Overtime Pay Q's!

[LX98Civic]

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I was at school today talking to an old friend who is in the LPN program. He's about 1/2 a year ahead of me. Anyhow, one of the old graduates came in and spoke to his class about the nursing field / life as an LPN. The guy is working in Atlanta at a hospital (I believe he said hospital). The guy said he makes $12.50 p/hr and $1.50 more if working night shift. Here's what really blew my mind: If he is called in on a day off or works a day not scheduled he gets $10 more p/hr. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" />

Is this possible? Is he with a good employer or is this how it goes for nurses? It seems the 3 - 12 hour shifts are pretty popular and I'm hoping this overtime time is as well 🙂

Thanks for any input!

I do realize he's in a big city and do not expect this in Savannah where I am located at this time. I do plan to get down to Orlando after getting experience and some $$ saved.

 

[tedsadoc2002]

Many hospitals have incentive plans to get nurses to work overtime.
This is usually in places that are having problems staffing their units and don't want to pay an exorbitant fee to registries to supply supplemental staff.
It ensures that staff familiar with the hospital are working and saves the hospital a bit of money and the trouble of orienting someone (who may not be back after that shift) to the paperwork and routine.
The best way to find out more about this is to ask questions while you are rotating and doing your clinicals in the hospitals. Some nurses will tell you about the incentives. Talk to the nurse recruiters at hospitals you in which you may work. They can give you an idea and if your school has a career counselor or affiliations with employment placement agencies those are other places you can find your info. My info is so old (last time I worked as an RN on staff was almost 7 years ago, we got incentives for doing extra weekend shifts 25 dollars for each day along with any time and a half for overtime). Hope this helps. 😎 😎 😎

 

[wsu]

LX,

Hospitals throughout the country are short strapped for nurses. Its not unusual for "work bonsues" to be insituted at the hospital. For instance, at our particular hospital, the going rate is approximately 40-50/hr and basically you can pick up as much or as little as you want. Its much cheaper for them to use work bonses than agency which costs than a mandatory contract of use and approximately 100-200/hr per nurse/per use.

With that being said, its not uncommon if one works hard to make around 80K with the overtime.
In addition, there are usually pretty big sign on bonsues as well.

Remember, since you are a nurse, you are in the driver's seat in terms of options. Getting an RN though vs. an LPN I think opens and pays much better.

 

[MPHkatie]

The extra 10.00 an hour is pretty common aorund where I am. I agree with WSU, the RN will serve you better. As a new grad I made 16.00 or so an hour plus all the incentives. with 1 yr experience I was pulling 40K a year (18.20 or so per hr) (with no OT), and now, well, it is nice. However, I will say the 12 hr shifts I put in in the ER and very difficult and exhausting. It takes me a day to recover from three in a row. And I am young and in great shape. The money is good, but the shortage is really causing some exhaustion. There's a reason why they pay that much, and why nurses are still unwilling to work OT. So yes, the cash is nice, but I often wonder, at what cost. LPN really limits you , I think, not in scope of practice, but in where you can practice. My hospital hires them in the ED, but they can only do work in the obs unit and urgent care. Other hospitals I worked at don't even hire them. just my two cents.