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Most people are not aware of the situation that all hospitals, and most clinics, are facing with regard to nurse shortages. There is not a single institution in the US that is not short of nurses, and it is reaching a critical point in which clinical services have been reduced or some entire departments shut down due to lack of nurses.
The public is generally unaware of this, but it is reaching the point of a national healthcare crisis. Due to increase demands for additional nursing staff with the onset of the Covid pandemic, nurses were offered MUCH LARGER SALARIES to staff Covid units. As a result, MANY nurses became "traveling nurses", going to temporarily staff such units at pay 2-4 times their normal salaries.
Those nurses had to come from somewhere and they came from all other services within the hospitals, reducing the number of nurses available for those units and clinics. How did the hospitals fill those vacancies? THEY HIRED TRAVELING NURSES TO STAFF THOSE AS WELL. Seeing the HUGE increase in pay, MANY nurses quit their regular jobs to become traveling nurses, doing essentially the same job they were doing before, but getting paid 2-4 times as much to do it.
The HUGE increase in salaries from traveling nurses has put pressure on the bottom line of many hospitals, forcing them to cut staff and services in other areas. This, of course, has been great for the traveling nurses, who are making more money than they ever have, but is bad for healthcare, as every facility in the US is short of nurses. Hospitals have been forced to offer incentives to their non-traveling nurses to retain them and encourage them not to become "travelers".
The hospital lobby has made the unprescedented move to request that legislation be introduced to cap nurses salaries. As a physician, I think that nurses are grossly under paid and think they SHOULD be paid more. Further, I am not familiar with Congress capping the salaries of any other professional, so why the nurses? Why not cap the salaries of lawyers, who are generally parasites who do nothing for the benefit of the nation and simply increase the cost of doing business? Unfortunately, most of our elected officials ARE LAWYERS, so fat chance of that.
Perhaps it is just time for nurses everywhere to get paid more. Of course, this would have to be accompanied by higher healthcare costs or reductions elsewhere. However, you cannot run healthcare facilities unless you have enough nurses- that is a fact that we must face.
Most people are not aware of the situation that all hospitals, and most clinics, are facing with regard to nurse shortages. There is not a single institution in the US that is not short of nurses, and it is reaching a critical point in which clinical services have been reduced or some entire departments shut down due to lack of nurses.
The public is generally unaware of this, but it is reaching the point of a national healthcare crisis. Due to increase demands for additional nursing staff with the onset of the Covid pandemic, nurses were offered MUCH LARGER SALARIES to staff Covid units. As a result, MANY nurses became "traveling nurses", going to temporarily staff such units at pay 2-4 times their normal salaries.
Those nurses had to come from somewhere and they came from all other services within the hospitals, reducing the number of nurses available for those units and clinics. How did the hospitals fill those vacancies? THEY HIRED TRAVELING NURSES TO STAFF THOSE AS WELL. Seeing the HUGE increase in pay, MANY nurses quit their regular jobs to become traveling nurses, doing essentially the same job they were doing before, but getting paid 2-4 times as much to do it.
The HUGE increase in salaries from traveling nurses has put pressure on the bottom line of many hospitals, forcing them to cut staff and services in other areas. This, of course, has been great for the traveling nurses, who are making more money than they ever have, but is bad for healthcare, as every facility in the US is short of nurses. Hospitals have been forced to offer incentives to their non-traveling nurses to retain them and encourage them not to become "travelers".
The hospital lobby has made the unprescedented move to request that legislation be introduced to cap nurses salaries. As a physician, I think that nurses are grossly under paid and think they SHOULD be paid more. Further, I am not familiar with Congress capping the salaries of any other professional, so why the nurses? Why not cap the salaries of lawyers, who are generally parasites who do nothing for the benefit of the nation and simply increase the cost of doing business? Unfortunately, most of our elected officials ARE LAWYERS, so fat chance of that.
Perhaps it is just time for nurses everywhere to get paid more. Of course, this would have to be accompanied by higher healthcare costs or reductions elsewhere. However, you cannot run healthcare facilities unless you have enough nurses- that is a fact that we must face.
Yep. My sister is a traveling nurse. She left NC, went to TX for a while and then ended up near San Jose, CA. She is making a ton of money. I don't understand why they don't just hire full time nurses. Seems really stupid to me.
Yep. My sister is a traveling nurse. She left NC, went to TX for a while and then ended up near San Jose, CA. She is making a ton of money. I don't understand why they don't just hire full time nurses. Seems really stupid to me.
Well.............................. they are trying to hire full time nurses, but can't pay EVERYONE four times their previous salary. Such a pay increase would bankrupt all the hospitals. That is the problem that everyone is facing. Traveling nurses are making more than family practice and pediatric physicians at this point, which is great for the nurses, but not so great for budgets.
Consumers complain enough about the cost of healthcare. The reimbursement to the hospitals is through Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance, the payments of which are fixed and rarely go up. So an increase in costs for the largest cost for hospitals- nurse's salaries- would break them if they paid everyone traveling nurses salaries.
Something has to give, or we will face a national healthcare crisis. Obviously, nurse salaries need to increase. However, WHERE DOES THAT MONEY COME FROM?
Perhaps a tax on attorneys, who drive up the cost of healthcare and do nothing for the nation? If they paid a tax to support nurse's salaries, they would finally contribute SOMETHING to society.
Hilarious. The salaries that need to be capped and be in line with the salary of the average working American are the politicians. No reason whatsoever they should be making $175 grand a year, plus all their lavish benefits.
And you want to get to the root of the high cost of medical care. Look at big pharma who are the ones that charge high prices for the meds, equipment and sterilized tools. Not to mention the overpaid hospital administrators that can be in the 6 digits.
And there is no reason for nurse shortages. It's one of the biggest growing fields out there.
If nurses make $250/hr then how much the doctors make?
(Mind you that to be a nurse one need HS diploma and 2 years nursing school. Not bad...)
We all pay for that.
If nurses make $250/hr then how much the doctors make?
(Mind you that to be a nurse one need HS diploma and 2 years nursing school. Not bad...)
We all pay for that.
What nurse makes $250/hr? That would be well over $500,000 a year. The nurses I know make between $70- $80 a year, with my cousin who is a specialist making $150,000.
Go back to being a free market economy. If the customer cannot afford wage increases, they don't happen. That's how that system works, and yes... It does work, and it lifts all boats, not just the lucky few career lottery winners of the time. But we don't have a free market economy today. Far from it.
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