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.
Home Health Nurses do not get paid enough. Patient’s are being d/c home with more acute medical needs. Fifteen years ago, a Home Health Nurse focused on chronic illnesses. Since the trend of health care is moving to the patient’s home the pay should increase. On the other hand Home Health Agencies should be required to train their nurses accordingly. Home Health Nurses do not have certain nursing task frequently. If the agency is not equipped to offer refresher classes there should be more availability for refresher courses and the like for the nurses to access independently. Home Health Nurses do not have the ability to draw on the experience of other nurses in their work environment.
Specializes in Med surg .Pacu.infusion therapy. AnesthesiPreadmit.
I have to say I worked for a very good hospital that was Union and the pay was very well compensated .Nearly $60 an hour when I retired. The years of experience you have usually the more pay you get. I'm sure it varies from state-to-state though
Two things: as a profession that’s got a good job outlook and is somewhat accessible (although there are still tons of barriers rt our educational system in the US) it’s definitely (in general) decently paying compared to professions with similar educational requirements. I made more as a first year nurse with a BSN than my mother made at the height of her career as a private school teacher with a Master’s degree.
BUT. Wages in general suck in the US so that’s a really low bar. Wages have been stagnate and dropping compared to inflation and rising healthcare costs for decades. Not to mention the cost of education and the burden student loans place on people. Millennials have a lower standard of living than previous generations. So in this sense, no, nurses are not paid enough for what they do. The working class isn’t paid enough for what they do.
We are absolutely justified in demanding better compensation especially when the top tier of healthcare is profiting so massively off of our labor. And it shouldn’t be a competition against other professions and jobs but part of a larger push for workers’ rights.
I think it needs to be compared to other professions because it has to do with the worth of what we do physically and mentally for doctors and patients and the risks taken during work. Nursing is a highly intellectual & physical field. We take on disease risks. We take on health risks from non stop stress, infreq to no breaks for something as human as drinking and eating and sitting. We are communicating with others most of the time. It's non stop. The thing is this can be fixed easily by hiring more nurses and staff instead of loading up a nurse with 2-3 patients worth of work. I want 2-3x pay and the CNA pay on top. But no, I won't work long this way. The hospital as adapted to their revolving door and use it to hire cheaper. All corps are running too lean and they don't care what we think about it until employees leave. No one wants to live a life like this. Quality of life matters.
Also, this is a female dominated field. Women, from what I've witnessed and experienced, seem to always be assigned the busy, detailed, care work in life, putting everyone before themselves. This field takes advantage of that and many other fields do the same to women. We don't even have an equal pay law and it's 2021. We're talking keeping people alive. Seems like this society rewards making people money more than making people healthy. And for those who say to this, "Yes, that's the way the world works", it doesn't work. It's not sustainable and we are bearing witness to this now.
PS: CEO/Admin pay is overinflated. Nurses should be in the 6 figures now. Professionals should be making 6 figures.
It really depends on where you're working. I've been on the same med-surg floor for years, but the acuity has gone up to the point where my nerves are constantly jangled the day before and ALL during my working days. I used to save my cries for after work but have had lunch cries regularly. We still have the same patient load, and even though Delta has FINALLY fizzled out, they're no less sick. I'm constantly having to go down to radiology with acutely ill patients and leave 4 sick patients behind that the charge will "watch" but will not get their meds on time. I was paid fairly before this, and received a pittance raise, but to deal with this acutely ill post-covid crowd and risk my license on a daily basis? NOT enough! I'm out of there in a week and praying that what is left goes smoothly.
Nurses can never be paid enough! How much do you pay someone for saving a life an tolerating all the abusive patients? Nurses are underpaid just like teacher, yet we touch the life of everyone we interact with on a day to day basis.
I think it needs to be compared to other professions because it has to do with the worth of what we do physically and mentally for doctors and patients and the risks taken during work. Nursing is a highly intellectual & physical field. We take on disease risks. We take on health risks from non stop stress, infreq to no breaks for something as human as drinking and eating and sitting. We are communicating with others most of the time. It's non stop. The thing is this can be fixed easily by hiring more nurses and staff instead of loading up a nurse with 2-3 patients worth of work. I want 2-3x pay and the CNA pay on top. But no, I won't work long this way. The hospital as adapted to their revolving door and use it to hire cheaper. All corps are running too lean and they don't care what we think about it until employees leave. No one wants to live a life like this. Quality of life matters.
Also, this is a female dominated field. Women, from what I've witnessed and experienced, seem to always be assigned the busy, detailed, care work in life, putting everyone before themselves. This field takes advantage of that and many other fields do the same to women. We don't even have an equal pay law and it's 2021. We're talking keeping people alive. Seems like this society rewards making people money more than making people healthy. And for those who say to this, "Yes, that's the way the world works", it doesn't work. It's not sustainable and we are bearing witness to this now.
PS: CEO/Admin pay is overinflated. Nurses should be in the 6 figures now. Professionals should be making 6 figures.
It doesn’t need to be a competition with other professions tho. The working class is, as a whole, underpaid and over exploited. That includes nursing. That includes other jobs that are less immediately life or death but are still essential to societal functioning and survival. We don’t and shouldn’t need to advocate for ourselves by arguments for how we are more valuable than other workers. It’s totally fair game though to question the value and cost of CEOs. But arguing with other workers about who should be paid fairly and who is valuable and who is most important just directs attention away from the fact that there’s a small class of wealthy and powerful elite whose “contribution” to society is minimizing our wages and maximizing the labor they extract from us.
It doesn’t need to be a competition with other professions tho. The working class is, as a whole, underpaid and over exploited. That includes nursing. That includes other jobs that are less immediately life or death but are still essential to societal functioning and survival. We don’t and shouldn’t need to advocate for ourselves by arguments for how we are more valuable than other workers. It’s totally fair game though to question the value and cost of CEOs. But arguing with other workers about who should be paid fairly and who is valuable and who is most important just directs attention away from the fact that there’s a small class of wealthy and powerful elite whose “contribution” to society is minimizing our wages and maximizing the labor they extract from us.
I don't mean to argue with other workers telling them my work is worth more. Im telling my employer that HEY! You have to pay me for my education, risk, and my work! I expect a Dr. to be paid higher than me. I think everyone should be paid more than what is considered FAIR in this society. But professionals need to be paid for what they invested in education and practice. All EMPLOYERS need to understand that labor is worth a hell of a lot more than they are paying us as they take most of the profit behind closed doors in back rooms. I say a worker at McDonalds should be able to sustain a life on their wage and that means make more than $25/hr. It also means that my pay should be higher too. EMPLOYERS WANT US TO FIGHT LIKE THIS SO THAT THEIR ABUSES ARE NOT IN FOCUS. EMPLOYERS NEED TO PAY US MORE. Productivity and profits have risen exponentially since the 70s and pay has stayed practically stagnant as they increase work hours and work loads on less people.
I think it depends on your specialty and the company you work for and even then it might not be adequate. In my case, absolutely not. We are critically understaffed in various areas of my nursing home, dealing with families, administration, doctors, meds and other issues and all we get for dealing with all of this is a email thank you. I make 27.00$ per hour as an RN,ADN which is higher then the 18.50$ that my fellow LPNs make, but thats only after 2% raises and the normal pay starts at 24.00$ and I've been here for nearly 6 years now. The pay has not been adjusted at all since I've been working and its stagnated. It's even worse for aides which are only paid 13.00$ an hour here which is low for our area.
I work overnight too and we have no night shift differential where I work for some reason (Most nursing homes in my area or even work environments have differential). Whats even worse, is that normally we're supposed to have a certain number of units at night but since we lost so many people, we've each had to take on an extra unit at night and they haven't compensated us at all for the extra unit! (this is supposed to be a once and a blue moon thing when someone calls out but since pandemic we've been having to constantly do 4).
And my morning/evening cohorts are even busier with all the extra problems brought on by the pandemic and reduced permanent staffing. We absolutely are not compensated properly for the work we do and the solution from the top seems to be "Work more". And my company wonders why we've had a high turnover rate, low hire rate even BEFORE the pandemic. I think nursing as a field is probably underpaid with what we've been dealing with for the last two years and some of the compensation for it has been awful even if its not monetary. The attitude seems to be work more with less resources and less comepnsation and its clearly not working yet we keep doing this.
Which of us wouldn't accept a raise if our hospitals happened to be doling them out? But - honestly - I would definitely take consistent, adequate staffing over a raise any day of the week. I make about $36 an hour with shift differential - which seems great when we're staffed... but, when staffing is incredibly short, it doesn't always make the risk seem worth it.
Most people feel underpaid especially in education retail and lower level jobs in all fields. Union or not. Hard or easy jobs. Location is a big reason so it depends And they are not saving lives or making a difference. Sadly the workers who deserve more often get less or nothing because the market and CEOs don't care. When I was employed I felt at times it was volunteer work
I feel nurses are definitely under compensated. Long hours, our skills, student debt, extra training, patient/family abuse, working holidays, limited sick days, low 401k employer match, increased cost of medical insurance, on our feet most of the day, sometimes don't get a lunch break, lack of Christmas bonuses, little PTO, physical job, high stress job, covid19. Etc. are all factors in which RNs should be getting paid a lot more. A whole lot more. I know a lot of co-workers who are barely making it to pay bills and have to pay $800/month in student loans, still living with their parents because they can't afford a mortgage or rent. A lot have to work extra shifts, away from their children and spouses just to keep up, especially with the inflation today. Some are lucky that their spouses make a lot more and don't have to pick up extra shifts. Honestly would rather take a $25/hr unskilled job without the student loan debt.
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marshahousen
7 Posts
Home Health Nurses do not get paid enough. Patient’s are being d/c home with more acute medical needs. Fifteen years ago, a Home Health Nurse focused on chronic illnesses. Since the trend of health care is moving to the patient’s home the pay should increase. On the other hand Home Health Agencies should be required to train their nurses accordingly. Home Health Nurses do not have certain nursing task frequently. If the agency is not equipped to offer refresher classes there should be more availability for refresher courses and the like for the nurses to access independently. Home Health Nurses do not have the ability to draw on the experience of other nurses in their work environment.