Peropertve Salary Comparisons

Abstract

There are reports among members of the nursing profession that indicate that nurses working in hospitals in the Northern states earn higher salaries than their counter parts in hospitals from the Southern states. Taking advantage of these reports, many nursing employment agencies will try to recruit experienced nurses from the southern states, by promising higher salaries. There can be many reasons, or factors, which give such a difference in salary such as living expenses, but most agencies, only promote the salary advantages and usually do not mention the cost of living expenses or other factors that offer a higher salary. The quantitative study (survey) done in this research will be prove the hypothesis that an annual salary for an experienced nurse of more than five years working in a hospital setting in a Northern state makes a higher annual salary compared to an experienced periopertive nurse working in a Southern state.

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Salary Comparisons for Periopertive Nurses North vs. South

There are reports among members of the periopertive nursing profession that indicate periopertive nurses working in hospitals in the northern states earn higher salaries than their counter parts working in hospitals from the southern states even with the same experience and expertise. Taking advantage of these reports, many nursing employment agencies try to recruit experienced nurses from the southern states, by promoting the higher salaries. Experienced periopertive nurses drawn to the higher increases in salaries resort to a travel position, and leave the institutions that they are currently working. The average length of time to fill an RN's position was 47.46 days, compared with 47.65 in 2004 (HCS finds nurse salaries, 2005) As a result, southern states are left to deal with nursing staff shortages. With more hospitals experiencing the shortages in the southern states, they are resulting to training and educating nurses with no experience in the specialty. What does this mean to the quality of care for the patients?

According to ("New campaign to reduce nursing shortage," 2003) eighty-one percent of Americans are aware of the nursing shortage, and sixty-five percent classify the shortage as a "major problem" or "crisis". They continue to say that ninety-three percent believe the nursing shortage jeopardizes the quality of US health care.

Since salaries bear some relationship to years of experience in the field, all nurses should report higher pay simply because of longevity. A nurse that accumulates more hard-earned experience should be able to expect a decent amount of additional pay no matter if she works in the southern states compared to the northern states. That is the case in virtually every profession-but not in nursing. In this paper, I have set out to validate a positive relationship between higher annual salaries for experienced nurses working in northern states compared to southern states. I have incorporated variables such as cost of living, experience, and education to see if they have some impact on the annual salaries of experienced nurses in these states.

Literature

When researching the studies on nursing compensation. N. Keuhl (2003) discussed that the base salaries were only part of the average pay package for nurses. A good benefits package and other responsibilities such as overtime, on-call work, and weekend work increased the base salaries by nineteen percent.

The study found that the mean base compensation for a staff nurse in the survey was $50,700, and that of a nurse manager is $64,000. The survey also found that the largest difference in compensation were related to job titles. As far as geographical region, the survey found that the highest compensations were in the Pacific region and the lowest compensations being in the East South Central region.

Education level also had a significant effect on base salary. Nurses with a bachelors of science degree can add $500 to their base compensation on average, and those with a masters degree can add $3,700 on average. (Keuhl, 2003, para. 9)

As a periopertive nurse myself, I found that the information obtained from the survey greatly supported the initiative that compensation is a key concern for nurses. Most nurses receive benefits as part of their overall compensation. The most frequently reported benefits that nurses seek include health insurance, life insurance, dental insurance, earned or paid time off, bereavement leave, jury duty compensation, tuition reimbursement, 401(k) contributions, long-term and short-term disability, discounted or free parking and a pension plan (Bacon, 2005). The benefits package plays a key roll in a nurses overall annual compensation.

What about the southern regions compared to the northern regions? D. Bacon (20005) reported in his survey that the Pacific region tops out in annual pay with $11,300 more than the average compensation, with nurses working in the East South Regions earning $6,200 less than average.

Included in the survey, he measured five other regions that include the state of Michigan and on average show a negative adjustment of $2,900 less than average base pay. This data reveals that nurses in the southern states on average earn less.

Methodology

A quantitative study (survey), was conducted, which consisted of approximately 24 nurses working in the periopertive nursing specialty. Nurses working in two hospitals rated as a state designated trauma center that met specific criteria set forth by governing agencies wee used in the study. Both hospitals were in a thriving metropolitan city with a top trauma hospital consisting of more than 500 beds including specialty operating room services such as open heart and organ transplantation surgical teams. Twelve nurses from a Charlotte, North Carolina hospital that I had previously been employed at for five years were mailed the survey, and twelve nurses from a Grand Rapids, Michigan hospital that I currently work at received the same survey. Both groups were very diverse and gave the perfect opportunity to compare both states between salaries and cost of living within two major cities. The convenience of having known both hospitals and staff members also proved to be an asset because some people are very private when it comes to salaries and personal information. Obtaining the information in a timely manner was quite easy.