Pay issues

For a new grad, I feel my salary is more than reasonable. I lucked out with a high paying hospital.

?

Also, I know most people here are nurses, but do any of you know why Paramedics (the ones that have a 4 year Bachelors degree) make typically around $19 an hour in most places? It seems almost unreasonably low.

Except they actually receive education at the asociate degree(2 year) level.

But you already knew that....

You are correct. we all deserve to be paid fairly and I don't begrudge public safety members a dime.

However, many healthcare facilities, without the adequate security one would expect but instead rarely finds, have the potential to become great danger zones when you're essentially trapped in an area for 10-12 hours at a time with some understandably under stress patients and family members. What is it the LEO's say (90%boredom and 10% terrror) on every given day. I believe that's one area where we nurses are granted the higher ratio...

Huh...I suppose if we were also issued firearms and safety/defence training then things would seem a bit more level.

Who knows?

:yeah:that's for your valient attempt at sublety. However.....next!

My personal issues with pay:

1. Nursing compensation is highly secretive at my hospital. We (nurses) are not supposed to discuss pay with each other. I think this breeds suspicion that we are not being fairly compensated.

2. I don't understand everything that goes into it but hospitals in any geographic area seem to hold wages based on what other hospitals are paying nurses. How is it that when one hospital raises salaries, another hospital in the same area is suddenly able to come up with more money to raise their salaries? That practice just seems shady to me.

3. I am fairly happy with my current hourly rate. BUT, after leaving the USAF to complete my BSN, I actually make less now than I did as a medic in the AF. Granted, I don't have to where a Kevlar vest to work now but my day-to-day stress and responsibilities are far greater.

4. How do you REALLY put a price on what we do? What would you pay the person who may have your mother/brother/sister/father/child/husband/wife's life in their hands for 12 hours a day?

5. I can't say much about RN vs paramedic pay. I think street medics should get hazardous duty pay!

Uh, no. I mean a 4 year degree. See: http://hsc.unm.edu/som/emsacad/alspage.shtml

Subtlety? I fail to grasp how anything I said was subtle, but whatever.

Anyway, to get back on track, I would love to read any other views/answers -- this is a topic of great interest to me and a few friends.

What I bring home and what I am compensated with are different.

What I make now is more than the 9.25 I made before being a nurse.

And yeah, its still less than nurses that have been doing it longer.

BUT

I get all sorts of shift diffs just for showing up in the evening or on a weekend.

I have several weeks of paid vacation, a week of sick time (all paid) dental insurance (completely employer paid) and employer contribution to my retirement.

None of that comes out of my pay, nor does it necessarily show up as income on my pay stub, yet its money to my pocket. So I think its important when discussing issues of pay to remember that we are paid on a grander scale than just what we bring in our paychecks.

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As far as paramedics, I have no clue. I didn't know there was a 4 year paramedic degree. Alot of base pay relies on location and cost of living. Plus, I have found that salary.com is not really accurate, at least in my corner of the world.

In the area I live in, nurses are compensated fairly well (some hospitals pay new grads as much as $30/hour). However, you would never find me in one of those positions. The hospital I am working at now, and will work at when I graduate will pay much less than that; however, the working conditions are better and our patient loads are capped.

I have done clinical's on IMC floors where you could not pay me $100/hour to work on. Patient loads are high and the nurses LITERALLY run from the time they get there until the end of their shift. There is a disaster waiting to happen, because patients with trach's go without suctionining because nurses are too busy, patients with severe respiratory issues go unassessed for some time... the list goes on.

I am not even a nurse yet and I have had many people (family, friends, co-workers) proclaim to me that "...nurses make too much!" That is my biggest pet-peeve when someone who is not at all familiar with the profession states something like that. People make these assumptions without wakling in a nurses shoes first. Go to school to become an RN, and do a few 12-hour shifts (they usually turn into 13 or 14 hours after you finish charting) where you are running your tail off, dealing with demanding patients and families, dealing with demanding doctors and administration, trying to remember if you did all of the necessary paperwork and charting on all of your patients, trying to keep up with your hundred's of medications that are due to 8 different patients, trying to keep up with dressing changes, suctioning, turnng and repositioning schedules, answering call lights every few minutes, responding to a code, OH and remembering that among all of this... you are supposed to take care of your patients because you are ultimately responsible. After experiencing this, then I want those people who think nurses "make too much" to figure out what they should be paid.

By the way, that entire paragraph was not directed toward the OP.. :) .. it was just a general rant about those people who I encounter that tell me I will make too much as a nurse.

uh, no. i mean a 4 year degree. see: http://hsc.unm.edu/som/emsacad/alspage.shtml

.

uh, actually yeah.

from the same website you provided. see:

paramedic program certificate only

our paramedic core courses are also open to students seeking paramedic certification without college credit. however, college level anatomy and physiology are pre-requisite to this program.

if, truly, you were wondering how the exact same career(paramedic) can be undertaken w/either an associate's degree or bachelor degree as its base required educational preparation, well then it appears that our two professions have more in common than i had even known.

i don't really have an answer. do you plan to enroll in that 4 year program though it's not technically required or even recognized as necessary? we struggle with those issues, too. seems like a very comprehensive program should you choose to go that route.

good luck!

btw, i was focusing on this in my original op:

. "don't get me wrong, i know any healthcare profession has its health risks -- it just seems that the street is generally a bit more dangerous than a hospital environment. (correct me if im wrong)."

i just honestly do think you're wrong. day to day and by averages. like i said, law enforcement officers often describe their day to me as 90% bordeom/10% terror. at least in the street i would be allowed to defend myself as i felt necessary. i do realize how selfish this could sound to those uninitiated to my experience.

remember, though, my last workplace was reeaalllly sketchy and though gsw's and stabbings weren't daily ocurrences they certainly happened enough to suggest that just perhaps our happenin' 25 bed er might just need a metal detector at, oh say, any of its 5 different public access points. or more than 1 security guard at night......

again, best of luck w.your career choices. we love our local ems!

My personal issues with pay:

1. Nursing compensation is highly secretive at my hospital. We (nurses) are not supposed to discuss pay with each other. I think this breeds suspicion that we are not being fairly compensated.

!

Obviously you work in a nonunion hospital.

Management is playing the divide and conquer strategy. In a union hospital you usually know the starting pay and steps based on years of experience and differentials....

uh, no. i mean a 4 year degree. see: http://hsc.unm.edu/som/emsacad/alspage.shtml

not many places offer the bs in paramedic. i know that none of our ems medics have a 4 year degree and i would bet most other places dont. it is usually a 2 year degree.

also a lot of times medics may not run but 4 or 5 calls on a 24 hour shift as to where nurses have 4 to5 patients for 12 hours straight.

in the er it is a dangerous place. we dont have the ability to search everyone who comes in the door. so who is to say the psych patient doesnt have a knife to stab a nurse or that the gang banger who got shot in the leg doesnt have someone come in who finishes the job?? cops have the ability to defend themselves on the street, nurses cant defend themselves without loosing their right to practice. also a medic will not go on a scene that has not been secured by the police

As a nurse, what I am making an hour would be fair in my opinion if I only took care of one patient at a time and all their family members and catered to their docs. A stressed patient with 7 stressed family members at bedside and on the phone every 2 or 3 hours does take up a lot of time. Most of the time I get a phone call during my breaks. I listen to everyone in the family, I teach nursing 101 over and over and over again as their questions demand this type of information.

The skill of not taking confrontations personal, smiling and answering really blunt questions should allow me the pay of an actress at least.

well...i'm in NYC so i'm extremely happy with my salary. been a nurse for almost 2 yrs and just landed a new job, 12hr night shift--roughly $76,200 anually with absolutely wonderful benefits. that is $36.05 hourly (without diff)---$39.05 hourly with diff. then of course overtime is time and one half.

i am satisfied with my pay, and i believe i am fairly compensated for having a 4 year degree and the level of stress involved. my coworkers also seem to rarely complain about pay. i am single and working in one of the higher paying markets, so i'm sure that skews my view. i'm not sure i'd feel the same were i working for $20/h or less like in some parts of the US. money seems to only become an issue if i make it one - in nyc where a 750 sq foot 1-bedroom apt on the UES costs close to three quarters of a million dollars, it's hard not to compare what i have to what other people have. i do believe other service professions like teachers and policemen are underpaid because maybe they have been less vociferous than nurses?