Undervalued

I have read several places that Nurses who have twenty years experience and are near retirement age are only making as much as a new grad sometimes.

I was wondering how this came to be. I know several people who make triple what a new grad makes but they are in other disciplines.

Why is nursing so undervalued? What is the true value of a nurse's time?

I have been a nurse for thirty years. I just turned down a position with an out patient dialysis company when they only offered my $23 an hour and a two dollar an hour differential as a per diem rate without benfits. When I asked why the salary was so low, I was told it was because I did not have dialysis experience. I explained that I was an experienced ICU nurse, with experience with CVVHD, and Peritoneal Dialysis, and certainly a goodly number of dialysis patients where receiving in patient dialysis. Which, by the way, is why they wanted to hire me in the first place. That, I believe, is what new grads are starting at with absolutely no experience. And they wonder why older nurses find other work, or go back to grad school, or start their own businesses.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

I have seen this too...starting out at a base rate with no account for experience! "nope, everyone starts out at the same rate"....uhggggg!

That is why I went with an agency that does account for experience, and full benefits if you work 36 hrs per week or more! What is sad is when I go somewhere and a nurse who has been at that facility for years is making less than me!!!!!!!! That makes me so sick!

I've been a nurse for 21 years, and was hired into a management position. Shortly thereafter, I almost lost it right there on the spot when I found out that a new RN, with not even 21 *days* as an RN, was offered the same starting pay as they had offered me. And she thought that rate was low and was planning to negotiate for more. I didn't want to know how that turned out.

I don't work there any more. It wasn't about the money, but it could have been. Wage compression bites.