Pay is below market for RN's and there is price fixing on salaries in the medical center area of San Antonio.
Rather than give some nurses who are topped out (at $34.11) even a measly 1% raise as they did others making less, they gave me a $500 bonus paid out over an entire year which came out to be about $22 per paycheck.
They are too focused on suppressing nursing and do nothing for employee development. Our upper nursing management and nursing executives are loyal to the business side, not nursing interests.
There is very little appreciation shown to the nursing staff. Over the years during Nurses Week they show appreciation by hosting degrading contests....crazy sock day, salsa contest day etc, then have the audacity to ask nurses during the same time to host a massive food drive for the San Antonio Food Bank, further demonstrating their expectations that nurses remain subservient to their own needs and showing the rest of the work force the same. This has been going on yearly since I started there 6 years ago.
It's difficult to leave because the hospitals "talk" about nurses salaries. There is no incentive to leave and take another job elsewhere for higher pay because it doesn't exist. There have been several lawsuits in years past regarding "price fixing salaries".
They don't follow the law. The state of Texas passed a law in 2011 that hospitals have a staffing committee comprised of staff nurses. To this day, Methodist Hospital does not have a committee as mandated by law.
Although, I am not a union advocate, I think that this is the only way nursing at this HCA facility is going to progress forward. This facility is problem oriented and works on a day to day basis fixing the problems at hand. It is definitely not a visionary institution. I wouldn't recommend this facility as an employer for nursing. They are behind the times and nickel and dime every decision to their detriment. The facility is dirty, dingy, mold infested and out of date. Like I said earlier, if it's not broken why fix it...that's the mentality with this management. We need a union to promote the interests of nursing and therefore will promote the interest of patients.
