Wage Deflation In Nursing

These wage issues have been going on for quite some time. It goes with the hiring of part-timers without benefits. We have been devalued by our own administrators, who are, in turn, afraid for their own positions.We do not respect our own kind in so many ways. And please, please, don't tell me that if I spend 40-60-80 thousand bucks on an education that I will be expected to work weekends and holidays, forever!But you can pay someone 20 bucks an hour and hope she knows what she's doing without any long-term staff around, or you can pay me 30 an hour and I can tell you to get the crashcart just by knowing what that cough is moments before the person drowns in their own CHF fluids. Your choice.Nurses have just become another place to cut costs.

Personally, I have not gotten a raise in more than two years and, when I approached HR about the topic, was told that I would not be receiving any pay increases in the near future.

Sorry y'all if this sounds like a bitter pill! There is a solution to wage deflation. It's a novel concept called "unionizion"!!!!!! Ever heard of California Nurses Association?

Is this the first time wages have gone down and not came back up?? I thought nursing waxes and wanes, So when there is more jobs than nurses, pay will then go back up.

They told us that nursing jobs could not be outsourced, and that nothing could stand in the way of the steady increase in those jobs, and that for reasons of limited faculty availability and the shortage of potential students who could make the grade and get in, a nursing career would be a one-way ticket to middle-class Easy Street. Hmm....Quote from TheCommuterThird, some middle-aged nurses with decades of experience have reported that their workplaces had terminated their employment to replace them with cheaper labor. In this economic climate, hospitals and other healthcare facilities are now able to hire nurses with less than five years of experience to replace employees with many years of experience who have topped out on the pay grid. A hospital can save money by laying off 25 experienced nurses who had been earning more than $40 hourly and fill the job openings with 25 less-experienced nurses who will work for less than $30 hourly.

Quote from Belle MorteIs this the first time wages have gone down and not came back up?? I thought nursing waxes and wanes, So when there is more jobs than nurses, pay will then go back up.

Age discrimination is easy to hide. You simply say they broke some lame policy and bye bye career. I have seen this time and time again at my work. Fire or push out everyone with experience and hire someone 10-20 years behind them in age/experience. It's downright scary. Who are the new grads to learn from?

Quote from Tragically HipIsn't that a very obvious case of age discrimination? Wouldn't something that blatant be easily litigated?

tragically hipthey told us that nursing jobs could not be outsourced, and that nothing could stand in the way of the steady increase in those jobs, and that for reasons of limited faculty availability and the shortage of potential students who could make the grade and get in, a nursing career would be a one-way ticket to middle-class easy street. hmm....

Quote from esme12tragically hip"they" have outsourced for years......http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/bills-1...12hr1929ih.pdf, imported care: recruiting foreign nurses to u.s. health care facilities the middle class is syringing.

There may not be formal data to bolster claims of wage deflation, but it's happening where I work. In small ways.1) Reduce the number of recognized holidays so premium wage is not paid.2) Eliminate the 1.5 call back pay that has been the rule since I was hired < 10 years ago.3) No w/e differential anymore.4) Automatically subtract an hour each shift for lunches and breaks. Then demand staff jump through hoops/sign forms, if a lunch was not taken. Also there is the veiled threat of retaliation if you demand being paid for a lunch you work through.5) Cutting hrs of the more experienced/higher paid nurses, while new nurses work overtime.6) All continuing education must be completed during your scheduled shift. No coming in on your day off, or staying over to get it done.

Wage deflation and benefits erosion should not be unexpected. For at least the last five years, nursing schools have been turning out record numbers of graduates. That alone would tend to cause at least wage stagnation, if not outright deflation, but at the same time, many experienced nurses were forced to postpone their retirements as their 401k's dropped in value along with those of their spouses. In some cases, the spouse lost his or her job and if they were lucky enough to find a new job, it almost certainly paid less and offered fewer benefits than the previous one. Many large health care and hospital corporations either saw their patient insurance reimbursements drop, putting severe strain on profits. Most made decisions to preserve those profit levels by reducing costs, often in the form of reducing nursing staff (thus increasing patient-nurse ratios). So we really have a perfect storm in place in terms of nursing wages ( nursing is far from alone in this - most other occupations and professions are experiencing something similar).I've posted this before but in my region - the fifth largest metro area in the country - the BLS data show that nursing employment declined from 43,740 in 2005 to 42,820 in 2009. At the same time, the PA Board of Nursing website showed that there were 1,822 new grad RN's in the region in 2005 rising to 2,142 in 2009. Keep in mind that these are first time NCLEX test pass numbers and the actual number of new RN's is likely to be somewhat higher than the figues used above. It's also relevant to note that the population in the region grew slightly over that period. With a clear oversupply of nurses, significant downward pressure on nursing wages and benefits has to be the inevitable result. I have not looked at other parts of the country but the anecdotal evidence I've seen leads me to believe that something similar is occuring in most larger SMSA's.It is also worth noting that nursing school enrollment, and presumably the number of new RN's, continues to grow. Since there is little changed about the economy, we should not expect to see nurses retiring in great numbers. And there is continued pressure to increase corporate profits. Nursing wage deflation and the erosion of benefits should continue and perhaps even accelerate for the foreseeable future.