Clinical vs non-clinical job responsibilities

Nurses Professionalism

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  1. Do clinical nurses (hospital) have more responsibilities than non-clinical nurses?

    • 0
      Clinical nurses have more responsibility
    • 0
      Non-clinical nurses have more responsibility
    • 4
      Responsibility is dependent on job description. Non-clinical vs clinical plays no role.

4 members have participated

I am currently in the negotiation process of a job offer. Of note, my experience as a nurse is mostly critical care experience of 5 years and also school nursing. The job I am being offered is for a Occupational Health Nurse position for a large company, where at the location I would work has approximately 1500 employees. The company has never hired anything higher than an LPN and hiring an RN is the first for the entire company. The negotiating has been drawn out and it is very apparent the company is very interested and wants me to work for them but they will not increase their base salary.

In a conversation today, I stated that the salary being offered is not competitive to the market average and that with my experience and prospective job duties and responsibilities, that the salary should increase. I made a point to say there will be increase job responsibilities. The person I was talking to stated that several people felt as though my responsibilities would be less of a nurse working in hospital.

Do you think that in certain positions there is a greater responsibility? For instance, I would be the only nurse, be the go to person for medical questions and there are no other employees who can do what I can do versus of that in the hospital. I am just perplexed why they think the responsibilities would be less. Not to confuse stress with responsibility.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

I think you are using the wrong tactic to negotiate a higher pay grade.

You should create a compelling argument to support expanding the OHN job in a way that would have a positive impact upon the company's bottom line. This could include some 'real time' epidemiology-type work to analyze health risks & implement practices to reduce absenteeism. You could also increase wellness awareness/practices, conduct wellness assessments, consult with employees to help them manage chronic illness more effectively, etc. You could develop educational programs, teach CPR, First Aid, etc.

By focusing on the RN-level skills & knowledge you can bring to the job, you will take the discussion in a whole new direction. The "responsibility" issue is just to vague and probably not interesting to anyone but nurses.

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Responsibility for what? People's lives in the literal sense or managing a piece of an organization and trying to keep it and its components afloat?

You are looking at two distinctly different levels of authority/responsibility in this scenario that I do not feel are comparable. First is the aforementioned direct responsibility for a patient's life. The other is responsibility to a group of other people for their salaries, vacations, benefits, sick time, complaints and concerns about their workplace, conflicts they have with their coworkers...you name it.

Different nurses have different gifts, and thank goodness for great nurse managers, because hospitals wouldn't run without them just as much as they wouldn't run without the bedside nurses!

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

Agree with the posters above -- you're attempting to make an apples - oranges comparison, and it just doesn't work.

You don't say in your post what the job responsibilities are. Are you to run a wellness program? Maintain health records of employees who are required to undergo periodic physical fitness testing? Document compliance with OSHA/safety/DOH regulations?

Do some research on salaries in your region for those types of jobs -- wellness program manager / OSHA compliance / etc.

Your licensure as an RN will not determine your salary in a non-clinical setting -- what the company/market is willing to pay for someone to do the duties required will.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

Your responsibilities will not be the same as a nurse in a clinical setting but you will certainly be busy.I have a friend that works at a large car plant and the job description didn't accurately cover her duties.She is extremely busy.Not clinical stuff but maintaining records, coordinating returning to work programs after injury. I wouldn't take the job if they aren't going to pay you a fair wage.How busy they think you will be has nothing to do with it.

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Sorry, I agree, I posted vaguely.

After re-reading my post, I think that I was intending to say that I felt my responsibilities would not be less but of a different area of responsibility. They made the statement that they thought my responsibilities would be less as I was out of the hospital. I argued that the responsibilities would be the same or more depending on what things are developed, (ie wellness programs, education, teaching classes) I wasn't negotiating on the area of responsibilities but more on the challenges and the hard work I am going to face.

I also failed to mention that this a large company and I am the first Registered Nurse that they have in the country. They currently have a CNA in the role and also had an LPN working with the work comp aspect of things.

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Responsibility for what? People's lives in the literal sense or managing a piece of an organization and trying to keep it and its components afloat?

You are looking at two distinctly different levels of authority/responsibility in this scenario that I do not feel are comparable. First is the aforementioned direct responsibility for a patient's life. The other is responsibility to a group of other people for their salaries, vacations, benefits, sick time, complaints and concerns about their workplace, conflicts they have with their coworkers...you name it.

Different nurses have different gifts, and thank goodness for great nurse managers, because hospitals wouldn't run without them just as much as they wouldn't run without the bedside nurses!

I agree. I posted vaguely and tried to summarize what the general situation was. I need to make a point to them that it wasn't going to be less responsibility. I honestly think every nurse, no matter what position, has responsibility.

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Your responsibilities will not be the same as a nurse in a clinical setting but you will certainly be busy.I have a friend that works at a large car plant and the job description didn't accurately cover her duties.She is extremely busy.Not clinical stuff but maintaining records, coordinating returning to work programs after injury. I wouldn't take the job if they aren't going to pay you a fair wage.How busy they think you will be has nothing to do with it.

I agree! I also was dealing with the idea of "anticipated overtime during busy season" and wasn't comfortable with it at the original salary they proposed. I talked with several people through 4 interviews and eventually it was my soon to be boss that came through for me. He actually listened and HR wasn't. Then again this is a new position to the entire organization so I can see why HR was not understanding.

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Thanks everyone for your responses! I truly appreciate them.

The interview and negotiation process was something very stressful and unique.

I eventually did get the salary I was negotiating for and that was after mentioning a lot of the same things mentioned here!

Excited to be starting soon!

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