Do Nurses Deserve a Raise
In a world where medicine is big business and the baby boomer generation is getting older the nursing industry is at an all time critical shortage.For approximately every one new grad that comes out of nursing school one to two experienced nurses are retiring.What this means for the nurses that are currently working on the floor of every hospital and every nursing home in the U.S. is this LONGER HOURS.
Not only does it mean longer hours it means more time that is spent with the families of the patient that they are in charge of or more time with the doctor either on the phone or doing rounds.The appreciation shown to these hard working individuals that spend eight to sixteen hours on average working is not seen in their paychecks.
First of all I must differentiate the LPN/LVN are looked at as (in some settings) as a glorified nurses assistant that is able to pass meds and check vital signs .They are as qualified as an R.N. with the exception of some of the duties that they can perform.First of all,most states are now giving LPN/LVN's I.V. certification during their schooling .This also gives them the ability to do more for the patients that they are caring for. The R.N. is the supervisor and in the hospital setting the "charge nurse that does Administer most of the medications but in the long term care setting the LPN/LVN takes on this role.
Now,all of this being said both the R.N. and the LPN/LVN are "Over worked and under paid".Why you might ask? It's caring profession? The amount of stress that any nurse is put under on a daily basis on the job can be insurmountable.These nurses deal with life and death every day and itt does not matter if it's a trauma unit or long term care.
Not only that nurses pay big money to be able to have the knowledge to care for your Mother ,father ,sister or brother .That knowledge is what allows them to be able to care for your loved one with such expertise.For this they may get a starting wage barley above that of an assembly line worker that has been trained on the line for their job.The nurses of today are the eyes and the ears of the doctors .Doctors that are overloaded with patients as the older generation of doctors retires and the newer generation is bombarded with the aging .
Do nurses deserve a raise? Yes! They work hard long and tedious hours in ICU units hospital and long term care facilities and are rarely recognized by their peers and supervisors for doing an outsanding job every day .They are part of the back bone of the health care system that helps to keep the nation healthy and strong and may get a few kind words from a family about the quality of care that they have given.The Nurses of today have to have almost as much knowledge as the doctor to be able to do the job expected of them on a daily basis!Do nurses deserve a raise? YES!
