I have been a RN for over 3 years. I am not 'seasoned' by any means and I continue to learn new things everyday. However this is my problem. I got into a major debate with a Resp therapist recently that still burns me up. The resp said 'I am sick and tired of being here for 5 years and I still don't get paid as much as RNs do' I replied 'the reason nurses are paid more is because we are responsible for more care than respiratory is' She sneered and asked 'are you saying you do more than I do on any given shift?' I said 'No I am just saying that when a pt is sick, I clean it up. When a pt is bleeding, I make it stop. i have climbed up and fixed TVs because maintenance said 'That's not my job'. I have given a pt a tissue when a resp was in the room because the resp said 'That's not my job'. I had to get on my hands and knees and mop up vomit because housekeeping refused to loan my am mop or clean the mess themselves and they told me 'That's not my job'. I have fixed beds, remotes, telemetry leads, cleaned floors, changed linens, fixed computers, fixed vital machines, charged lift equipment, charted and cared for my pts all in one night. I have never said 'That's not my job'. So why am I upset? I get paid because I do my job so why can't everyone do theirs?
That's why Nurses need a strong, national union. When I worked at CNA Hospitals in California, Nurses didn't have as many problems as we do in non-union hospitals.
That's why Nurses need a strong, national union. When I worked at CNA Hospitals in California, Nurses didn't have as many problems as we do in non-union hospitals.
I must be the only exception to that rule. I spent 10 years going between six different CNA hospitals in the Bay Area and giving them my 89.00 per month to watch all the complaints continue. Now that I am about 50 miles away from that at a non-union hospital, I am MUCH happier at how nursing is treated by management. Wow. What a difference for this ONE RN.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
That's why Nurses need a strong, national union. When I worked at CNA Hospitals in California, Nurses didn't have as many problems as we do in non-union hospitals.
That is the one thing we most need and the one that I've come to believe will never happen. You'd think if any state had a chance to come together it would be us since some of our hospitals have had unions for decades, and people managed to come together to get ratio laws passed. After that happened a new "national" union was born, excluding the LVNs who worked for and are covered by the same law. The field of nursing is dominated by entrenched factions working to destroy or make illegal their fellow nurse's (ADN/BSN/LPN/diploma) jobs. I don't blame unions. For whatever reason, it seems to be intrinsic to the field.
Back to the topic though. I don't think union hospitals have less whining about what they see as unfair compensation than non-union hospitals. That's a personality trait.
I don't think RNs are better than another profession by any means, but I did feel a twinge of annoyance when, at my boyfriend's family's thanksgiving, one of his family members was asked if she was a nurse (after talking about working at a hospital) and replied, "No I'm a respiratory therapist. Very similar to a nurse."
The RTs I work with are great at what they do, but that's where it usually stops. I've had RT's refuse (or make sure I know I'm "inconveniencing" them) to help me reposition a patient in bed when they're slouched- not like that would help open up their airway or anything :icon_roll
RTs do assess, give meds, etc, but they assess the RESPIRATORY system. We are responsible for ALL the systems of the body, caring for the whole person and family, providing basic needs (would love to see an RT put a patient on a bedpan) being a waitress, being an emotional outlet, being the repair man, etc.
I will say, this is only my experience in my short 4 months of being an RN at the one hospital I have worked at. Maybe at the hospital my boyfriend's family member works at, the RTs ARE similar to nurses. Maybe she just didn't feel like talking about work and wanted to end the conversation quickly. I don't know.
Historically, NURSES DID IT ALL> But with increased education of nurses, it was deemed that work not needing advanced education could be done by non nurses. HOWEVER, when the Sh*t hits the whatever, it is the nurse who is there and must take necessary actions.
Discussions of pay should be made by the individual to their respective managers. If RT wants more money, they can go back to school. CNA work just as hard as everyone else but are paid according to their education and skills. RNs can, and often do, everything a respiratory tech or CNA does.
Staff needs to quit quarreling and take a look at the big picture of how our medical system is going.... I am really noticing that Managers seem to only manage complaints instead of assisting staff to improve staff to avoid those complaints, supporting staff instead of being paid off by the CEO who is making a ton of money by saving the money of salaries by working with short staffing levels.
I am severely disappointed in the skills and quality of work that I have been witnessing the past few years. More like the Dollar Store versus a nice department store. In my opinion from working in several states over the years it is nation wide. There are way more important things to be discussed than whether or not RT makes less money than RNs.
Specializes in Delivering Quality Patient Care :).
I was a respiratory therapist before I became a nurse. I must be lucky because I never had a debate with a nurse, only a CNA who came at me the wrong way. Once while I was in an alert patient's room, the CNA got all in my personal space (while still wearing soiled gloves & carrying soiled linen from another patient's room) and said to me: "I heard y'all make more than we do." I was caught off-guard, so I in turn asked her what she made an hour. When she told me how much she was paid, I said: "Oh yeah, I make way more than that." She was so ****** as she stormed away. I'm not sure if she was having a bad day or what, but she avoided me from that day forward.
During my shift as a therapist, I never once hesitated to assist anyone with a task, even if it wasn't in my job description. I must admit that if my supervisor would walk by and see me filling a patient's cup with water or getting extra blankets, she would remind me in a "nice nasty" way that what I was doing was the nurse's job. I had several co-workers who would complain about how nurses were too lazy to even suction a patient. I would have patients assigned to me on different floors of the hospital, but I would still come and perform the suctioning without thinking twice because it was my job.
When I became a nurse, I was able to see things from a different perspective. I haven't had to deal with the debate of how much I make or what my job description is. I guess it's because RT comes in so fast and slaps on those Neb treatments, and before you have time to say anything to them, they're off to the next patient.
Hey, just tell RT if they want more money they are free to go back to school and become an RN. Then they would reallly find out how hard we work for our money and we are seriously underpaid for all the crap we have to put up with!
They don't have to worry about back injuries either! They can just walk away and say that's not my job!
I usually just say something like, " Yeah that sucks. None of us get paid what we should for what we do." Then I tend to walk away and be done with it.
I have had a new CNA walk up to me as I was "sitting" as the desk, phone to my ear, being screamed at by a family member, for the third time in 2 hours, over a lab test we were waiting on the doctor to address, say to me, " Wow us CNAs are doing all the work while you nurses just sit at the desk and gab on the phone." I could have went the negative route, my comment instead, " Yeah you should go to nursing school. It was really fun!" with a smile of course.
I remember talking to a very, very old nurse (who'd retired many years b4 hand) & she had been born around 1890s approx. She said she'd lied about her age & been accepted into nursing when she was about 14 (said she was 17 I think).
She told me many of the duties nurses did in those days which included:
- All medications; mixing, dispensing, measuring, etc.
- All dressings.
- All other treatments, ie: splinting fractures.
- Mixing the plaster of paris (or whatever they used then to set fractures).
- Cooking & serving all meals, and working out diabetic meals/portions.
- Putting sawdust on the floor of theatres to soak up the blood (yes, this was one of the things I couldn't believe nurses had to do!)
- Sterilising all instruments BY HAND, cleaning theatres and wards, all the floors, beds, windows, scrubbing floors. Scrubbing and cleaning all the windows, all the beds, until they shone, and everything was inspected by matron afterwards.
- Attending lectures during the day even if u were on nightshift.
- Washing patients clothes (by hand) and having to wash your own uniforms.
- Lining up for inspections by matron.
- Doing rounds when the doctor wanted to do them (not much change there).
- Fixing anything & everything: broken beds, replacing lights, etc.
- Cleaning and keeping tidy your own room, plus the nurses' sitting room, cleaning bathrooms & toilets used.
- Scrubbing bedpans by hand as there was no sluice room as such (yuk!), & running round with bowls of water for patients to use for washing or for bed baths.
- Writing all notes by hand in ink.
She told me heaps of other stories, like how they used to sneak out the windows at night & climb over the roof 2 go dancing after curfew! but I cannot remember them. Thank God I wasn't nursing in the bad old days *rolls eyes*
I LOVE RT! I've had some big emergencies lately, and am thankful for how quickly RT arrived. I wouldn't have wanted to wait a "little bit" longer while the RT was busy helping to clean up a different patient on another floor. I think they should be paid a zillion, trillion dollars an hour (and so should I). In case it's still not clear- I LOVE RT! Thank you RT! :redbeathe
trinitymaster
360 Posts
That's why Nurses need a strong, national union. When I worked at CNA Hospitals in California, Nurses didn't have as many problems as we do in non-union hospitals.