Midland (Texas) Memorial Hospital is making a significant effort to invest in its med-surg nurses through a new payment program the hospital kicked off May 5.
The program increased base pay by $3 an hour for registered nurses and $1.50 an hour for licensed vocational nurses.
"Our goal is to set the standard for med-surg specialization and to pay our med-surg nurses beyond the top of the market to retain our clinical experts and recruit the next generation," Kit Bredimus, DNP, CNO at Midland Memorial Hospital, told Becker's.
Many hospitals across the U.S. are struggling to hire and retain med-surg nurses, just one of the reasons that Dr. Bredimus said Midland Memorial opted to implement the program to reverse that trend on a local level.
"There's really a lot of work that's put on the med-surg nurses across the country, but even in our own organization, we recognize that it is a very needed specialty, and it's one that we wanted to recognize as a specialty."
Dr. Bredimus also touched on the importance of hospital leaders having open communication with their front-line employees to better understand existing concerns, barriers to workflow and what they're seeing out on the hospital floors.
"That's one thing in our organization we definitely strive to do is make sure that we are getting that constant feedback from not just our managers and our charge nurses but the front-line staff themselves, and hearing from them directly. What are the things that they're seeing, that they need? Or ways that we can improve the work environment?"
The program has received strong initial response since it launched, however, Dr. Bredimus said the hospital will continue to monitor any feedback and communicate any updates and changes with employees along the way.