Speciality Differential?

critical care nurses in our facility receive a differential (ICU, ER) but not OR. Not everything that occurs in OR is critical.

doesn't matter where you work at my hospital...you get paid base pay + whatever annual raise gives you. Speciality doesn't give you anything extra

not either place i work. a nurse is a nurse is a nurse, i guess and if you think about it, we are ALL "specialty nurses" in our respective areas as it is. I am not sure it would be fair to pay specialty differentials at all.

The hospital where I work pays incentives for specialty CERTIFICATIONS, such as the CCRN, CEN, yada yada yada. Those RNs who work in specialty areas but do not have the certifications are not paid extra.

good point, Reb. Those holding certs make a bit more here too. But just cause I work in OB does not mean I make more than a med-surg nurse on the floor downstairs. I have no problem w/that.

I think that extra pay for extra certifications is good (which they don't make on my floor - real incentive to do it - eh?) but I don't think you should get paid more for working in a specialty area. As far as I'm concerned, med/surg is it's own specialty, as is every other type of nursing. So if you're gonna pay one of them more, you should pay them all more (now THERE'S an idea!)

Heather

We don't get paid extra for any specialty where I work. I agree with that as has already been said every area is a specialty in it's own right. However they don't pay extra for CEN or CCRN either so why bother as Heather said!

We have "pay for skill" so the more skills a person has the more money (in theory). i.e. certification gets you .50, ACLS gets you .50, a BSN gets you .50, other skills like precepting, doing charge, etc. are built in.

But we don't pay differentials for specialty areas.

But with the critical care nurse shortage more acute in some areas than the other nurses, I can see why they would offer it.

No differential for specialty units in my facility either. They are considering giving a differential for CCRN, CEN, etc once you are on a certain rung on the clinical ladder, I'm at the bottom of the ladder right now and won't be moved up until I have received Open Heart Orientation, which probably won't be for another 6 months at LEAST! I work in a Cardiovascular/Trauma/Surgical ICU Or as one of the CV surgeons likes to call it

Surgical

Heart

Intensive

Trauma

Orthopedic

Neurologic

Unit!!!!

Hee-hee!

Sorry Guys,

We are all specialists - we all deserve the pay.

"our ICU's and ED are always short-staffed. The extra money was an attemp to lure people to those areas and encourage the existing staff to stay"

And a little extra pay is MUCH cheaper than training interested nurses in those fields, is another way of saying this. Nobody wants to train and they all want specially-trained people. Duh!