Surge Pay

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I work at a hospital in Atlanta, GA that has been having some staffing issues. A way that upper management has been trying to get us to come in and work overtime has been through surge pay. Our surge pay is time and a half plus $2. I honestly feel like that is almost an insult considering how busy we are. I have heard of other facilities receiving time and a half plus $10 or even $20. My unit is meeting with upper leadership this week and I was wondering if y'all could give me ideas of what other facilities receive and what city y'all are in. Thank you

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Hourly wage plus 10 an hour.

If you have worked 36, your first 4 hours are at hourly wage plus 10.

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Specializes in L&D, Cardiac/Renal, Palliative Care.

As long as we have met our per diem (0.60, 0.90, etc.) we are offered CN1 (critical need 1) which is time and a half plus $10/hour or CN2 which is time and a half plus $20/hour. At our main campus they almost always offer CN2 versus CN1 and usually with a lump sum incentive, for example, CN2+125 would be your base rate x1.5 +20/hour, +$125. If you are in overtime it is time and a half plus time and a half. I would not be incentivised to come in for and additional$2/hour ?

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Specializes in Mental Health.
22 hours ago, Icualltheway said:

Our surge pay is time and a half plus $2. I honestly feel like that is almost an insult

Time and a half+ is an insult? So don't take it... I guess if everyone is that greedy they'll have to up it some more. If I was working there I'd be working all the shifts they'd give me though.

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It seems like the focus should be on better staffing. I've worked at facilities that pay $10 an hour extra, or just offer a few hundred dollars for the day in addition to overtime. It's still not worth it, to me.

If you feel like they're not offering enough, just don't answer the phone.

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Surprised at the incentives posted so far. In my city, you get time and a half. 1.5 of your hourly, that's it. (Which is worth it to me). And that is at a more "generous" hospital system in town. The other hospital I work for offers $7.50/hr additional on your hourly. To me that's not really worth it. That amounts to about $50 extra per shift.

To offer even more on top of time and a half is wow. Unheard of here. I'd do that in a heartbeat.

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Specializes in Emergency Room, CEN, TCRN.

We get more pay if we work a shift with advanced notice -- much bigger benefit to take a shift more than a week out than to take a shift when they page that day, which I think is stupid and backwards.

But I have no life at all so I take whatever shifts I can extra. Worked 11 of the last 14 days.

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Specializes in Oncology, OCN.

My hospital does surge bonuses. So time and a half for the overtime hours and $360 bonus for picking up the shift. I think technically it’s $30/hr in the case you only pick up 4 or 8 hours vs a full 12 hours.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

Our surge pay is double time. However, only nurses who have not had an unexcused absence in the last 6 weeks are eligible for it. It is also a lot of work getting it approved (it's not up to the unit manager, it gets approved on a case by case basis by the administrator on call that day).

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The best way to get management to re think pay is to refuse to work the over time. Agency / travel nurses are a lot more expensive.
Your situation is a little tricky as pay is notoriously low in GA which allows management to feel the low pay is comparable to other local facilities. But the bottom line will always be, will nurses work for that money, Yes or no?
I worked in a unit that couldn’t fill it’s on call roster. They were resorting to begging, threats and forced on call. As with most OR’s we had a lot of very strong willed / dominate personality people so the fight got really ugly. Hospital doubled it’s on call pay and magic they had plenty of volunteers.

good luck

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Specializes in Emergency Medicine.

When I was a bedside nurse at Ohio State U $25.00 an hour, you commit to a minimum of 4 hours, and they give it out like candy. After, the first 4 hours I was making time and a half, plus the other incentives so around $70 an hour I think. You could pick it up every day if you were willing to work any unit.

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Specializes in Adult and pediatric emergency and critical care.
On 1/10/2020 at 8:17 PM, Icualltheway said:

I work at a hospital in Atlanta, GA that has been having some staffing issues. A way that upper management has been trying to get us to come in and work overtime has been through surge pay. Our surge pay is time and a half plus $2. I honestly feel like that is almost an insult considering how busy we are. I have heard of other facilities receiving time and a half plus $10 or even $20. My unit is meeting with upper leadership this week and I was wondering if y'all could give me ideas of what other facilities receive and what city y'all are in. Thank you

It depends on the matrix but if we are down one nurse (as long as it is a float/resource) position and not a patient assignment we get your normal pay (1.5 for overtime, regular pay if under 40 hours, etc). If we are down two nurses they offer $10 an hour, down 3 or so $20, 4 or more $30.

The powers at be of course have the ability to offer more or less bonus depending on if they think they can or can't get nurses. We are also offered credit for the cafeteria, movie/basketball/baseball/hockey tickets, and all other kinds of incentives if they think it will bring in staff.

I wouldn't come in for $2 an hour, I could easily make more picking up a PRN shift in another facility.

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