would you be a RN for $11.00/hr?

caliotter3 · Mar 13, 2007

One of the home health agencies I worked for quoted $22/hr to me until they found out I wasn't an RN, then it went down to $17/hr. Afterwards, I found many instances where they were paying as low as $15/hr, not far from the $13/hr advertised by a competitior. Yes, there are several schools in the area that pump out new grads on a regular basis and the area is known as an entry point for the foreign grads who come in. There certainly is no shortage of nurses around here, from the overqualified to the unqualified. All of the employers take advantage of this, and place their compensation packages and offers of work accordingly. That is a major reason why you will find tons of 20 hrs a week or less job offerings and a workforce that competes for these jobs, helping to keep wages and benefits low.

Gromit · Mar 13, 2007

The poor staffing, and hospitals offering incentives to hire on (sign on bonuses being the usual) and the very fact that a facility will pay higher than wage scale to hire an agency nurse -all of these things say that yes, there IS a shortage. Our floor regularly tries to get folks to work overtime (RNs, not techs, not Unit Coordinators/secretaries, and not housekeeping or dietary folks for the cafeteria -nurses. ) by offering to pay "critical shortage incentive" pay (which is time plus .8 -a bit better than time and a half, isn't it? )

There is DEFINATELY a shortage of RNs who are willing to work at the bedside. Yes, the schools keep pumping them out. But they are quitting (in some areas as fast as the newbies come out) in droves too. Many newbies had no idea what they were REALLY getting into, and quit within the first year -no, I don't have stats, but I do know folks from my own class who left in the first year, and I've met quite a few others who are getting ready to quit after less than a year. Lets not forget the soon-to-be-old-fartknockers out there (grin) the 'boomers' who are getting well on into their senior years -quite a few more soon-to-be-patients, and no way is the number of RNs who work bedside going to keep up with THAT.

As you could probably tell, I'm not really worried that the jobs will dry up. The only way a hospital wouldn't need us is if the docs would actually do bedside care. Now, I'm a sick man, so please don't get me started laughing at THAT idea!

jms79 · Mar 14, 2007

Whoever said that Taco Bell was paying $8 an hr for high school students isnt true for my area. I worked for taco bell I was an assistant manager. I saw the money people were making. The most some high school student were making was alittle over minimum wage. I would take a nursing job over any fast food job anyday. Because its also alot more rewarding.

areafl · Mar 16, 2007

Ok...maybe I am getting the wrong idea from the post but working at Taco Bell is a job that requires little brain activity...(not saying that in a bad way) where as nursing requires you to constantly be thinking you are responsible for your patients and your co-workers. What do you have to think about at Taco bell?? (ok I put the meat on the taco then the lettuce, tomato, followed by cheese??) You don't have to think if I put the tomato on before the lettuce will my customer die.

Nursing would be a much more rewarding job but it is far from easier, and that is why nurses should be compensated.

(I hope I don't sound b!tchy...)

SueBee RN-BSN · Mar 16, 2007

I live in the midwest now.

Nurses are seen as door mats, because too many nurses allow themselves to be treated poorly. How many times have you, or have seen another nurse spoken to like dirt by a doctor? Only to walk away hurt, but saying it dosen't bother them. We all say that doctor has the problem, but what it really is- abuse, and it causes a hostile workplace. Nurses have allowed this to happen to the porfession.

Nurses also abuse each other, and are very good at doing so. I can remember some first days on the job, being assigned a preceptor, and being ignored by that preceptor. I can remember having very sick patients, getting worse by the minute, and other nurses refusing to help out with me having to leave the bedside to call for help. I can remember delivering a baby with another nurse standing behind me with her arms crossed and lips purched. Real professional. Not to mention the back biting, and pure trash like ways some nurses use to make themselves feel like they are worth something. How sad, but nurses have allowed this to happen.

I don't know about you all, but I did not go to school for 4 years, with a caring heart for others just to be treated like dirt.

I think it's time to put hospitals, doctors and other nurses on notice. Their negative behavior will not be tolerated.

I saw a doctor shove a nurse out of her chair in the PACU one day. Her butt hit the floor, and she just walked away. I went over to that doctor, and told him that if her ever treated me that way he would have a nightmare of legal problems. I also went from the nurse manager to the hospital CEO. This doctors behavior changed. It felt so good. All nurses have to do is stick together, and standup for themselves. It is really that simple. Nurses can make this happen.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Mar 16, 2007

SeeBee, I agree that we get as much crap as we are willing to take. I'm glad around here doctors are not demiGods going around abusing nurses. Yeah a few get a little angry at times, usually with good reason because someone has let them down. I've never seen a doctor reduce a nurse to tears and I've never seen a doctor touch a nurse, much less knock her to the floor. Around here, I can think of a dozen or so nurses that would physically attack back.

When the abused walks away, it gives the abuser permission to do it again and to do it to someone else.

foxyhill21 · Mar 16, 2007

No you dont sound b!!chy, the way u put it is so funny (haha), u r telling the truth I agree

Ok...maybe I am getting the wrong idea from the post but working at Taco Bell is a job that requires little brain activity...(not saying that in a bad way) where as nursing requires you to constantly be thinking you are responsible for your patients and your co-workers. What do you have to think about at Taco bell?? (ok I put the meat on the taco then the lettuce, tomato, followed by cheese??) You don't have to think if I put the tomato on before the lettuce will my customer die.
Nursing would be a much more rewarding job but it is far from easier, and that is why nurses should be compensated.
(I hope I don't sound b!tchy...)

SueBee RN-BSN · Mar 16, 2007

Were having toco's for dinner. Lets see meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato. Heck it all goes in the same place anyway.

SICU Queen · Mar 16, 2007

I absolutely would NOT work as an RN for $11/hour.

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Mar 16, 2007

Were having toco's for dinner. Lets see meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato. Heck it all goes in the same place anyway.

Dont forget the Onions and Salsa

carolinapooh, BSN, RN · Mar 16, 2007

Knowing what I know now, probably not.
I will say that in years prior to me becoming a nurse I was making close to minimum wage and RNs were making $12.00 (early 90's) and I thought that was a fortune. So if I was in the same position now $11.00/hr. would not seem like "slave labor" wages. Minimum wage in a hot restaurant cooking, mopping, working late hours, and dealing with the snarly public was slave labor. So given that situation I might do it. An associates degree for that kind of raise might be worth it me.

Tweety, I love you dearly, but I'd have to say I think you're overestimating what you'd put up with.

In the early '90's my gas was not hovering around $3.00 a gallon and the cost of living was considerably less - as evidenced by salaries across the board. I remember when minimum wage was about $3.25/hr, and $11/hr seemed like millions...there are people in restaurants working as waitresses who make $11/hr with tips (and I would NOT want their job; someone would go home WEARING their order before the night was over).

When I was a pharmacy tech at CVS (I toyed with pharmacy school for a while) I made $9.50/hr. There is NO WAY I would be an RN for eleven.

I can't imagine why there are people willing to be CNAs for less than $11/hr - and they are and do. I surely admire them for it. (LPNs probably don't make too much more than that - ten an hour is twenty grand a year - and I don't understand why they want to do it either. I admire them for it as well.)

I think it would definitely seem like slave labor wages - because you'd be making at least $5.15 and would have a hard time understanding why someone would bust their butts in school, go into debt, and come out making just a hair over double what you'd be making - with lives in the balance on a daily basis.

Interns around here make about $27K a year - and for what they put up with and the bills they have hanging over their heads, THAT seems like slave wages to me.

We couldn't even begin to fathom the meaning of the phrase "nursing shortage" if RNs were making $11/hr. For that I'd rather be the LPN and have someone else's license ultimately responsible for any mistakes I'd make.

Seriously. I love you dearly but I think we'd all be doing something else with less stress for the same amount of money. I think everyone on this board genuinely cares about and wants to help others - but we're also realists with bills to pay and families to care for. Eleven an hour just wouldn't cut it for any of us - at the very least, not for very long.

carolinapooh, BSN, RN · Mar 16, 2007

I live in the midwest now.
Nurses are seen as door mats, because too many nurses allow themselves to be treated poorly. How many times have you, or have seen another nurse spoken to like dirt by a doctor? Only to walk away hurt, but saying it dosen't bother them. We all say that doctor has the problem, but what it really is- abuse, and it causes a hostile workplace. Nurses have allowed this to happen to the porfession.
Nurses also abuse each other, and are very good at doing so. I can remember some first days on the job, being assigned a preceptor, and being ignored by that preceptor. I can remember having very sick patients, getting worse by the minute, and other nurses refusing to help out with me having to leave the bedside to call for help. I can remember delivering a baby with another nurse standing behind me with her arms crossed and lips purched. Real professional. Not to mention the back biting, and pure trash like ways some nurses use to make themselves feel like they are worth something. How sad, but nurses have allowed this to happen.
I don't know about you all, but I did not go to school for 4 years, with a caring heart for others just to be treated like dirt.
I think it's time to put hospitals, doctors and other nurses on notice. Their negative behavior will not be tolerated.
I saw a doctor shove a nurse out of her chair in the PACU one day. Her butt hit the floor, and she just walked away. I went over to that doctor, and told him that if her ever treated me that way he would have a nightmare of legal problems. I also went from the nurse manager to the hospital CEO. This doctors behavior changed. It felt so good. All nurses have to do is stick together, and standup for themselves. It is really that simple. Nurses can make this happen.

And if I had been the shovee, that doctor would have been hearing from MY lawyer. That's battery, and it's against the law. Actually, even if it's not me, I could still probably go after him for creating a hostile work environment. As I said earlier in another post, with the way people are about firing up lawsuits these days, you'd think someone would get a clue.

Very few people in my life have intimidated me, and I don't plan on starting now. Doctors poo and pee just like I do; a bit of knowledge does NOT impart superiority or the right to behave like an a£*. Kudos to you for making sure the buck stopped there. It also stops with me.