[harpseal]

Ah nursing as the profession where we have supposedly insufficient people to fill the needs. I note that the wages of Nurses have not jumped to magnificent levels. I note there are many nurses who are out of the profession who say it is not economic to go back to work. Within the past year I know of MSN who were out of work for a fairly long period.

I do not buy it. If your documentation shows you have increased the compensation for Nurses to the point where the compensation is better than the CEO of your health care organization then I will buy it as valid. A good nurse should be getting paid at a professional level if you are providing that level of compensation then

[Mr. Bird]

A new graduate nurse with no experience and merely an AA degree is currently making over $40,000/year without overtime (in Baltimore). Their wages are increasing at faster than a 7% rate annually. There are more nursing positions in this country than there are licensed nurses. If I raised wages by 50%, the number of nurses would not necessarily increase, but your medical bills would. And then the government would force me to lower them, and then I would go out of business, and then no nurses would be working, and you and I would fall ill and die.