Nurse Pay Rewards Lack of Commitment

As a registered nurse for 20 years, I have seen the cycles of extra money as well as lack of staffing [Hospitals Seek Cures for Nurses Shortage,” April 21].

During all this one thing is consistent: Business administration is never willing to pay their own nurses what they pay for traveling, or registry nurses.

That tells me that the business decision makers are not seeing the clear picture: Obviously there do exist nurses willing to make the extra money. Why commit to something if you can get paid twice as much for the same work, plus better benefits?

I’m sure the hospital was paying more for the traveling nurse than its own nurse featured in your article. That tells me that even though she has a lot of respect for what she does for a living, her employers do not.

That to me is the main problem with the nursing shortage, and until that changes, it will never go away.

Deirdre Apablasa, R.N.

Sherman Oaks

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A major factor in what has become a shift in focus for running hospitals is that it has become a corporation’s money-making enterprise. The corporate entities emphasize earnings and stock performance foremost, and attention to quality care and employee satisfaction are mere footnotes.

The corporations gladly cash in on the expensive health-care industry, yet balk when employees, those who make their success possible, ask for fairness and equity.

It is because of this that the nursing shortage is, at least, aggravated, because the profession is reduced to a very unattractive state for those who would otherwise consider joining the field.

Tom Agostino, R.N.

Pismo Beach