Have Nursing Salaries Reached Their Limit?
By Amanda Sounart, associate editor
In recent years, many U.S. health care facilities have opted to steadily increase nursing salaries to draw and retain enough nurses to fill their staff. Yet even as the need to attract nurses continues, recent surveys show nursing salaries may be leveling out.
ADVANCE, an online and print publication for the health care community, recently compiled the results of their interactive salary survey with data from approximately 7,500 nurses across the country. Their findings show that the salaries may have reached their peak last year. Average salaries in 2007 were reported at $59,650 per year, nearly $3,000 higher than the 2008 average of $56,785.
These numbers are still up from the averages reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which reported that the average salary in 2006 was $53,240 with an average hourly rate of $25.60.
Connie Curran, EdD, RN, FAAN and editor of Nursing Economic$ believes that these numbers are an accurate reflection of what is happening in the nursing community and attributes the drop in salaries to the poor financial performance of hospitals.
"We know that about two-thirds of nurses receive their paychecks from a hospital, even if they don't directly work there and are in clinics or home care," noted Curran. "Hospitals are having a hard time. Their bottom lines are in trouble. They are in financial difficulties so they are being more conservative about giving raises."
With lowered monetary incentives, Curran noted that nurses may migrate away from hospital care and move into other settings.
"The estimate is now that there about 200,000 nurses moving into retail 'minute clinics,' insurance companies, and other outside organizations," said Curran. "It makes me concerned in this time of shortage. If nurses feel they aren't being treated fairly, they'll start to leave. We need to create good patient care."
For the nurses who don't move out of the hospital setting, working overtime may become standard practice. The survey noted that 39 percent of respondents indicated that they regularly work overtime. Lowered salaries and too much overtime could have an adverse affect on recruiting nurses, which could leave an even larger shortage for the country.
"It's an interesting time that this should be happening to nursing," said Curran. "In 2008, more of the hospital reimbursements will be based on ‘pay for performance.' So Medicare will be looking at things like infection rates and preventable errors. These are the things that nurses control the most. I don't think this is the time for hospitals to be skimping on salaries."
While traditionally hospitals have been generous with benefits such as health care, they have been less willing to supply adequate pensions. As the average age for nurses rises to retirement age, lack of benefits may become even more of an issue than decreased salaries.
Combined with a national push for higher nurse-to-patient ratios, which has already become mandatory in California, hospitals may have to search for more incentives for recruitment.
"The American public is really concerned about quality of care and nurses are a large part of quality of care," said Curran.
To view all of the results from ADVANCES Salary Survey 2008, click here.
© 2008. AMN Healthcare, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
