>>If hospitals were overly concerned about the squeeze put on by managed care, they wouldn't be offering big signing bonuses, now would they?<<
Sorry, you've got it backwards. In the past, nurses were NOT given signing bonuses. They were not paid enough to make it worthwhile to go to nursing school and/or remain in the profession. The wages paid were low, but not only that - the hospitals started running with short staff, and made up the difference with temps, who don't really know the ropes, and can't work as effectively as a permanent staff member due to inexperience.
Now there is a shortage. Now that there is a shortage, the nurses are able to get signing bonuses.
The signing bonuses being offered NOW are in part due to inflation. But the shortage began years ago.
My sister, brother, and brother-in-law are nurses. I am a lawyer who handles medical malpractice cases. If you got us all together and we started telling you anecdotes about what happens when hospitals are short staffed with nurses, you'd be afraid to go to a hospital without bringing your own nurse.
Temp. nurses get stuck in the shifts that people don't really want, graveyard, holidays. Hospitals have seniority - the longer you work there, the more chance you have of having a day shift with weekends off, just like everyone else. There is a lot of turnover for people who have to work graveyard - low pay is a disencentive to hang in there. A lot of nurses quit to have families and never come back.
Women who used to become nurses are going to med school - or they are doing something else. Nurses are looked down on - "bedpan jockies," my dad calls them.-ng- |
