Should rad techs make as much as RN's?

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Feb 1, 2008

Society has the distorted views regarding job responsibilities and pay.

For example, professional baseball players are paid tremendously well. Many of these men even earn incomes that fall into the millions per year. In my opinion, their only job responsibilities are to provide an entertaining season to the fans, meet or exceed the performance expectations of the team's owner, and play ball competently.

CNAs, on the other hand, are not paid so well. Many of these hard-working men and women earn low pay, but their work, reporting of changes in condition, positive attitudes, and competent workmanship can create positive outcomes for the patients they serve. CNAs have plenty of responsibility, but their pay rates do not reflect it accurately.

If society did not have such distorted views on pay and responsibility, the CNA would be the high income earner and the professional baseball player would earn low pay.

CritterLover, BSN, RN · Feb 1, 2008

pay rate has more to do with market need/availability than education.

most of the social workers i work with have a masters degree, yet they make considerably less than rns do.

where i work, rts make less than rns, but us techs, mri techs, and nm techs all make more (as far as base pay). ct techs make about the same as rns.

mom2michael, MSN, RN, NP · Feb 1, 2008

Ours start about $2.00 less an hour than an RN starts but obviously I work with some who make far more than me an hour and I'm fine by that - they've been doing their job for years upon years.

Each job has it's own level of skill and...at least where I work...they have a lot of responsbilties other than just shooting the occassional X-ray or wheeling the person over to CT.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Feb 1, 2008

In addition, new nurses are being churned out into the job market every few months from the assortment of community colleges, universities, trade schools, and hospital-based nursing programs. This constant supply of nurses cannot be doing anything to help increase our pay rates.

However, we do not ever hear of massive numbers of sonographers and MRI techs being funneled into the job market every few months. If less of these techs exist, a demand is created, which causes their pay rates to increase. Employers are willing to pay good money to the MRI tech, since so few of them exist.

BlueRidgeHomeRN · Feb 1, 2008

"]in addition, new nurses are being churned out into the job market every few months from the assortment of community colleges, universities, trade schools, and hospital-based nursing programs. this constant supply of nurses cannot be doing anything to help increase our pay rates."

can i borrow some of these numerous new nurses??

we are in a critical shortage here in virginia!:scrm:

Balder_LPN, LPN · Feb 1, 2008

pay rate has more to do with market need/availability than education.
most of the social workers i work with have a masters degree, yet they make considerably less than rns do.
where i work, rts make less than rns, but us techs, mri techs, and nm techs all make more (as far as base pay). ct techs make about the same as rns.

yes, the job market is like any other market, ruled by supply vs. demand. jobs are not paid by responsibility. products are not priced according to quality. it all depends on how many people want them vs. how many there are available.

an rn often starts out alot higher than a police officer (which these days pretty mcuh requires and associates degree) in maui rookie police officers start at $18/hr. i dont know any rn's who would work there for that!

the hosp is a buisiness, they will not pay any field 1 cent more than they have to to get the minimum amount of positions filled to conduct their biz.

so if rad techs are making more in your area they must be harder to find than rn's. and i dont think the schools churning out nurses are flooding the field. with the aging population the nursing shortages in the us alone are projected at 100's of thousands of unfilled positions over the next decade or so.

with the apparent oncoming recession (this mornings news said payrolls where down for the first time since 2003, bad sign) now is a great time to be in the hc field. we are "recession proof" because demand for healthcare does not change according to the economy, unlike computers, construction, and many types of services and maufacturing.

psalm51 · Feb 1, 2008

what amazes me is that resp techs make nearly as musch as the RN. they have a very narrow focus in terms of their area of expertise and territory of responsibility -- and they do it one person at a time.

RN4NICU, LPN, LVN · Feb 1, 2008

"]in addition, new nurses are being churned out into the job market every few months from the assortment of community colleges, universities, trade schools, and hospital-based nursing programs. this constant supply of nurses cannot be doing anything to help increase our pay rates."

can i borrow some of these numerous new nurses??

we are in a critical shortage here in virginia!:scrm:

perhaps someone should be analyzing why the shortage in the area is so acute b/c there are plenty of licensed nurses out there. a "critical" shortage of nurses in a particular place usually results from one of two things (or both in combination):

1) no one wants to live there - you will have to provide some incentives to attract people to the area

and/or

2) no one wants to work there - you need to look at the working environment and what is offered by local employers vs. what nurses can find in surrounding areas.

GilaRRT · Feb 2, 2008

what amazes me is that resp techs make nearly as musch as the RN. they have a very narrow focus in terms of their area of expertise and territory of responsibility -- and they do it one person at a time.

Respiratory tech or a respiratory therapist? RRT's are in fact highly educated professionals. They have indepth knowledge of physiology and pathophysiology. In addition, an RRT may have responsibility for several patients. Perhaphs even a dozen or more in some facilities. Just because you see them giving LVN's on the floor does not mean that their next stop will not be the three intubated patients in the ICU, after they do an RSI in the ER.

As far as other health care providers making more money than nurses, hey, that is capitalism. They have found a way to advance in their area of expertise. Areas such as vascular ultrasound are quite specialized and in high demand depending on the area of the country. We as nurses have several ways of making more money and even more areas to choose if we wish to specialize and capitalize on our abilities.

lindarn · Feb 2, 2008

Respiratory tech or a respiratory therapist? RRT's are in fact highly educated professionals. They have indepth knowledge of physiology and pathophysiology. In addition, an RRT may have responsibility for several patients. Perhaphs even a dozen or more in some facilities. Just because you see them giving LVN's on the floor does not mean that their next stop will not be the three intubated patients in the ICU, after they do an RSI in the ER.
As far as other health care providers making more money than nurses, hey, that is capitalism. They have found a way to advance in their area of expertise. Areas such as vascular ultrasound are quite specialized and in high demand depending on the area of the country. We as nurses have several ways of making more money and even more areas to choose if we wish to specialize and capitalize on our abilities.

But lets not forget- in the military, RNs are OFFICERS, LPN/LVNs, X-Ray Techs (of all flavors and speciatlies), RTs, lab personnel, are all ENLISTED. Do you see the difference?

By virtue of the fact that RNs are all officers, they earn more than the above health care providers.

RNs need to start seeing themselves as officers.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

Riseupandnurse · Feb 2, 2008

Actually, it is the RTs (radiologic technologists) who are flooding the market right now. I know many recent grads who can't find a job working in the field. But yes, RTs and RNs should get paid as much, IMHO. I was an RT (ARRT) before I was an RN. Believe it or not, it's just as hard, but in a different way.