NORWICH – Four nurse supervisors of the Chenango County Public Health Department requested an 8 percent raise Tuesday in order to offset the higher compensation paid to some of their charges.
The nurses, representing 77 years of professional services in the county, said their staff’s union successfully negotiated a large contract increase last year that, effectively, earned them more than their non-unioned managers.
“We are pleased with the contract because we are able to hire better nurses and keep people. We have attracted two who are excellent. We have no issue with that. ... Our salaries are unfair compared to the staff’s,” Director of Patient Services Marianne Kirsch told members of the Health and Human Services Committee Tuesday.
Supervising Community Health Nurse Susan Converse said she is currently making $3,000 less as a nurse manager than she did when she earned overtime.
“I’ve worked a lot more hours this year than I did before, I can tell you that,” she said. Converse was a staff nurse for 12 years prior to being promoted.
New York State Nurse’s Association nurses negotiated an 8.2 percent boost last year on top of a 3.25 percent raise each year through 2008. They earn $44,728 plus benefits and overtime. The requested increase would bring nurse manager bases salaries up to $57,561; $54,280; $52,380 and $51,183, plus benefits.
Kirsch said the four function collectively around the clock to oversee 17 nurses, five therapists, two social service workers, a dietitian and a home health aide. The nurses care for 100 or more patients on any given day, many of whom require intravenous care, injections, wound vacs, and feeding tubes.
“We are not just taking blood pressure,” she said. “We are doing procedures that are risky and more hi-tech. Some of our patients should be hospitalized.”
Also, Kirsch said since the World Trade Center bombing and Hurricane Katrina, public health nurses have been asked to be more educated on and available to handle national disasters. “We are constantly on; never off,” she said.
“It’s my license that’s on the line. We don’t just leave the nurses out there on their own. It’s not unusual for us to meet them to help with risky procedures. We are responsible for the people working under us. We would lose our licenses if something happened,” she said.
After making a motion to refer the request to the county’s Personnel Committee, Richard Schlag, D-German, said he’d been on the Board of Supervisors “long enough to see (labor union) contracts going up more than compensation schedules in terms of increases.”
Town of Afton Supervisor Robert Briggs seconded Schlag’s motion. The referral passed unanimously.
Committee Chairman Jeffrey B. Blanchard asked Kirsch to present research about nurse manager compensation rates in nearby counties that have comparable populations and public health department structures.
Preliminary discussions for next year’s non-union employee compensation packages began this month. Last year, salaries went up 2 percent for part-time and 2 percent plus $500 for full-time.