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I'm surprised... my recently retired Hospital CEO for the last 25 years is an RN by training and not even a BSRN...
The Director of OR has a two year degree and I would put her up against anyone... hard to beat 30 years of experience in all aspects of Nursing.
Several of our nurses came up through the military as corpsman...
All I can think of is you must be in an area with an abundance of Registered Nurses.
You might be wanting to do some research into the 2 yr/3yr/4 yr degree discussion. There are several studies out that recommend 4 yr degrees. Less mistakes, higher level of training, etc, etc. I can see some of it but, I know one thing, my daughter is a darn good nurse at whatever her education level.
Does My Degree Level Really Affect Patient Safety?
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Earning an ADN or diploma in nursing and passing the board exam to practice nursing is a great beginning for what will be a longer journey. Many voices are calling for a more educated nursing workforce to better meet complex patients needs. Motivating factors for these voices are likely related to the results of three studies that took place recently in the United States and Canada that consistently linked an increased proportion of RNs with baccalaureate degrees in acute care hospitals with significantly decreased patient mortality rates (Aiken, Clarke, Cheung, Sloane & Sliber, 2003; Estabrooks, Midodzi, Cummings, Ricker & Giovanetti, 2005; Tourangeau, et al., 2006). Combined, these studies examined almost 300 hospitals, about 300,000 patients and almost 23,000 nurses. The data is compelling and cannot be ignored. No one to date is able to explain why having at least a baccalaureate degree in nursing was associated with a lower mortality rate, but there are some possible explanations based on other studies of RNs returning to school. What's All the Fuss?
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....SOON2BNSURPRISE....snipped...Our hospital only hires BSN's now and those RN's that are on staff are all heading that way, going back to school....snipped...
I assume you told your physician about this conversation when you came to the office for your wound to be seen. The MA should not be giving out advice on her own!!
No, I didn't. I was advised by the other MA in his office not to, that it wouldn't make any difference. There were reasons why I didn't think it would make any difference either but I won't go into that...it has made me think about changing DR's but, he is very thorough.
My wife is an RN and i can tell you, A LOT of the hospitals expenses has NOT been due to salaries of RN's. It was actually due to a LOT of sue happy people especially here in the CA, and let me tell you something, when the hospital administration started getting funny with Filipinos, they all abandoned ship and within two years, that hospital went under all due to the overflowing amounts Liabilities.. Gotta love it!!
I have tried to self pay before(with cash upfront) and most doctors still didn't want to see me.
They said they don't accept patients without insurance.
Anyone know why lots of physicians won't treat anyone with out insurance?
this happened to my husband. We had had insurance at different times, depending on our financial situation and my doctor continued to see me when I didn't have insurance. But, my DH, using the same clinic, was dropped because he didn't have insurance. Why ? we don't know. I was seeing a GP, he needed a Rheumatologist (sp). He has gout. I ended up with major surgery, my doctor told me to find my own surgeon, etc, etc. We paid cash or credit cards and we will pay until we die or file bankruptcy. Yet, we have never failed to pay our taxes, etc, etc. Go to work every living day that rolls around. I am almost 70, he is 63. We haven't had a vacation or long weekend off in over 3 years.
...snipped....
Did your sister report the insurance fraud? Was she actually responsible for billing? "Checking lymph nodes" is part of a physical examination, not a "test." It is not something that would be billed for separately. Perhaps your sister just does not understand medical billing. If the patient did not notice billing for something wonky, I guarantee the insurance company would.
My doctor checks my lymph nodes when I go every 3 months for bloodwork. I have never seen it "billed" separately as it was part of the office call.
There are a lot of things that drive up Hospital Care...
One that is at the top of the list is non-existent or reimbursement below the cost of providing care.
There are some procedures we simply no longer offer... can't make it on volume either.
The cost of supplies and certain drugs have skyrocketed... if they can even be found... once in the while news of shortages makes it onto the evening news.
I've have spent many hours searching for drugs and are just not available under contract and miraculously can be had outside of contract for several times the price... the problem is reimbursements are tied to contract prices...
Several times a month I make an 80 mile round trip to pick-up a drug from a compounding pharmacy for use within 24 hours... otherwise, they are just not available.
Some drugs need to be kept on hand and are only sold in small lots... it gets very expensive keeping them on hand only to throw them away when they out-date.
Medical equipment often becomes obsolete in a few years and even if it isn't the manufacturers go out of business or drop support... and it always seems to be on expensive items.
Cost of compliance continues to grow... full time HIPPA coordinator that didn't exist before, ever increasing documentation... not saying extra oversight is necessarily bad... just that it comes with added costs.
Same goes for overlapping agencies and permits... We have perfect, like new emergency diesel generators that should last decades... in our area, we now have to pay annually for operating permits and have been informed these units may face mandatory retirement due to air-district requirements that were not even in effect at the time of install.
As to staffing... one thing the administrator loved was for a brief period, California changed how overtime was calculated... it had a significant positive effect on the bottom line and it didn't last.
Staffing is expensive... just saying it is only a part of the equation.
My wife is an RN and i can tell you, A LOT of the hospitals expenses has NOT been due to salaries of RN's. It was actually due to a LOT of sue happy people especially here in the CA, and let me tell you something, when the hospital administration started getting funny with Filipinos, they all abandoned ship and within two years, that hospital went under all due to the overflowing amounts Liabilities.. Gotta love it!!
Are you saying the hospital went under because there weren't any Filipino nurses working?
I don't know,as an American nurse,I feel like everyone is always pushing "the Filipinos are better nurses" crap.
It is a sad state of affairs when we blame the front line health care givers for the failures or inadequacies of an entire system. Or when we encourage a lower level of education for people whose judgment and actions have such critical ramifications. What's next, a 2 yr University of Phoenix online degree for brain surgery?
I think people who seek higher education and help people in need deserve respect. And I find no problem with administrators raising the bar regarding qualification. I suspect the added expense of well qualified personnel minimizes liability many times over.
Let's find a way to address the inadequacies of our health care system without throwing good, motivated people under the bus!
Twenty years ago... we did not have a single nurse of Filipino ancestry...
Today, it is about 20% and all of our nurses, Filipino and non-Filipino are very good... we track comments and PACU has pages of positive comments from patients.
One thing I have noticed is from a young age, Filipino families really encourage nursing... much more so than any group that I know.
One of my caucasian neighbors was very disappointed when her granddaughter entered nursing school... she said the girl is so bright... I don't know why she is selling herself short being a hospital maid.
I had a long talk with her and explained nursing today is a far cry from what it was... also told her the administrator/CEO of the Hospital where I work is an RN plus all the related fields nursing opens the doors to.
Today, my neighbor couldn't be happier... her granddaughter is a supervisor with lots of seniority and makes good money with good benefits... and she was at the hospital when her Grandmother was having issues was of great comfort.
Just a quick comment or two. I've read several comments by nurses and family members of nurses who vigorously protest that salaries of $80,000, $90,000, and $100,000 are not contributors to high health costs. Of course, these figures don't take into account the cost of the benefits that the nurses are earning along with their salary either which presumably include health insurance and a pension plan of sorts whether it be 401K or a defined benefit plan.
Yes, you are contributing to high health care costs whether you realize it or not. I suppose a doctor earning $400,000 a year could tell me the same thing. All these salaries are considerably above average. Healthcare workers do have specialized training and that's because we Americans want good, safe treatment for our medical problems. Don't kid yourself though. These are all heavy "cost drivers"
All other fields of business are experiencing efforts to reduce costs by hiring lower salaried people with lesser skills. Its unreasonable to expect the medical field to be immune to this. America is literally bursting at the seams from high healthcare costs that go up by 6% or more a year.
I appreciate nurses too. But, stop this "snow job" in which you try to delude others and maybe yourselves that your salaries are not part of the problem.
[Emphasis mine.]
How do these salaries, which you feel are considerably above average, compare to other professionals? For example, how does a nurse's salary compare to a teacher's?
The average RN's salary in NY is between 40,251 - $82,113; the average teacher's salary in NY is $72,708.
The average RN's salary in IL is between $35,709 - $75,598. The average teacher's salary in IL is $64,509.
Please keep in mind when making these comparisons, many teachers are off for the entire summer and in places like NY, some choose to get summer jobs to supplement their incomes. (One popular choice among NY teachers is to work as a summer lifeguard, on the beach. In fact, the NYS teacher's union now represents lifeguards too.) [Source] Teachers are also off on all holidays, both major and minor, for prep days, etc., while hospitals run 24/7 around-the-clock. Consider too a teacher's time off for fall break, Thanksgiving week, the entire period from before Christmas until after New Year, and spring break, while nurses average a total of 4 weeks vacation/year. (Two weeks in some other states, i.e. TX and AZ.) By including all the additional time off teacher's receive, you can make a closer apples-to-apples comparison. Please note too, these salary comparisons do not include any benefits you reference in your first paragraph.
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