Busy weekend - nursing shortage

Mon Jul 14 20:00:20 BST 2008

Nursing wages have risen spectacularly more than inflation over the last 20
years.  When I graduated from college in 1982, the most I could get in Ohio
as a new graduate nurse was $7.25 an hour.  The pay progression is still
pretty flat -- people get raises usually at 3 years, 5 years, 10 years and
maybe 15 -- but the starting pay is amazing compared to what it was back
then. Starting pay at my current hospital is about 3 times what I began
with.  I know ICU staff RNs who work 12-hour shifts and routinely make over
$100,000 a year without outrageous amounts of overtime, and agency nurses
can easily make $40 an hour, with time and a half for the last 4 hours of a
12-hour shift.  That's work 12, get paid for 14 -- $560 a shift.

When I started as an advanced practice nurse, I got about $20 an hour, back
in the mid 80s, and that was in northern California with a HUGE standard of
living handicap.  Now, in the midwest about an hour outside Chicago, I'm
making $47 an hour.

THAT is why nurses come here from overseas.

And the reason why we can't get more nurses domestically has to do with two
things:  one, pay in academia SUCKS (I'd take a 50% pay cut to teach full
time) and two, nursing is still a thankless job with infinite accountability
and little authority.  Until the nature of hospital nursing changes -- since
nearly everyone fresh out of college begins work in a hospital -- we're not
going to get the best and the brightest.  And that would be true even if we
HAD enough educators to get them all through college.  (Why don't we have
enough?  See reason one above.  Do physicians in education get paid half of
what their counterparts in practice make?)

Jane

On 7/14/08 9:16 AM, "William Bromberg" <brombwi1 at memorialhealth.com> wrote:

> Tim,

Same here in Savannah, GA. Hospital is licensed for ~500 beds,
> staffed
for only ~400. We routinely close beds for staffing issues.

BTW ‹ as
> far as I'm concerned this is a result of price controls on
medical care. If
> you can't raise the price of a widget to cover the
variable cost of making one
> more, you just won't make any more.
Basically in any sane industry if demand
> outstripped supply, prices
would rise to allow wages to increase to attract
> more workers, thereby
increasing supply. In medicine we can't increase nursing
> wages much so
we raid emerging countries for nurses instead, worsening their
> staffing
shortages (NYC hospitals would cease to function overnight if not
> for
Phillipino (sp?) nurses ‹ best imperialism ever).

Bill

>>> Richard van
> der Kleyn <vdkleyn at hotmail.com> 7/14/2008 6:40 AM >>>

Dear Tim,

A recent
> survey here in Catalonia (north east spain) showed that we
were short of
> 15,000 nurses, Spain as a whole needs 3000 more ER docs.
in our hospital in
> the summer months we always have 1 ward closed (about
40 beds) due to a lack
> of nurses...even though in the summer our
catchment area populacion triples.
> Its much the same all other europe, a
lot of spanish nurses/doctors go to the
> UK ( better pay), most of our
new doctors come from south america (better
> pay), a lot of african
doctors now go to south america (better
> pay)......finally the well paid
western doctors go to africa as charitable
> organisations because of the
lack of doctors...it looks like money is the way
> to atract personal.

Richard van der Kleyn

> > -----Original Message----->
> From: Timothy Craig Hardcastle > Sent:
14 July 2008 07:40> To:
> 'trauma-list at trauma.org'> Subject: Busy weekend
- nursing shortage> > Hi all>
> > We had a rather hectic weekend - but
were even more curtailed by a> shortage
> of nurses; had to close ICU beds
and refuse some patients from> the EMS. Is
> this just a South African
problem or is this really an issue> in the USA,
> Europe and UK as well?
Do you have any ideas about how to> attract dedicated
> trauma nurses to
one's unit?> > Tim> Dr Timothy C Hardcastle> M.B., Ch.B.
> (Stell); M. Med
(Chir) (Stell); FCS (SA)> Principal Surgeon-Lecturer /
> Sub-specialist:
Trauma and Critical Care> Deputy director: Trauma Unit and
> Trauma ICU>
Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital / UKZN> 800 Bellair
> Road>
Mayville, Durban> > Postal: PostNet Suite 27> Private Bag X05>
> Malvern,
4055> KwaZulu Natal> > timothyhar at ialch.co.za > > > --> trauma-list
> :
TRAUMA.ORG> To change your settings or unsubscribe visit:> http://www.tr

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Jane Harper, PhD(c), RN, APN
Trauma Nurse Practitioner, Rockford, IL