pediatrics+specialty pay

[pednursedeb]

I'm not sure where to post this. I'm curious if most hospitals pay general pediatric nurses specialty pay. I'm going to max out on my pay raises due to years of service. I work on a general pediatric floor, but it is also overflow for gyn surgeries and post partum. Does anyone have a clue about the pay?

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

I've never heard of peds attracting specialty pay. Most places I'm familiar with don't even consider peds to be a specialty, much less worthy of attention. Unless a facility is peds-only, you can be sure that nurses are having to adapt adult-sized equipment for use on little people and so many other challenges that aren't deemed important enough to even think about. Even in a hospital-within-a-hospital like mine, peds is like an afterthought.

[llg, PhD, RN]

I have never heard of a hospital offering specialty pay for peds. Peds is a popular specialty and hospitals generally don't have to offer more money to attract people to peds positions.

Providing an incentive to attract nurses into hard-to-fill jobs is what special pay incentives are all about. There is rarely a need to do that with peds because so many nurses WANT to work peds -- and most people don't want to attract people to peds who are only there for the extra money.

[pednursedeb]

The reason I got curious about specialty pay is because all the nurses who get floated to our unit don't want to be there.

We have a mixed unit in that we do also get adults. The first thing that most floats say is "I don't do pediatrics". It's usually not a problem because we have adults, but at certain times of the year, like now, we have fewer adult patients. The kids get sick this time of year.

[pedsnurse72]

I work on a general Peds nurse and do not receive specialty pay. But wouldn't that be nice :)

We used to accept float help from other floors until we went to a closed unit. We also ran into nurses and CNA's who refused to take care of pedi patients. I never understood that. The CNA's refused to do vitals. How is taking vitals any different on a pedi patient? Maybe I'm just biased because I was a CNA in Peds before I was a nurse. In my hospital, the other floors think we have a cushy job and like to make fun of us to their co-workers. They think all we do is sit around and hold babies and play with toddlers. Yet when they floated up there, they wanted nothing to do with the pedi population. I'd like to see any one of them handle a toddler in DKA with an insulin drip or a toddler in septic shock who nearly died (both of which I've taken care of). Not to knock ALL non-pedi nurses but some of the ones in my hospital like to make fun of us.

[pednursedeb]

Glad to know our unit is not the only one no one wants to float to. I guess the only good thing is that it makes for a tight unit and a good team. We work well together