Nurses not making enough...wait what?

True indeed!!!

Well pig farmers make close to what I make as a RN who went to college and earned a degree. Making barely over $20/hr is sickening for having to know about medications, medication interactions, allergies, physiology of the body, changes in VS that may indicate changes in the patients condition, when to notify the dr of pt status changes, lifting heavy pt's all day long, taking verbal and physical abuse from patients and families etc. the list goes on and on. For holding someone's life in your hands you sure as hell should make more than a pig farmer. If something happens to someone's medical status who is too blame? The nurse....of course there are others that should probably be considered along the lines as well, but the nurse is the one with the most to lose. Nurses require a lot of medical knowledge and that should be reflected in the pay earned, however that is definately not the case. If you have a job where you make less than $20 an hour then that's on you, everybody thinks they should make more money but when working with human lives I would think the price of pay should be higher.

I have a several friends that are nurses at local reputable hospitals. They complaint to me all the time that they are not making nearly as much as they should be. Most of them have been working for 4yrs now and complaining that they should be making $30 or more.

I keep telling them that any other job out there does not pay their employees that much money starting out, so they should be happy the amount that they are getting. Are they just greedy or do you think they should deserve more?

One works in the E. R. and the other NICU

Bolding/emphasis is mine.

OP, if you are in the US, educate yourself here: http://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm ... THEN re-evaluate what you've said here.

Thanks.

When you think about the huge responsibility, we don't make what we should. We are the front line to life or death. Our own actions or nonactions are oftentimes a matter of life and death. My license means so much to me and it could be gone on 1 oops. It's not like sending back a steak because it's not cooked to your liking. One wrong med, too much going on at one time, or any number of things and your career goes up in smoke and our code of doing no harm is null. I'm not spoiled, I've only had my license for 1 yr. I realize that we have a ton of reponsibility, not a whole lot of say in the important stuff, and my employer would rather throw me or my coworkers under the bus to make themselves look better. All the while, I try to do my very best for my patients. It's a hard and often thankless job.