St. Mary's/Regional Better Working Conditions?

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Hello.

I have 6 months left of nursing school and am looking to apply to St. Mary's and/or Regional hospitals. I plan to work ICU nights as soon as I am finished with school.

I read in the newspaper that a lot of changes have occured recently such as nurse to patient ratios and pay increases. Does anyone know exactly what these changes are? Do they apply to both hospitals?

Thank you for any help you can give me. :nurse:

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Specializes in SRNA.

Renown has a 26 bed trauma ICU, 18 bed Medical/Surgical ICU, 30something bed cardiac ICU, and they just reopened another 6 beds in the old cardiac ICU to accommodate even more ICU patients. They're a level II trauma center handling much of northern NV and some areas of CA, OR, ID and UT.

Saint Mary's has an 11 bed medical/surgical ICU and a 20 bed cardiac care/cardiac surgery unit.

What kind of ICU do you want to work in? Working conditions are quite similar. I work at Renown and I like it. I have friends who work at Saint's and they like it there. They remain very similar in working conditions and salaries.

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I have not decided what type of ICU I want to work in. Right now I am trying to explore my options. I was more interested in the new changes that have been going on such as the the nurse patient ratios and the increased pay. Do you know what the nurse patient ratios are? How much is the wage increase?

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Specializes in Dialysis (All Modalities) , Ex-CVICU RN.
I have not decided what type of ICU I want to work in. Right now I am trying to explore my options. I was more interested in the new changes that have been going on such as the the nurse patient ratios and the increased pay. Do you know what the nurse patient ratios are? How much is the wage increase?

Just so you know the nurse to patient ratios are just guidelines, it is not state mandated. So nothing much will change regarding staffing in an ICU environment. It all depends on acuity. Most people in an ICU environment get two patients at most. In some cases three may be assigned if staffing is short. But those three patients will have to be low to very low acuity especially in Cardiac ICU which may have a small mix of med/tele patients.

The wage increase has not gone into effect as of yet. The wage increase includes the already 4% that RN's get every year. So depending on what happens across town at St. Mary's with their union contract and how much their wage increases the first year will dictate how much Renown RN's will get on top of the 4% they already received.

I hope that helps.

TJ

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Specializes in SRNA.

Working in the ICU at Renown, I've yet to be given a 3 patient assignment. So the nurse : patient ratios is a moot point. I've seen a 3 patient assignment once, and like Medwynn said, they were low acuity patients including two that had orders to transfer to the floor (thus taking away the need for Q4H assessments, Q2H I/O, etc) and another non-vented patient. It's quite rare to see anything besides 1 RN to 2 patients in the ICU setting. And the staffing ratios are guidelines, not mandated.

As far as the pay increases...while you may read in the local news about these 27, 30, 29 or whatever percentage pay raises, but keep in mind that it is over the course of a 5 year contract and includes the 4% annual increases we get anyways.

The other new thing that may be appealing was the employer paid family PPO healthcare.

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