Retirement/Benefit?

Tweety, BSN, RN · Nov 12, 2002

We are responsible for financing our own retirement, through payroll deductions into a savings and investment plan. My plan has done so poorly the last couple of years due to the economy. I'm going to have to work about 50 more years before I can retire.

Jay Levan · Nov 12, 2002

Wow what a topic. This one should generate quite a bit of feedback!? I am at that stage when one begins to think seriously,about this most important subject. Let's see, I'm in my 29th year of service as an R.N., I am 57 years old, which means I have devoted more than half my life span to this profession. From my viewpoint, there is no

REAL retirement system for Nurses. Our Nursing Organizations could have, and I believe should have, invested a fair part of their "Membership Fees" say $5/mo., $60/yr. to a National Rertirement Fund for Nurses. I still believe that this should be an issue for discussion, at all these touted grand meetings, and conferences held every year to supposedly improve the plight of Nurses as a whole. The only things I see considered as High Priorities, that have come from these coferences have made our jobs harder and also much easier to fail at. One such "Accomplishment" has been The Nursing Practice Act. Which on the surface appears as an attempt to "Police our Profession" however in practice gives Hospital Administration more Ammunition to fire at us. I know we must be held accountable for our actions as Nurses, and I have known this for my entire career, as a bedside nurse, and "Do No Harm" has always been my highest ethical standard. I believe that is the standard I have held myself accountable for, and the Nursing Practice Act did nothing to change that standard, because it comes from within.

Now back to retirement, I have also done some things outside the profession of Nursing, to try as best I have been able to, to assure that my retirement years are just that. Mostly through Real Estate aquisition. I would advise anyone in our field to do the same, devise a plan that has nothing whatsoever to do with your JOB. Go with it, stick to it, and don't let anyone talk you out of it. I would not and I repeat NOT invest in any Hospital Retirement Plan. Why NOT??? because guess who holds the purse strings on that, that's right the Hospital Administrator, and guess what, they can delete your funds anytime they deem it necessary to insure the survival of the Hospital. Check it out for yourselves, read your particular plan, word for word, phrase for phrase. If this little catch phrase isn't directly in the Plan itself, you might check the Hospital Charter. This is the document that spells out what Administrators can and must do to insure, the survival of the entity known as "The Hospital" In my mind this rule puts the hospital in a conflict of interest situation, ah but of course the hospital attorneys have devised obtuse language loopholes to assure their client's innocence, should they be called to task for raiding these retirement funds. I could give specific examples of hospital employees who have been left with nothing, or in some cases laid off for no reason, just short of their Retirement These people are out there, I suspect they do not cry out, because they don't have the resources to fight large corporations, who's attorneys would naturally tie them up in legal

ranklings for years and years. My message in short, Do Not Depend on Anyone else to take care of you, after years and years of loyal employment, because the bottom line is, You are expendable. :eek: :chair:

Enright · Nov 12, 2002

Boy, this is a red letter issue for me. As a career change RN, I got a late start as it is and when I discovered how terrible hospital retirement plans were, I started to panic. A job at a major insurance company as a RN Manager offered only a slightly better deal (and cut the % of contribution to the pension by 50% in my five years there).

I began to realize that my dream job with a pension and supported retirement savings was not easy to find. I now have a government job with a real honest to God pension (no vesting required) and a deferred comp savings plan.

I never really thought I'd work for the government but it was the availability of a pension plan that sold me on it. Sad you can't find these benefits often in the private sector.

baseline · Nov 12, 2002

We get retirement?