Monday, September 15, 2008
Specialty nursing
Getting back to a previous post, I think the question of nurses being part of a hospital room charge is a good one. Do you think it would make a difference if the nurse was a specialist such as a wound care nurse or an ostomy nurse who saw all the patients who needed these services and was not attached to particular rooms on a floor? Shouldn't this nurse, who has advanced training, be able to bill for these services separately?
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Well judging from the guest speaker we had today in lab (Armi, the Wound, Ostomy and Foot Care RN) it seems as though they DO get paid extra for that. I'm basing this on the comment she made about making sure to be very thorough when visiting a patient's home to teach them about ostomy care because the hospital only pays them for the one visit. I'm not 100% sure though, hopefully someone will respond who has more insight.
Telly , I also heard her say that, but Im not sure she meant it as her being paid for the visit and teaching or medicare paying for the actual visit, does that make any sense?
But I do think that the nurse should bill differently. The nurse did go out there and learn a new specialty,whether it be wound care or advanced life support, so why not. I know this is health care and going into nursing we are expected to just take care of a patient, but just like doctors have specialties and charge different for it, why can't nurses?
I think you're right...she was probably referring to Medicare paying for it...not HER being paid for it...sucks!
I totally agree that specialty nurses, at least, should have a separate charge. I'm not OK with "regular" RN's not having the separate charge, but when you have so many letters after your name, clearly a lot was put in to get there and who wouldn't want to be rewarded. (NOT THAT THE PATIENT RECOVERING FROM WHATEVER ILLNESS ISN'T REWARD ENOUGH...I'M JUST STATING ANOTHER ASPECT OF REWARD)
I really think that nurses with specialty training should be given extra pay on what they do. They took some time, effort, and money to get licensed on their specialties and they do deserve to get its worth. I think that if the hospitals or companies that hire these advance skilled nurses should give them compensations such as paid vacation time or bonuses. These will probably motivate the other nurses to keep up on their skills and get professional training.
I would like to think that a nurse that has invested into a specialty area is getting paid a little more than an a non-specialized nurse. i was actually inspired to be open to the possibility of specializing after hearing the guess speaker the other day. So hopefully the rewards are worth the time/money spent for obtaining a specialty.
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