Quote:
Originally Posted by TorqueDog
A nurse making $510k in a year is indicative of a problem.
It's not a problem that they earned the money.
It's a problem that:
- a nurse working hard enough to make $510k a year is going to be completely wiped out every day, working at the limits of their physical and mental faculties on very, very little rest.
- patients are being looked after by a nurse who is not getting sufficient rest and may be prone to making mistakes.
- $510k a year -- which could hire ~6 RNs or ~8 LPNs and dramatically improve the resulting level of care -- is being spent on just one.
Having known a few nurses myself, Locke hit the nail on the head; nurses making deep six figures even half-way to the amount we're talking about are not doing it purposely and certainly are not enjoying it. Hell, the ones that don't even come close to this are overworked to death.
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Nursing is a lot like many Public Professions, similar to Doctors and Teachers and some others.
These are people who engaged in this Profession because it appeals to their nature. Its less a career than it is a 'calling.'
This kind of thing takes good natured people and throws them into the meat grinder and just eviscerates what made them good at the job in the first place.
I agree with you, I'm not upset or incensed that a nurse made that kind of money, but its heavily indicative of a serious staffing problem or an administrative problem in terms of organizing staff.
The sheer volume of hours necessary is inherently indicative of a very serious problem.
And its not like: "Hahahaha! I make tons of money for nothing!"
These are people are sticking their hands into the filth and wading into the muck of humanity every single day for all of these hours...you can't keep that up forever. Its going to catch up to you.
And then what happens? You lose a passionate, experienced and dedicated medical professional to just plain old sheer burnout.
That is just bad policy all around. Its bad for the employee, its bad for the patients, its bad for the system.
Because your best people are the ones you're killing first.
I dont begrudge this Nurse for making that much money, but I think of the complete systemic failure that must have surrounded her for the circumstances to exist for this to happen and it absolutely concerns me.
Lets call a Spade a Spade here. That is not sustainable.