The Cost of Nursing

I'm reasonably ok at Math, but I can't figure out why hospitals are always so broke. Let's take my last emergency room in London. Eight nurses on a shift. Four nurses working for the hospital at 12 pound an hour for the 11 hour night shift, and four nurses like myself, working for the agency at 30 pound an hour. I usually clocked 44-55hours a week.

Now, if you think this is costing the hospital a small fortune, the agency I work for takes another seventy pound an hour. So the hospital is paying 100 British pound an hour for an average of four nurses a night. Let's add it up, 11 hours at 30 GBP/hour is 330 pound per agency nurse per shift, multiply this by 4 and you get 1330 GBP for the night. For any American readers, that's 1660 dollars for the night.

The hospital keeps on saying it can't attract new nurses and that there is a terrible shortage of nurses. They don't have a choice but to pay agency rates. Hell, even the regular staff work the odd shift for the agency as their pitiful 12pound an hour is pretty pathetic.

Here's an idea. Why doesn't the hospital agree to pay their own nurses twenty pound an hour, plus sickness benefits, annual leave, plus pay for ongoing education. I think they would have no problem attracting permanent nursing staff and save a small fortune. I mean I've worked in London for four years and there's always been enough nurses around to fill in, even if we're from the agency. But I know myself and many of my colleagues would happily work for the hospital if they just paid a half decent wage.

But I'm not a manager and I'm certainly no math wizz, so can someone tell me why we don't give my idea a go.