From a Nurse.

[underpants]

Saw this on Facebook from someone I went through high school with who’s now - long time - a nurse.




Shared from a friend…

If you have never zipped multiple body bags in one shift, you shouldn’t be deciding how much nurses make.

If you have never watched a person suffocate to death from their own blood, you shouldn’t be deciding how much nurses make.

If you have never been punched in the face for trying to assess your patient, you shouldn’t be deciding how much nurses make.

If you have never had someone beg you to not let them die, you shouldn’t be deciding how much nurses make.

If you've never had to look into parents eyes when the doctor calls the time of death of their child, you shouldn't be deciding how much nurses make.

If you have never told your family your shift was “fine” to spare them from what you saw that day, you shouldn’t be deciding how much nurses make.

If you’ve never felt ribs breaking from doing CPR on someone’s frail grandmother, you shouldn’t be deciding how much nurses make.

For years nurses have been underpaid and undervalued and no one seemed to care. Now that healthcare is on the brink of a collapse, everyone is concerned that somewhere, nurses are making $100/hr. I can assure you not every travel nurse makes that much. In fact, most of us make way less than that. Instead of focusing on the small minority of nurses making that money, let’s shift gears and focus on WHY nurses are leaving to travel. Perhaps it’s from the years of getting 1% raises and barely being able to pay bills. Maybe it’s because nurses are asked to do more and more with less. Maybe it’s from the terrible staffing ratios. The reasons are honestly endless. Let’s start caring about nurse retention, fair wages, safe staffing, etc. Studies have shown by 2030 approximately 1 million nurses will leave the field. Why aren’t we worried about this?

Copied from another nursing group
#MillionNurseMarch #nursesunite #nurse

[niyad]

1. Exactly. And, by the way, I think even 100/hr is not enough.

[Traildogbob]

5. Nurses should be

Making 2 times as much as Gaetz, Bobert, Green, Manchin and Sinema just to name a few. At minimum the salary Trump gave to charities every year HE worked for free.

[multigraincracker]

7. Not even a fraction of the average

CEO break down of hourly pay, including perks.

Also a very high injury rate on work related strain, like rotator cuff surgery.

[electric_blue68]

20. Yeah...

My acquaintance, and one of my sister's long time friends is a private nurse.

She's athletic, and strong but she had rc surgery ? last year.

[brewens]

2. There was a complete bullshit "From A Nurse" going around awhile ago. All COVIDiot stuff

about the usual masks and Ivermectin. It was from one of my RWer's I usually keep on 30-day snooze. I look at their shit for a couple days and boot them again.

[sheshe2]

3. I come from a family of nurses.

Two dead now, one retired and my niece still working in ICU.

My niece worked during the pandemic and in the beginning did not have proper PPE, thanks to Donnie. She had to wear a yellow slicker, ones that police wear when it rains. She wore it backwards for 18 hour shifts. It was hot and stiff and hard to maneuver in.

They are leaving in drovesbdue to poor pay. They have not trained anyone to take their place. We have a huge nursing shortage.

[calimary]

17. My mom was an RN.

I have MASSIVE respect for nurses. They stay there on duty long after the doctor's gone home. They're there to hold the hand of the dying, and witness the tears of surviving family members while doing their best to comfort and still stay strong.

Nurses are worth their weight in gold-pressed latinum, as they say in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." Or whatever the mode of exchange is. Including dollars, diamonds, and gold bars.

[sheshe2]

22. I agree, 100%.

Story.

During the Marathon bombing in Boston, they always have a medical tent. Some from my sisters team were there. They went from treating exhaustion to lost limbs in 30 seconds flat. They switched to triage and saved lives. All this while the building above them was searched for bombs.

I heart nurses.

[DENVERPOPS]

4. Nurses do not earn what they should.

A mention should be made for EMT's. Especially the ones that aren't Fire Dept. "firefighter/emt's". The ones that most often aren't employed by the city's fire departments.....they need to be recognized!

They are grossly underpaid compared to Nurses, Firefighters, and Police officers.....................

[bluecollar2]

6. Nurses saved my life.

Nobody can tell me how much they should make.

[multigraincracker]

8. My SO has

saved my life twice in the last 2 years. She is an RN.

[Joinfortmill]

9. Nurses are angels.

[multigraincracker]

10. Mine is a Saint.

I'm going to call the Pope and tell him.

[Cherokee100]

11. Also

The ones/CEOs who control the healthcare system, normally have their own private nurses and doctors. Why would they care about the rest of us.

[calimary]

19. Welcome to DU, Cherokee100.

I'm really appreciating this thread about nurses. They deserve all our love, care, and respect, and paychecks so big you can't get 'em through the door.

[GeoWilliam750]

12. Nurses are angels on temporary loan from heaven

[sheshe2]

23. I love your comment, Geo.

[GeoWilliam750]

25. I also strongly suspect that nurses are on the vetting board of who gets into heaven

So, at least those souls who make it to heaven probably won't have to share accomodation with too many hospital executives

[LoisB]

13. Totally agree. Also include housekeeping, meal service, x-ray techs. and all the other underpaid

hospital staff. Underpaid, overworked, and most times underappreciated.

[Mr.Bill]

14. I love nurses so much I married one.

Her daughter, who was born and grown before I met her mother is the fourth generation nurse in her family.

The surprising thing is the difference of pay from state to state or different areas of the country. A nurse in California can make around $100 an hour, yet they meet travelers who make one third of that in their home state.

[TygrBright]

15. THIS!! SO MUCH THIS!! n/t

[George II]

16. I'm biased - my wife worked as a nurse for 40+ years, retired 6 years ago.....

With what's going on these days, selfishly I'm SO happy she's retired.

[OldBaldy1701E]

39. I am betting my mother is as well.

She was an emergency/triage nurse for 45 years. She was so good at what she did, she taught nursing after retiring from 'active duty'. I know she is glad to not be in the morass that healthcare has become. And the poor nurses (front-line workers all) are caught right in the middle. The greed of the oligarchs in this country is going to kill us all. Mark my words.

[bluecollar2]

18. Nurses saved my life.

Nobody can tell me how much they should make.

[electric_blue68]

21. Thanks to Nurses, and other hospital workers! ❤️

On luckily very rare hospital stays (and one rehab stay) I always almost have been considerate to the staff. It's (imho) hard working in a hospital.
Luckily almost never had a bad staffer.

[Evolve Dammit]

24. Great post. Thank you.

[mountain grammy]

26. K & R

[ShazzieB]

27. K & R!

[drmeow]

29. Furthermore

that traveling nurse who makes $100 - there's a good chance they have been classified as an "independent contractor" and that $100 dollars an hour has to cover all their expenses plus the employer part of SSN and Medicaid. They probably aren't paid for the travel time, only time with the patient, and are they actually being paid $100/hr for a 40 hour week? Dollars/hour doesn't mean $hit without context and full information.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

30. Psych nurses

Have sat there listening and crying with me when I was suicidal in the hospital.

Nurses helped me when I was psychotic and were so patient and kind to me.

Nurses in the cardiac unit massaged my back Because they noticed I hadn't been touched for years by someone who cared. That made me cry so hard. Those nurses were so kind,I will never forget them.

Nurses have helped me when I was screaming in pain. Held my hand when they put pain meds in my IV as that feeling it causes makes me freak out and get scared.

Nurses helped me when I was so sick I couldn't stop blowing out both ends and kept me from hitting the floor when I passed out from dehydration.

Nurses helped me through a panic attack that lasted 45 minutes.

Nurses are lifesavers literally.

So value them as much as your life and pay them what your life is worth to you because your life might be saved by them.

[halfulglas]

31. Hospital administrators have been squeezing staff salaries including nurses for decades.

The administrators are so much better paid than the medical professionals. I remember in the mid 70s when sitting at the table of the mother of my son's best friend in kindergarten, an OB nurse, told me she and all the nurses in her department were being "let go" because of expense. They were going with agency nurses because of the expense of the fringe benefits and retirement. I was appalled then and it's only gotten worse. A "temporary fix" to save some money does not save money by squeezing the beating heart of the system. The money situation is bad enough but with Covid nobody knows how bad the burnout is going to be and none of us can blame them if they leave the profession completely.

[slightlv]

32. Besides every reason mentioned so far,

I believe one of the reasons nurses are so undervalued is the same reason teachers are so undervalued. It's a stereotypical female role. Say "Nurse" and most people will automatically think "female." And we are *always* undervalued.

[The Jungle 1]

33. Nurse's should not have to treat un vaccinated people.

If you refuse to get a vac then just stay home when you are sick.

[yardwork]

34. I wish I could rec this OP and every post here a thousand times.

CEOs make billions and nurses and teachers usually make far less than $100k a year and somebody dares to complain about what little they make?!

[Liberal In Texas]

35. The salary priorities in this country are messed up.

Nurses and other medical personnel plus teachers and flight crews (just as examples) should all make more than hedge fund managers, CEOs and CFOs etc.

[XacerbatedDem]

36. I agree, nurses are the best.

My mother was a RN, my brother an MD, and I have two sisters and another brother who were nurses, also. I don't know how my mother did it, for she raised a healthy family of twelve kids, all while working a 40-hr work week and even after losing her husband to a wave of hepatitis that sweep through our town when I, next to the youngest, was 5 years old.

She was an amazing woman.

Of course, that doesn't mean life was so great. I remember when I was 10 years old, waking up in the middle of the night with a needle stuck into my bare ass. Mom use to say it was easier than having to chase us down during the day. And you never wanted to complain about indigestion, either, or that night, you'd end up on the bathroom floor for one of her midnight enemas. Needless to say, as kids, we rarely slept easy.

Still, she was a good nurse and a great human being, and colors how I see most every nurse in the profession these days, especially during this pandemic.

I don't know how they do it.

[mbusby]

37. A nurse gave me a shot....

....of morphine in my rear end and said "enjoy it while it's legal"

[gopiscrap]

38. excellent post

[GB_RN]

40. Most Nurses Don't Make Anywhere NEAR $100 An Hour...

I know, because I am one. My best day as a staff nurse on an ICU or in the cath lab, I was in the mid $30s per hour. While I was traveling, including the stipends for housing and food, I was getting around $50 an hour. That was right at the start of COVID. I started getting calls for emergency-need contracts paying around $150 an hour (including stipends). Some of those emergency-need contracts are paying far more now, because nurses are quitting in droves from burnout, low pay, dangerous working conditions (including chronic short staffing that existed before COVID), antivaxxer idiocy, etc.

In short, we are fucking fed up, and looking for better opportunities, less hassle and trying to put ourselves first for once.

[forgotmylogin]

41. Nurses rock! (but a question about the picture)

I noticed certain members of the staff are wearing an orange vest thing under a scrub apron. Does that signify something specific like "working with COVID patients, do not touch or exchange objects" or is it...extra pockets under the apron / a way to shield necessary personals like a pager or a phone?