ALT-1 Do Nurses Deserve a Raise
There is a severe shortage of nurses in the United States at the present time. By the year 2020 the Health Rescources and Service Administration projects there will be a nursing shortage of over one million nurses. Colleges and Universities are struggling to recruit students into the nursing field. Why has this become such an issue?
When I went to nursing school in 1983, I was encouraged to go because of the income of nurses. I looked at other careers and chose nursing because it was a respected career and I could provide for my family if the situation arose. The problem is that nursing wages have not risen.
I live in the mid-west. In 1986, I moved to a very large city and began to work as a registered nurse. I worked as a director on nursing at a 170 bed nursing home. I was making a wonderful income back then at 19 dollars an hour and I supplemented my income by working for a nursing agency. In 1986 I was making 35 dollars an hour through the agency.
Fast forward to 1992. I have moved back to my hometown to be near to my mother during her battle with breast cancer. I got a job again working as a director of nursing at a home. In only 150 miles the wages dropped to only 14 dollars per hour. The level of nursing care I provided was no less, the cost of living from one area to another was no less and yet the wages were far below those I had become accustomed to earning.
It is now 2008. I work in a large 26 physician clinic. I started out as a director of nursing at the clinic but now am a regular nurse working for an otolaryngologist. I have been with the clinic for 11 years and am making 18.00 per hour. This portion of the mid-west has not even reached the income level that I had 22 years ago!
Nurses who speak a foreign language get a bit higher wage when hiring on. New graduate nurses being hired into the clinic are being hired on for more than seasoned nurses who have been working for years because of a shortage of nurses in our area. No one wants to work for less than they think they deserve as a nurse.
Nurses, regardless of what they specialize in, where they live, what languages they speak, or how many disgruntled co-workers they have to work with each day do indeed need a raise in pay. Nursing is hard work. If you work at a hospital, there are always sick people who need care 24 hours a day 7 days a week including holiday's. There is medication pass, bathing, feeding, surgery prep, isolation procedures, ambulation of patients, much more to do in one shift than non nurses can imagine. Psychiatric nurses don't normally have the extreme physical work but the mental troubleshooting is also exhausting. Clinic nurses get great hours but many times they are still there after hours because of their patient load. Their consolation is lower pay for better hours! Ha!
I do enjoy being a nurse, it is what I do, it is who I am. I definitely would love to get paid more - it would make my life outside of nursing much easier! I know what nurses have to do on a daily basis and a good nurse is worth a thousand times more than they are paid! Yes, nurses deserve - have earned - a very long overdue raise!
