live on XXXX amount for the "goodness" of the country. First of all, I love patient care and doing my best. But I'm confident and mentally healthful enough to know what I will tolerate. I will NOT tolerate a cap of any sort --EVER.

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Specializes in ICU.
Me thinks you maybe correct; still, I wouldn't have to push drugs or chart, huh?

Hehe...No, probably not...

But if you decided to anyway, the teenagers would probably be asking for you by name at the menu screen :lol2:

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40K for working as a nurse in the nursing climate of today - no freakin way.

No

No

No

Now if the healthcare nirvana bill gets passed and -

1. Me and my family has free healthcare. (Currently my husband and I pay over 15K for healthcare and we are fairly healthy - preventative, screenings, few monthly meds and insurance premiums. Add it up folks and be sure and add costs of OTC meds, supplies, office visits co-pays, access issues that mean travel)

2. Customers are banished and PATIENTS return. (Also press-gainey goes bankrupt. Management has strict requirements and they are on a level salary as well and basically STOP THE CRAP that makes nursing so well, crappy.)

3. Those PATIENTS that fail to take personal responsibility are denied care. See if you choose to remain a problem patient at least you are not my problem patient. :p Yep, that may be harsh - but, I am sick of seeing the same folks over and over and over because they DO NOT CARE for themselves and then DEMAND more from the system.

4. Strict guidelines governing care of patients. Safe ratio of nurses-to-patients, plenty of ancillary help and a shift to change practices away from CYA care and care ordered vicariously through TRIAL LAWYERS

5. Allow those that provide care to say NO.

Start with EMS --- No, we are not giving you a ride to the hospital for your headache, stubbed toe, rash, anxiety over a fight with your boyfriend/neighbor/girlfriend/babydaddy/mom/dad/pimp...., bug bite, broken nail, weekly deliberate "overdose" of benadryl/cough syrup/Jim Beam...., missed doctor appointment, any missed period has to get a pregnancy test and if + ultrasound - "I got a picture of my baby", medication refill, flu shot, anthrax exposure, anything you deliberately stick in any body opening, because you don't have a car or because you have called all your friends to meet you in EMERGENCY because the ambulance is here!

Allow EMERGENCY rooms to functions as they are intended - not as a catch all. Not in need of EMERGENCY CARE - bye-bye! See not inclusive list above add anything that does not involved A - B - C threats or endangers loss of limbs. See if it doesn't show up in the ER it makes it harder to be admitted to the hospital

No money for your inhalers/BP meds/diabetic supplies/band-aids/motrin/tylenol/BCP's yet you have smokes, cell phones, ghetto nails, premium denim jeans, lots of blingy things, and NO JOB - well, sorry under the new 40K nurse plan - if I cannot afford it, it may make me covet your cushy lifestyle and then I get all distracted and can't MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR ______ . Not bitter, not frou-frou, don't smoke and I have nice things - yet, I still get all cranky when I see abuses and get treated like a servant. It is super rewarding when some of these folks that DO NOT WORK have lots of time to call ADMINISTRATION to make sure and complain. BONUS POINTS: They return and tell me flat out that they called and complained on me and will do it again!

Anyway - what am I talking about - the SYTEM is so broken that I cannot see any fix. We have an entitled society that has zero personal responsibility/accountability, we have attorneys on every corner, a system that allows PATIENTS to be customers and even gives them a card with the 1-800 complaint line for ANY problem, drug companies that have taken over the world, insurance companies that pull every dirty trick on the sickest patients because they will DIE before they get their care "approved", an environment of infectious disease that has run amuck, months long waits for primary care in many areas, "emergency" care that delivers out of fear of litigation, technology that keeps one alive at all costs even if the quality of life is ZERO and let's those without anything and those with everything access without limits - everyone else has to make choices.

The government provided healthcare that currently exists is the most EXPENSIVE on earth. And yet they are going fix it. Fix what you have now and then move forward. And for all the "stakeholders" that are present -

The associations of doctors, hospitals and insurance companies that are at the table "advising" and "educating" - anyone that thinks they are there to HELP is insane. They are there to lobby to make sure that they continue to get their piece of the healthcare pie.

Sick. You bet.

Nurses that take a salary cap and cut is NOT the answer. Quick - delete the threat before one of the "stakeholders" decides that cutting the pay of all those nurses will solve the problems. Cha-ching!

Gotta totally agree with this post. If all the "bad" stuff in nursing went away -- $40K might not be so bad. If I didn't have 8 managers on our floor constantly digging me for charting the "wrong" things, mean docs, idiotic entitlement mentality patients -- if nursing actually became REAL nursing again? It might not be so bad. I could probably survive on it and be happy for a change to go to work.

But what I fear is that all the "entitlement/Press Gainey" issues are NOT going to go away - you're going to have BOTH, and, thus, nursing will be an absolutely intolerable profession. So will doctoring.

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Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.
Hehe...No, probably not...

But if you decided to anyway, the teenagers would probably be asking for you by name at the menu screen :lol2:

Hahaha :yeah:...Not so sure they will like the feeling of betablockers or other antihypertensives......:coollook:

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

I wish that folks wouldn't get so upset over what is a bogus premise.......

I will say again: an unbiased post sincerely asking for honest opinions would have read something like this:

If healthcare reform resulted in salary caps for nurses, would you stay?

OP had an ulterior motive, posted an inflammatory post, and I hate to see everyone falling for it.

POINT: There is no indication at this point that salary caps are or ever have been considered as a part of any healthcare reform.

POINT: Should salary caps ever be considered in the future, who's to say where they should/would be placed? Certainly not the OP, who just pulled a number out of somewhere (won't go there) and has managed to inflame and upset people.

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Specializes in telemetry, medsurg, homecare, psychiatry.
I wish that folks wouldn't get so upset over what is a bogus premise.......

I will say again: an unbiased post sincerely asking for honest opinions would have read something like this:

If healthcare reform resulted in salary caps for nurses, would you stay?

OP had an ulterior motive, posted an inflammatory post, and I hate to see everyone falling for it.

POINT: There is no indication at this point that salary caps are or ever have been considered as a part of any healthcare reform.

POINT: Should salary caps ever be considered in the future, who's to say where they should/would be placed? Certainly not the OP, who just pulled a number out of somewhere (won't go there) and has managed to inflame and upset people.

Thank you, I have been trying to get that message across too. Let's let this go already.

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This is really sad to say, but I made more money working at a department store make up counter. Nursing is hard work ....mentally, physically, and emotionally. Would it really be fair for them to cap the salary of nurses? I don't think so! If they did I would probably choose to stay at home and take care of my children. Nursing is a calling for me, but it needs to be worth my time away from my family...they are my priority!!!! I am not going to risk my health and sanity by working in a high risk environment for nothing!!!

This is just my opinion.

You're absolutely right..........Kudos to you!!!

I was offered to be a Director of Staff Development....just couple of weeks ago, i really couldn't decide right away, since what i really love in Nursing is being with the pts face to face...i hate paperworks, office works, then i will need to work 5 days, and be on call for one weekend in a month...but i have 3 1/2 yr old son, that i wanted to enjoy...ever since i only work 8 hrs/shift, 4 nights/week, and we're fine with that financially....i have 3 days off..but still it seems like not enough time to spend with family.

But hey if the salary will be cap to a certain amount like 40K worst if even lower.....with all those stress....oh pls....pls...its not really fair....let them be the Nurse then.........

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You're absolutely right..........Kudos to you!!!

I was offered to be a Director of Staff Development....just couple of weeks ago, i really couldn't decide right away, since what i really love in Nursing is being with the pts face to face...i hate paperworks, office works, then i will need to work 5 days, and be on call for one weekend in a month...but i have 3 1/2 yr old son, that i wanted to enjoy...ever since i only work 8 hrs/shift, 4 nights/week, and we're fine with that financially....i have 3 days off..but still it seems like not enough time to spend with family.

But hey if the salary will be cap to a certain amount like 40K worst if even lower.....with all those stress....oh pls....pls...its not really fair....let them be the Nurse then.........

I dont believe that she made more working over the counter at some department store,if so why did she switched to nursing and complain now????????We are free and we can choose to always pursue something else....I know that thousands of you will reply claiming that it is not to easy to quit nursing,she had possibly a calling blabla,but realistically I'm sure she had some idea when she first decided to pursue nursing..come on we all know what nursing entitles every one knows it is not a glamorous job it is a physically demanding job and nurses will never be millioners no matter how much effort they put into their jobs,,,,so people need to stop worry about things that are not even happening (why stress yourself out,isnt nursing a mentally draining job anyway?????)

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Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.
I dont believe that she made more working over the counter at some department store,if so why did she switched to nursing and complain now????????We are free and we can choose to always pursue something else....I know that thousands of you will reply claiming that it is not to easy to quit nursing,she had possibly a calling blabla,but realistically I'm sure she had some idea when she first decided to pursue nursing..come on we all know what nursing entitles every one knows it is not a glamorous job it is a physically demanding job and nurses will never be millioners no matter how much effort they put into their jobs,,,,so people need to stop worry about things that are not even happening (why stress yourself out,isnt nursing a mentally draining job anyway?????)

If it is upsetting people, perhaps you can come to the conclusion that people believe it is a possibility and that Obama's AdMen on this forum (the koolaid drinkers) ought to bring it to him.

Bottom line: BRING OUT the details and then let the people decide. I won't commit to anything unless and until I see how this legislation is going to affect my future.

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Of course not! That's poverty level!

Now, another question: how much do you think the average US gov't employee makes? The average nurse in a Veteran's Hospital?

My salary does cap now at the community hospital level, but there are no salary caps at the federal level. The Vet Hospital nurses are unionized, have great benes and pension, and no salary caps.

VA nurses are paid on par with nurses in the local community. If you work in a unionized community your wages will be at the prevailing wage for the local community. The law actually prohibits VA from being the highest paid within the local community. M wages are comparable with those paid at an MNA hospital in MPLS.

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I wish that folks wouldn't get so upset over what is a bogus premise.......

I will say again: an unbiased post sincerely asking for honest opinions would have read something like this:

If healthcare reform resulted in salary caps for nurses, would you stay?

OP had an ulterior motive, posted an inflammatory post, and I hate to see everyone falling for it.

POINT: There is no indication at this point that salary caps are or ever have been considered as a part of any healthcare reform.

POINT: Should salary caps ever be considered in the future, who's to say where they should/would be placed? Certainly not the OP, who just pulled a number out of somewhere (won't go there) and has managed to inflame and upset people.

I doubt if one would see actual salary caps on nurses, unless there was some idiocy like the wage/price controls of the 1970s.....which did very little to dent the inflation that was their supposed target.

However, one of the mechanisms indicated to control health care costs is cuts in reimbursements to doctors, hospitals and other medical providers..............if less money is coming in the front door, less is available for salaries of those working there. The result will be slow wage growth that doesn't keep up with cost of living or other job opportunities. That's in essence a de facto cap, though not a de jure one.

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