I was cruising the hospital websites as I do everyday as a new grad and came across this:
The Department of Nursing at Massachusetts General Hospital is running a New Graduate RN ICU Residency Program for six months from April 2011 to September 2011. RN residents will be hired and trained to work successfully in an intensive care setting.
Qualified applicants MUST have:
- a Baccalaureate of Science Degree in Nursing
- a current MA RN license
- less than 10 months of professional RN experience in a healthcare setting
- completed a clinical practicum in an ICU or experience in a patient assistive role in an ICU.
RN Residents will be eligible for benefits and paid a salary of $11.44 per hour. The schedule will be 40 hours per week with five 8-hour shifts. Day/Night rotation with weekends and holidays required.
11.44 an hour? They can't be serious...can they? They pay their CNAs more!
Well just as I had predicted, this has now become a trend. UMASS in Worcester recently stated, " We have recently made the decision to follow other distinguished academic medical centers by creating a “New Graduate Registered Nurse Residency” program as the sole training opportunity for new grad nurses" While there is no mention of salery, the "program" is only open to new grads, is full time for 6 months, rotating shifts, with no benefits and no guarantee of a job at the end. The only way a new grad is going to get a job at a hospital is to sign on for 6 months with a hope of employment. Qualified new grads who are second career nurses who need to work and receive benefits will not be able to get hospital jobs in the future unless this economy puts the power back to the employee. As I stated in many posts, this is NOT good for nursing, but good for hospitals. If you are independently wealthy, can work full-time with no set hours, and devote 6 months of your life on the chance of employment, by all means consider nursing as a career. All others need not apply. This is now the future and the reality. Do I think it is good for the nursing profession, absolutely not.
I think it is gd. I work with many nurses (NOT ALL NURSES) but many who think there job is just to pass out pills and write notes-that is IT. They plan weddings, vacations, FB and recieve to many personal phone calls at the desk and text constantly on their cells. Funny they were the same way as CNAs. I think it's gd to put alittle fear in people. If you work HARD u will get a job.
I think it is gd. I work with many nurses (NOT ALL NURSES) but many who think there job is just to pass out pills and write notes-that is IT. They plan weddings, vacations, FB and recieve to many personal phone calls at the desk and text constantly on their cells. Funny they were the same way as CNAs. I think it's gd to put alittle fear in people. If you work HARD u will get a job.
I think it's a disgrace. All of it. Nurses are already overworked, underpaid, are put at risk of losing their license daily by policing Dr's orders and pharmacy, UAP and LPNs that they've delegated to. In the hospitals that I've been in there is no FB, there isn't even Google for most people and when there is you're logged in and IT is monitoring your every move. The nurses I've had the pleasure to work with rarely take a break and get called away from their lunch every time they sit down to eat it and come running from the bathroom every time they sit down to pee. I've not seen one person doing anything other than work, except for a nurse manager I once saw trying to coordinate a surprise birthday party for one of her staff. I've been on 7 different units and done close to 1000 clinical hours. I know that's not years, but it seems the same everywhere I've been. I will be a second career nurse in less than 100 days. I've busted my butt and left good impressions everywhere I've been but sadly in this economy it just might get me nowhere. I can't take a job making nothing for 6 months with a household to run, a car to pay for (let's not even talk about the gas) and a day care bill that rivals (and surpasses) most peoples mortgages I know. I already hear on a daily basis how I should work as an NA to get my foot in the door somewhere. When exactly should I do that I ask because my kids would starve, and I'd never be able to afford the extra childcare to go to work. I only hope all the hard work I've done pays off.
And as I have said not all nurses and of course not everywhere in the country. Must be very hard for my RNs to police me since I done this job twice as long as they have. Again I'm NOT putting RNS down-I putting down those nurses and they aware of who they are. The ones I have watched obtain master degrees online while at work. I'm happy you work in a different environment or mabey I'm sorry since you can't get a job. But I also bet that if you watched what I watched you would not be saying boy that LPN doesn't belong here you would be saying I know I can would work harder than this person or that person. 6 smoking breaks in a shift to punch out late-does not say to me overworked. I personally cannot wait until are 15 min documentation begins early next year; as I know alot of this activity will have to stop. For those nurses who work in hospitals across the country I know what
you go throw and I know their in no doubt you work hard. This is not a union thing as I work in a union hospital and could not be happier. I just know there are different rules. Again I know you are angry but honestly mabey management is seeing what I see. This is not forever it is to get the best of the best and yes it is to save hospitals money, bu again I watched are housekeeping/CNAs/kitchen staff and unit transcription get NO raise for the second yr in a row. I'm not stupid enough to believe the money will go to them but they are also important staff I would not want to work without.
And as I have said not all nurses and of course not everywhere in the country. Must be very hard for my RNs to police me since I done this job twice as long as they have. Again I'm NOT putting RNS down-I putting down those nurses and they aware of who they are. The ones I have watched obtain master degrees online while at work. I'm happy you work in a different environment or mabey I'm sorry since you can't get a job. But I also bet that if you watched what I watched you would not be saying boy that LPN doesn't belong here you would be saying I know I can would work harder than this person or that person. 6 smoking breaks in a shift to punch out late-does not say to me overworked. I personally cannot wait until are 15 min documentation begins early next year; as I know alot of this activity will have to stop. For those nurses who work in hospitals across the country I know what
you go throw and I know their in no doubt you work hard. This is not a union thing as I work in a union hospital and could not be happier. I just know there are different rules. Again I know you are angry but honestly mabey management is seeing what I see. This is not forever it is to get the best of the best and yes it is to save hospitals money, bu again I watched are housekeeping/CNAs/kitchen staff and unit transcription get NO raise for the second yr in a row. I'm not stupid enough to believe the money will go to them but they are also important staff I would not want to work without.
I'm not angry at all, and I haven't even begun to look for a job yet, that's a totally different thread. It is appalling that this issue could become a trend in some parts of our country. You can not possibly focus on hiring the best of the best by paying $11.00 an hour because you're eliminating a lot of the workforce who simply can't afford to work for that wage (without resorting to welfare), so that reasoning doesn't fly with me. Also, I meant no offense by the policing comment with regard to the LPN, but the accountability does lie with the RN when delegating, so there is, in some respect, the responsibility to be sure the LPN has done her job accordingly, as well as the CNA, the same as you double and triple verify a Dr's order, and you verify your meds 3 times and call pharmacy regularly. The responsibility ultimately lies with you, and the nurse will be the first one thrown under the bus. I don't deal with LPNs on a regular basis, they're not employed by our hospital systems anymore, so I have nothing against the LPN and would never say she "didn't belong." You took my words out of context.
This doesn't have anything to do with lazy nurses. Again, I have no idea where you're from, but where I come from, I've never seen a nurse take a smoking break either. As I've said, they hardly take their lunch break. Maybe none of them smoke, but I highly doubt that. Maybe I live in the land of the high and mighty nurses, I've just never experienced anything like what you describe, the behavior would hardly be tolerated. These new grads can be precepted for 6 months, be offered a full time job at whatever the premium pay is, and once given that job, kick up their feet and get their masters online. If a person is going to behave that way, they're going to behave that way. They'll mind their P's and Q's until they get settled in, so that reasoning doesn't fly with me either.
This isn't a union thing either. We don't have unions. Maybe these nurses that you speak of that don't do any work feel comfortable that their union will protect them from loss of their jobs (and I'm not bashing unions either...).
Put the shoe on the other foot for a minute. You're a highly experienced LPN. You make whatever it is that you make (say 20 bucks an hour for example sake), but you decide you want to become an RN now with your wealth of knowledge you have acquired over the years, OR your hospital has made you become an RN if you want to keep your job (as many hospitals are now doing...which is another HUGE concern). You put yourself through school, you sacrifice, and you graduate. Yay you! Now...you're still considered a new grad RN (even with all those years of LPN experience), and you get to go to work for $11.44 an hour and have a lot more responsibility! Makes a lot of sense doesn't it? NO! But that's where it's heading, and I highly doubt you'd be supportive of it then.
This is simply a matter of hospital finance dishing out a lot of responsibility for a fast food paycheck. Let's not give them any benefits either!
This has all been said before and if I wanted to add to my resume that I worked in Boston in hopes of getting a better job in 6 months then I might consider it. I would like know who was in nursing school working full time-40 hrs a wk and making 20 or 30 an hr. And at my hospital ALL orders are checked by 2 people so RNs are double checking RNs not just LPNs. And again my remark about the 150 a month stands-since this is about money anyway. You get rid of me my RNs loose 150.00 a month and I know they would not be happy. IT IS 6 MONTHS, if you want to work there that is what they say you have to do-enough people thought they could swing it. I would love their feedback both now and in 6 months.
Just for the record, I am an RN, and we are unionized. I am neither lazy or entitled. Most often, we don't get our full breaks. Furthermore, although I am in a union, laziness or misconduct is not condoned.
AND as I said NOT all RNs-I think when people post they have to police other people who have a license and are not really sure of what those people do and then make a genralized statment about that group-this is what you get. IF YOU are are hard working nurse with a license that statement does not apply to you.
DisneybearRN
85 Posts
Well just as I had predicted, this has now become a trend. UMASS in Worcester recently stated, " We have recently made the decision to follow other distinguished academic medical centers by creating a “New Graduate Registered Nurse Residency” program as the sole training opportunity for new grad nurses" While there is no mention of salery, the "program" is only open to new grads, is full time for 6 months, rotating shifts, with no benefits and no guarantee of a job at the end. The only way a new grad is going to get a job at a hospital is to sign on for 6 months with a hope of employment. Qualified new grads who are second career nurses who need to work and receive benefits will not be able to get hospital jobs in the future unless this economy puts the power back to the employee. As I stated in many posts, this is NOT good for nursing, but good for hospitals. If you are independently wealthy, can work full-time with no set hours, and devote 6 months of your life on the chance of employment, by all means consider nursing as a career. All others need not apply. This is now the future and the reality. Do I think it is good for the nursing profession, absolutely not.