A nurse is the heart of a hospital, they are the person that brings compassion and empathy to patients and more importantly keeps that person alive. The role of a nurse is much more than caring physically and psychologically for patients the nurse is the advocate for the patient. This job entails many long hours of mentally and physically challenging work. The nursing salary has always been low especially compared to other healthcare workers, and nurses have always been known to be underpaid. What is not well known is that there is a pay gap between male and female nurses. According to American Nurses Association the main job of a nurse is to protect and promote health, prevent illness and injury, healing, alleviation through the diagnosis and treatment response, and care of the individuals. Throughout this paper one should see why nurses deserve higher salaries and why the gender gap should be eliminated. 

Modern nursing became very relevant in Europe during the 1900s. This is a direct result of both World War I and World War II. The carnage that resulted from these wars increased the demanded for medical resources, especially nurses on the front lines. With the large number of casualties nurses were sent to attend to the sick and wounded soldiers. Before this, patients were taken care of by the religious community including nuns and monks. In 1860 Florence Nightingale, one of the most popular nurses in history opened the very first nursing school in London England. Opening the school allowed more people to go into the nursing profession and receive the correct training and education needed. It took a lot longer in the United States to start these schools and receive the proper funding because people feared hospitals and the spreading of diseases. Proper training for nurses was very hard to receive. However, in 1900 hospitals took over training for nurses which gave a more hands-on training and allowed for more efficiency. After World War II nursing advanced dramatically along with advancements in technology. Thousands of women joined the nursing profession because of the war. People found them to be the hero’s, and that made the nursing profession a very popular one. The government placed millions of dollars into the healthcare industry after this. This allowed more schools to offer courses for nurses as well as many programs. The 20th century expanded roles for nurses including different specialties (The History of Nursing).

Nurses’ duties are generally to care for a person and there is a variety of different fields of practices. This includes pediatrics, neonatal, psychology, orthopedic, and others. This large diversity allows there to be many jobs for nurses and allows nurses the opportunity to choose from many different specialties throughout their careers.  The education needed to become a nurse is dependent on the type of degree or program that a nursing student chooses.  One can earn an associate’s degree in three years of study in conjunction with a certain number of hours of practical hospital work. Most nursing students today earn a bachelor’s degree after four years of study and complete their practical training as part of their four year curriculum.  There are also options to earn a master’s degree or even a PhD in nursing. Each degree requires extra years of study. After the education a nurse still has to pass a certification exam known as the Nursing Boards to be licensed to practice (The History of Nursing). Nurse specialties including; nurse anesthetist, clinical specialist, and nurse practitioner all require extra years of education. There is an intense education for a nursing major and especially if they study a certain specialty. The bachelor’s degree prepares students in all types of health settings including biology, organic chemistry, nutrition, anatomy and physiology, psychology, and more. In the last years of education students focus on in depth studies (Lucille).  

Nurses play a huge role in public health. They focus on disease prevention and promote good health. They have a huge knowledge of the medical field. According to an article by Jessica Sharon, a nurse has many roles, and being a nurse is one of the most demanding professions in healthcare. A nurse acts as a caregiver first, depending on each patient and fulfilling each requirement given by the doctor. Nurses must help the patient prevent an illness. A nurse also must be a decision maker. They must use their critical thinking skills and can evaluate a situation depending on the best interest of a patient. A nurse must be a good communicator especially with so many people being involved with one patient. The nurse will decide the best way to communicate to the patient and family. A nurse has an important duty to protect the rights of the patient when the patient is unable to do so. Finally, a nurse needs to be a good teacher. A teacher to the patient to inform them on the needs and procedures they need, and to the other young nurses that are learning (Sharon). 

Apart from all the roles a nurse is involved in, they are also working twelve hour days on average. Nurse shifts usually depend on the unit they are in or their specialty. Some types of nurses like intensive care are required to be “on call” in addition to working their regular shifts. Nurses generally work morning, afternoon, or night rotations (Rawes). A study from Health Affairs showed that nurses work longer than scheduled. A nurse generally works 40 hours a week, and most of that is on their feet moving. Half of the shifts in the study worked more than 12 hours and 39% of the shifts were nurses that worked 12.5 hours consecutively. This showed that there could be an increase in error when working because of the long hours (Rogers, Hwang, Scott, Aiken, Dinges). 

On average a registered nurse can make up to $40 an hour. In some low paying states nurses, can receive as low as $20 per hour. When compared to other healthcare providers like physicians this is very low for the amount of responsibility they have. Nursing pay is highly dependent on what type of specialty one is. For example, a nurse anesthetist will earn more than an ICU nurse. Both have huge responsibilities but the anesthetist has more schooling. A nurse anesthetist can earn up to $160,000 a year, and this is 5 times more what some LPNs make (Tuten). According to the New York Times a lawsuit was filed against hospitals in Chicago, Memphis, San Antonio and Albany, accusing them of holding down nurses’ wages. Hospitals agreed to not pay their nurses above a certain amount and trade information to different hospitals about the wages they were paying. Lawyers found out that they depressed wages by hundreds of millions of dollars. Nurses that were interviewed about this lawsuit said they were angered by these difficult working conditions (Greenhouse). 

The location of where a nurse works is very important for how much the wages are. In a highly populated city the wages are more because there is more of a need for nurses; also the cost of living is higher, but in states such as Alabama the salary is a lot lower. The salary all depends on where you live and where nurses are needed the most. It also depends on what type of specialty a nurse is in. For example, a transplant coordinator can bring in more money than a staff nurse in an occupational health department. There are more than 3 million RNs, meaning the nursing profession is the most common profession in America. This makes nursing wages vary so much around different regions. 

Many nurses are angered by these low salaries that they are switching to different professions. This is bad for the hospitals because they are losing employees. In an article by Mark Brown, Michael Sturman, and Marcia Simmering the staffing levels and wages effect the lengths of stay at a hospital was studied. The study found that by increasing wage rates increases an employee’s amount of stay at that certain work place. The study compared increasing wages to increasing staff, and seeing the effect on the length of stay. Increasing RNs in the workplace did not improve the length, but rather increasing the wages did improve the amount of stay a nurse has at a work place. This shows how increasing pay for nurses can result in improvements for health care management practices (Brown, Sturman, Simmering). 

According to USA Today researches said “considering a nurse's education level, devotion to the medical profession, and the extent of her duties, some of which may be dangerous, nurses deserve more pay (Rawes). Nurses on a regular basis have a physically demanding job where they walk on average 4 to 5 miles a shift. They also must lift, turn and roll their patients. This can take a toll on one’s body and can shorten their careers because of injury. Patients have been known to be confused and violent putting nurses in harm’s way. By lifting patients, transferring a patient, or even following protocol; this can all be very dangerous. The long-term effects include back pain, knee pain, and foot pain. This all makes for reason to raise the salary. Most nurses are over worked with long shifts and few breaks. The hospital would take a huge loss if there were not nurses. Nurses spend most of the time with the patient after a doctor has made rounds. Many patient’s outcomes are closely related to the nurse they had. The patient has most of their trust not in the doctor but in the nurse because that is who they are spending their time with. If a patient’s condition changes, it is the nurse that informs the doctor first (Ashworth College). The hospital is about caring for people around the clock so without nurses there is no 24-hour care. Without nurses, there would not be any use for hospitals. 

It is hard to believe that in 2017 there is still a pay gap between men and women and discrimination in the work field. Unfortunately, this is true for nursing. Since the Equal Pay Act of 1963 the salary gap has narrowed in jobs, but still happens in fields such as nursing and medicine. The Equal Pay Act requires employers to pay men and women the same amount for doing the same work. There is a 20% wage gap in genders. Women would have to work about three months to earn what men earned the previous year. Women earn less than men in almost every occupation on average, and this is even worse for women of color (Miller). The gender gap in nursing has mostly stayed the same through the past decade. Female nurses will earn about $155,000 less than male RNs in a career (Maier). Women dominate this profession, but there is still a huge pay gap between men and women. Out of the 2 million nurses nationwide, only 10% are male. The largest gender pay gap is in the specialty of nurse anesthetists. It is the highest paying nursing specialty and attracts men. Even though female and males receive the same amount of education and training; there continues to still be a pay gap in this field (Jimenez).

The nursing profession is not only a female dominated career, but also a white dominated one. Over the past 70 years 77% of nurses are white (McMenamin). As America is evolving to increasing diversity, the health professions are not moving as fast, which may end up hurting the profession. Understanding and diminishing workplace discrimination will benefit health workplaces and professions (Baptiste). Diversity in the workplace is important especially in nursing because they are working with such a diverse population. This will promote quality care to each patient so that they are satisfied. The gender pay gap impacts women of color even more. Diversity in the workplace is so important and by diminishing the wage gap, more minority groups will want to go into the nursing profession (Ayoola). 

The pay gap is caused by many different reasons. First, some women take time off work to have children, and when returning their male peers will have a higher salary because they continued working during that absence. Another reason is that males have been known to be better at negotiating pay raise.  There is also gender discrimination in the nursing field that can lead to a pay gap (Press). Women are almost looked down upon approaching management about their salary; rather when men approach it is more positive. According to an article by Sallie Jimenez men work more hours in nursing which is an important factor since they are paid on an hourly basis. They are more likely to practice in a popular geographical region. There is also a theory of the “glass escalator” where men tend to move up the career ladder faster than women. This is because they are working in a female dominated profession (Press).

Closing the pay gap has many solutions. If employees start talking about their salary with each other than they can decide whether to approach their management. Work places also strongly discourage talking about salary. This should be stopped so that workers are compensated. Employers need to have more transparency when talking about salaries (Jimenez). Women need to learn how to negotiate better as well. Women tend to ask for less money than men when negotiating. Being confident and having a positive attitude can help with negotiating. By speaking out about the pay gap with social media like Facebook and Twitter is a great way to educate people about this. This will cause people to start talking (Vagianos). There is only about 10% of male nurses, but it is starting to increase which is good for the gender pay gap because it will likely decrease (Press).

Nurses have so many roles and responsibilities. They are needed in every hospital and assist the doctor, but they are usually with the patient for the majority of the time the patient is at the hospital. All these responsibilities are not only physically demanding, but also can be hard mentally for the nurse. They deserve higher pay because of all these reasons, and this will increase the amount of time an employee stays at a hospital. Increasing salary of a nurse will not only benefit the nurse, but also hospitals. The salary gender gap also effects nurses greatly. Women have smaller salaries then men, and these needs to end. By putting the word out that there is a salary gap problem, more nurses will be willing to talk about their salaries. This will start a conversation, and if needed they can go speak to their management about it. Female nurses need to have the conversation with their management, so this ends. The hospital could not survive without a nurse and that makes them so valuable. The salary should be raised in the nursing profession, and the gender gap should be completely diminished. 
