pay

Nurses General Nursing

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I'm sure this will raise a lot of peoples temp, but why is there so much whining about being underpaid and overworked?

I have 20 yrs in this profession and am not the night shift supervisor in a LTC/Rehab 102 bed unit facility. I am an LPN and only have a year of schooling. Most of what I learned was from on-the-job and self-education. I love my job but the pay is sad. I am compensated $1 per hour over my base rate to be in charge. I do it because I have so much experience and love to share it and use it to make good decisions, not because it pays well!:no::nurse:

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.
I paid a plumber who was recently licensed $65 an hour...which was less than his friends were charging that had been licensed for a few yrs. Will I ever make $65 an hour even with experience? And did he have to worry about errors that would kill someone?

Well personally my plumber is worth every penny of $65 an hour. Years back I do think nurses were underpaid but for the most part now we make a good income, at least in my area of the country if you consider the amount of education needed for your ADN.

:twocents:

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Specializes in Neuro, Cardiology, ICU, Med/Surg.

I will also add that it is the nature of internet message boards such as this one to be a place where people vent and thus the overall level of contentment with nursing as a career tends to be skewed toward the negative here.

However, even on this board, if you dig deep enough, you will see inspiration and stories from people who love what they do.

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I'm probably not the norm on these boards, as I feel my pay is not unreasonable.

If I were to compare what I do with what it should be worth, in a vacuum, then maybe I can see arguing that we should get a hundred bucks an hour just to walk through the doors each day. Some days, actually, FIVE hundred dollars an hour won't get me in for an extra shift. It's hard, it's dirty, it's dangerous, and I'm responsible for lives. I have to make each move and each chart note as though I expect to be sued in a year, five years, ten.

OTOH, if I compare what I earn with the formal education and monetary investment it took to get me licensure, then it seems I'm pretty well compensated. I know of no other career that ends with an Associate's degree and starts out earning $45K fifteen minutes later. Plus the potential for overtime, incentive pay, bonuses. I think most people who are in careers vs jobs work in a salary situation or one in which the potential for LOTS of $ in overtime is nonexistant.

I don't bemoan my paycheck, it's rather pretty :) OTOH, I know what I have to DO to GET that paycheck, and sometimes it doesn't seem right. But I'm still bringing home more $$ than most of my community who AREN'T in nursing.

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i think some people like having difficult jobs so they have the right to whine if they want..makes them feel special i guess

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Specializes in Critical Care.
All fields are full of whiners. But no, I have wanted to be a nurse since my grandma had a heart attack years ago, and I realized, I want to be in a position to help people in that situation. Don't really look forward to wiping folks, but hey, that's what ya gotta do, cause they can't.

Maybe THAT is why we do it. We want to be able to help othersjust as you do. There's nothing wrong in wanting more respect, to be paid a little closer to what we are worth and to expect to be treated like the professionals that we are.

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Specializes in ER/EHR Trainer.
Well personally my plumber is worth every penny of $65 an hour. Years back I do think nurses were underpaid but for the most part now we make a good income, at least in my area of the country if you consider the amount of education needed for your ADN.

:twocents:

Well if the man that can snake your toilet and use a torch is worth $65.00 an hour, I think that I should be making several hundred! I don't know what you consider a good income, but I don't think

Also, I don't know about you but I am in school, do lots of CEUs and have gone on for additional certifications in addition to my ADN....my patients, and the patients of all nurses benefit from my and their experience, technological expertise, pharmacology experience and a myriad of other things. So truthfully, I think an ADN nurse is worth every penny.

Maisy

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.
Well if the man that can snake your toilet and use a torch is worth $65.00 an hour, I think that I should be making several hundred! I don't know what you consider a good income, but I don't think

Also, I don't know about you but I am in school, do lots of CEUs and have gone on for additional certifications in addition to my ADN....my patients, and the patients of all nurses benefit from my and their experience, technological expertise, pharmacology experience and a myriad of other things. So truthfully, I think an ADN nurse is worth every penny.

Maisy

I don't see where one profession has any bearing on the other but in any event your comment about plumbers just snaking a toilet is similar to people that think nurses only prance around in short skirts, white stockings and just push aspirin. I never insinuated that an ADN nurse isn't worth every penny they make, just as my plumber is worth every penny I pay him. What does one have to do with the other?

:confused:

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If we had some mortgage help we could work for a little bit of money and not complain.:watherthunderstormc

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Nurses do plumbing - ever dealt with a foley, especially a pesky female meatus? How about starting an IV in a 97 year old man who is dehydrated?

Nurses do electrical work - heart need I say more

Nurses do carpentry - you figure out that traction

Nurses do engineering - If we move him this way...

Nurses do computers - so many ways

Nurses are mathematicians - can you calculate that dose NOW

Nurses are accountants - How much time, what level for reimbursement?

Nurses are waitresses - but no tips

Nurses are salesmen - How can I get him to take that pill? -No commission

Nurses do all this and more. Much like wife and mother, there is no way we can be compensated fairly for what we do. I think what we want is reasonable compensation for level of education, responsibility, workload, hours of work.

I don't think it is unreasonable to seek compensation equal to that of a plumber, electrician, or mechanic. None of these non-professional jobs pays less than $50.00/hr. I think that is a reasonable goal at this time.

I have a longer career potential than a football player and more potential players have wrecked their bodies trying to get to the big bucks. For these and many other reasons I don't want to be compared to a football player. I think we need to look at physicians, physical therapists, and pharmacists for reasonable comparable salaries.

:twocents:

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Specializes in Cardiothoracic Transplant Telemetry.
Well personally my plumber is worth every penny of $65 an hour. Years back I do think nurses were underpaid but for the most part now we make a good income, at least in my area of the country if you consider the amount of education needed for your ADN.

:twocents:

Confused- So you are saying that you feel that the work that plumbers do is worth more than the work that nurses do? How much education do you think that it takes to be a plumber?

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Specializes in Cardiothoracic Transplant Telemetry.
I don't see where one profession has any bearing on the other but in any event your comment about plumbers just snaking a toilet is similar to people that think nurses only prance around in short skirts, white stockings and just push aspirin. I never insinuated that an ADN nurse isn't worth every penny they make, just as my plumber is worth every penny I pay him. What does one have to do with the other?

:confused:

By stating that your plumber- who by the way has NO formal education is worth the $65 an hour that you pay him, while in the same post saying that nurses- who are paid sustantially less for MORE education and responsibility are compensated fairly- you are saying that the work that the plumber does is more valuable than that of the nurse.

I agree that plumbers do more than snaking a toilet, but if they make a mistake the worst thing that can happen is damage to someones house. If a nurse makes a serious mistake someone dies.

Of course the two professions are not connected, but the complaints about lack of compensation for are usually tied the level of responsibility and liability that the nurse works under every day, rather than tied to the level of education.

I feel that I earn a good living. As a single adult I am able to own my own car and am able to pay all of my bills. I work in an industry that is in demand, and I have never had a problem securing employment. I love what I do, and entered the profession to be able to help people, rather than for the pay. I am thankful for these things, but that does not change the fact that I practice my profession under a huge weight of responsibility, and that I think that nurses should be more recognized for the role we play as the last defense between the patient and errors- from our own practice, that of physicians and pharmacists. I do not think that it is unreasonable to think that it would be fair to be compensated for the level of responsibility and liability that I am under. Call it hazard pay if you will.

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