To me I am on the fence about it. When I was a student, we were taught not to complain, if we complained in our clinical about too much work we would get a warning, or be kicked out for not being competent. Now that I am working its much different. I have a union who will stand up for me. So now workers like me, often complain about workloads, and being overworked asking to come in, working lots of hours etc..
Here in Ontario we have Bill 124 where the Government froze our wages. I saw many Nurses protest this, but of course we cannot go on strike as lives will be on the line which is not good. One nurse said that they don't just change diapers, but they keep patients alive and are closely monitored, while being spat on, and yelled at.
So this begs the question, are you becoming a Nurse because you like it? Or are you doing it for the money? I don't think Nurses are underpaid, I do think they are worth more than they currently are.
Specializes in Surgical Specialty Clinic - Ambulatory Care.
14 hours ago, hppygr8ful said:
Employers will tell you you don't need malpractice insurance. That they will have your back and that the employer's litigation team will represent you. This is one area where I feel employers really hurt nurse, because they will throw you under the bus so fast your head will spin. The $100.00 a year I spend to protect my assets should a disaster occur is well worth it.
IMHO - Any Nurse doing patient care without malpractice insurance is a fool.
Hppy
Or broke. No $100 isn’t a lot, but when your budget is so tight that you are downsizing your photo data so you can stop your $9 subscription to your iCloud because that $9 makes the difference in your food and gas budget….who can swing $100 a month! It would be almost freeing if someone took my license.
Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
2 hours ago, KalipsoRed21 said:
Or broke. No $100 isn’t a lot, but when your budget is so tight that you are downsizing your photo data so you can stop your $9 subscription to your iCloud because that $9 makes the difference in your food and gas budget….who can swing $100 a month! It would be almost freeing if someone took my license.
No it’s a $100.00 a year! I’m a bit of an anachronism don’t store stuff in the cloud, carry my own lunch from home and grow most of the family’s food in my garden. Cost of gas is something awful cost me $50-$60 to fill my tank.
Depends where you live. The south is notorious for low pay and despite what they say it isn't cheaper to live down there. Not anymore at least. I think it also depends on the hospital you work for. The larger, well known ones are also notorious for paying lower because they know people want to work there so they have it on their resume.
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
9 hours ago, JePierreB said:
Personally, too much is being taken out from taxes, and it's due to living in California.
It's not due to living in California, it's due to working in California. For a year and a half I was full time at a hospital is San Jose while living in Wisconsin. I would fly there, work six 12s in a row, the fly home for 8 off.
I paid California income taxes despite not living in California.
Despite the taxes, the airfare, and renting a room to sleep in, I still netted a little over twice what I would have brought home working locally.
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
2 minutes ago, OUxPhys said:
Depends where you live. The south is notorious for low pay and despite what they say it isn't cheaper to live down there. Not anymore at least. I think it also depends on the hospital you work for. The larger, well known ones are also notorious for paying lower because they know people want to work there so they have it on their resume.
The local cost of living is irrelevant and used as an excuse to pay less.
I guess it all comes down to relevance. If nurses, not working at bedside in a relatively stress free workplace, feel they are fairly compensated, good them. However, a nurse in this example to use their frame of reference to make a blanket statement (are nurses paid enough?) for the nursing profession is wrong. Personally, I feel that my nurse colleagues, working in dangerously understaffed and very stressful areas in which patients' very lives hinge upon their actions, are woefully underpaid. We're worth far in my opinion
For $100 a year I'd rather know there's no conflict of interest or that I'm not going to be judged to be worth the loss for the benefit of the org which is the whole point of having your own insurance.
Or broke. No $100 isn’t a lot, but when your budget is so tight that you are downsizing your photo data so you can stop your $9 subscription to your iCloud because that $9 makes the difference in your food and gas budget….who can swing $100 a month! It would be almost freeing if someone took my license.
KalipsoRed21, while I agree to an extent, in this 'sue happy' society, Liability Insurance could provide a level of protection to your family's assets. These assets could otherwise be seized or your salary garnished for years and years to pay for wrongful damages.
It's not due to living in California, it's due to working in California. For a year and a half I was full time at a hospital is San Jose while living in Wisconsin. I would fly there, work six 12s in a row, the fly home for 8 off.
I paid California income taxes despite not living in California.
Despite the taxes, the airfare, and renting a room to sleep in, I still netted a little over twice what I would have brought home working locally.
Well, coming from someone who's from here and work here, the taxes taken out is more than what I keep. Plus, I'm full time and no dependents, so alot being taken out. That might also be another factor. I'm a socal nurse, but not in the major cities of LA and SD, so the pay rate is personally smaller than those areas, but personally, the pay isn't bad. But with taxes, it changes the perspective.
Or broke. No $100 isn’t a lot, but when your budget is so tight that you are downsizing your photo data so you can stop your $9 subscription to your iCloud because that $9 makes the difference in your food and gas budget….who can swing $100 a month! It would be almost freeing if someone took my license.
It's about $100 a year, not a month. I agree $100 a month would be tough but yearly it's much more affordable.
The local cost of living is irrelevant and used as an excuse to pay less.
I agree- I worked in PA and when I got a job in Allentown after working in Philly I took a huge paycut that the hospital justified as being due to the lower cost of living but the decreased COL wasn't nearly close to the decreased pay. The city itself might have been cheaper but the surrounding suburbs and rural areas were still pretty $$$ because it was still within commuting distance to Philadelphia. They also offered a whopping $0.50 night shift differential and had to hire on to night shift only for some reason.
Food and housing and gas and all the others only vary so much outside of major metropolitan areas.
KalipsoRed21, BSN, RN
495 Posts
Or broke. No $100 isn’t a lot, but when your budget is so tight that you are downsizing your photo data so you can stop your $9 subscription to your iCloud because that $9 makes the difference in your food and gas budget….who can swing $100 a month! It would be almost freeing if someone took my license.