By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
Most nurse leaders now realize that nurse salary and benefits packages will need to change moving into the future. What is considered a valuable benefit or perk by a seasoned staff member may not be at all important to younger nurses. If I am a 22-year-old nurse on my parent’s health insurance plan, your Cadillac health insurance plan may be of little or no interest to me. I might strongly prefer a gym membership, help with a home down payment, or a student loan repayment voucher. One size does not fit all, and benefits packages need to reflect these changes moving forward.
Fulltime, part-time, and even per diem employment should also be re-examined. Increasingly, nurse leaders tell me that younger nurses want to work fewer hours. Some say to their leaders their goal is to maintain work-life flexibility by never doing full-time work. This admission is shocking to Baby Boomer and Generation X nurses, who view their careers in a much different way. Building a new core nursing workforce will most certainly involve restructuring how we think of an FTE.
As an outcome of their experiences with travel roles, some nurses will want to remain independent contractors, perhaps working for one or more employers. All of this is made possible by the ability to purchase your own insurance on healthcare exchanges and set up your retirement plans with low-cost investment firms. Today, few nurses experience the “golden handcuffs” phenomena that retained nurses in certain organizations in the past. As an independent contractor, you can also have the added advantage of deducting many of your business and professional expenses from your taxes.
Companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google have a significant percentage of contractor staff. They have few perks, and there is no guarantee of stable employment in the future. Career management is entirely the responsibility of the individual. Not every nurse will want this, but it may meet the needs of some and allow health systems to flex up and down according to their staffing needs. The wages for these contract positions would likely be considerably higher than current hourly rates but would eliminate the administrative overhead costs paid to travel agencies.
Relooking at pay and benefits will involve changing how we think about nurse wellbeing. The new nursing workforce is sending out a strong message to us, which indicates that the future will not be like the past. Wise nurse leaders are looking past the noise of the current shortage and paying attention to the signals about what might work better in the future.
© emergingrnleader.com 2021
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