The cost of Temple Hospital replacements (promises up to $10,000 a week for nurses)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/90331944.html

Posted on Fri, Apr. 9, 2010

By Jane M. Von Bergen Inquirer Staff Writer

On its Web site, Health Source Global Staffing, a California company, put out a bid for help at Temple University Hospital, where 1,500 nurses and allied health professionals have been on strike since March 31.

"We are recruiting for an upcoming strike in Philadelphia at a large teaching hospital," the Web site said. "We need over 830 nurses, techs and other staff to take care of patients. We are asking for your help."

A flashing banner on the home page promises up to $10,000 a week for nurses.

At the rate Temple is spending, it could fund four years of raises, at 3 percent per year, by the middle of next week, if the strike persists, said Bill Cruice, executive director of the union, the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Staffing. The tab for those raises would be $9 million, he claimed.

Hospital administrators calculate the costs differently.

"I have a workforce at the bedside, and it is the cost of doing business," said chief executive officer Sandy Gomberg, declining to specify what the replacement staff is costing. "It's what an organization does. I'm running the hospital with the right people to take care of the patients."

FULL story at link.

[Heddi]

1. I'm an RN, let me tell you about that $10,000 a week....

I've done travel nursing, and this kind of techinically qualifies as travel nursing, but not in the traditional sense.

They need nurses that are 1) licensed in that state and 2) available NOW (or whatever date) to work.

There is no contract, no guaranteed hours, no guaranteed weeks of work
That $10,000 is before travel costs
That $10,000 is before the company takes out housing
That $10,000 is only ever going to be available to an RN with 10+ years experience, every available certification
That $10,000 is working every available minute of overtime available. We're talking 16 or 20 hour days, every day of the week, maybe one off at the end, so 6 on, one off.

The $10,000 is a ploy to get RN's to call and inquire about working during the strike.

As a previously unionized RN (my current hospital is not a union facility), I and other unionized RN's never had an issue with strike workers---we knew the patient's had to be taken care of, we just had to make a stand and make the hospitals suffer so that our collective agreement could be signed to our benefit. IF the hospital has to pay someone $62 hours to do my job, that's great. That's what I should be making anyway, but I'm not, and I do not begrudge any RN who has the flexibility to pick up such a short-term notice type of schedule and fly out wherever, stay in a hotel with the possibility of having a job for 12 hours, 12 days, or 12 weeks...never knowing how long it will be.

Many of these companies will only reimburse for travel and housing if you end up working a pre-determined amount of time, say, 4 weeks. Generally strikes don't last that long so the RN is out for all travel costs and housing and food and transportation costs.

No one makes $10,000. No RN (except for the new grads who see these flyers that are faxed overnight to all hospital departments and think they're for real) expects to make $10,000 doing these gigs.

It doesn't happen. Experienced RN's know this.

---
On Edit---

the article says the RN's are getting paid $35 an hour for per diem and $15 worth of meal tickets a day

let's assume the RN's are working normal 12 hour rotating shifts:

12 x 35 = $420 a day

Most RN's work 3 12-hour days, or 36 hours per week.

$420 x 3 = $1260 a week, before taxes and housing/travel deduction (the article says the company pays $400 for travel---they may pay that, but they're going to take it back as well)

$1260 per week x 4 weeks (if they are able to work that long) = $5040 per month before taxes, housing, and transportation deductions.
-------

Let's say that RN works 6 12 hour shifts.

3 at straight time for $1260
3 at time and a half for $1890

that's still only $3150 a week....$6900 away from $10,000 a week



If we are to take a regular 36 hour work week and divide it by 10,000, that hourly rate would be $277.78 an hour. No RN working for this company is making $277 an hour. Not even when you consider time and a half, certification pay, shift and weekend differentials...no way. It doesn't happen, it isn't happening, it will never happen.

It is a ploy to get RN's to pick up a phone, or send an email, and get signed up for short term, immediate need openings. That is it.

Oh and $35 an hour for a travel RN (even with a $15 meal voucher) is a pretty shitty pay grade. With 2 years RN expereince I was working in Seattle, at a level 1 trauma, getting $51 an hour, not including $2000 a month tax-free housing for the first 3 months....and that was for a regular, 13-week travel assignment. I got a $900 a month apartment and pocketed $1100 extra tax-free dollars every month)