RICHMOND, Va. — In between caring for her three kids, Ashley Williams takes care of others as a nurse for multiple hospitals in the Bon Secours Health System.
“It’s extremely difficult some days, especially in the ER, it's high stress," she said. "But it's just really rewarding."
She's part of what's called the ER float pool, which consists of nurses who agree to be flexible to work in different emergency rooms on any given day.
Sometimes, they even move from one ER to another during a single shift.
In return, the nurses receive supplemental pay in addition to their base hourly rate.
“I feel like that’s where the supplemental pay comes from," Williams said. "To cover this extra thing you’re doing to help the hospital out."
Cindy Rubenstein, the Director of Nursing at Randolph Macon College, said hospital systems developed float pools to help when they have a high number of patients or nurses out sick.
“The goal is to actually have nurses that are dedicated or hired specifically to work on a unit to actually care for those patients on a day-to-day basis because that is actually associated with better patient outcomes and improved patient safety, but the reality is we are in a nursing shortage,” Rubenstein said.
For Williams and her colleagues who are considered Tier One float pool, the supplemental pay was an additional twenty dollars per hour when she received her employment offer in March 2023.
“It was a fantastic offer. It almost felt like, man, this isn’t real, I’m not going to find this somewhere else," Williams said. "So I jumped in and took it."
But in December, Bon Secours told Williams and her float pool colleagues that their supplemental pay would be cut by five dollars per hour.
On top of that, PTO would now be paid at the base rate, as opposed to including supplemental pay.
“That’s significant. Why are we cutting the pay for the people that are getting down and dirty? We are working the frontlines,” Williams said.
CBS 6 asked Bon Secours about the pay cuts.
A spokeswoman said that since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospital system has been offering increased pay incentives that were necessary to support staff and care for their communities during the pandemic.
“While necessary at the time ... these pay practices are unsustainable long-term," the spokesperson said.
Therefore, she said, “a small portion of our roles received pay adjustments to be more in line with current market conditions and what other health care systems pay for these roles.”
She added that Bon Secours invested more than $75 million system-wide in base pay increases in 2024.
Rubenstein said supplemental pay or travel nurse pay cuts are not uncommon post-pandemic.
“I think all health systems are struggling right now with how to balance budget with, sometimes, reduced reimbursement rates, but also sustain increased nurse salaries,” Rubenstein said.
Williams said her services are still in demand.
“Are you familiar with the nursing shortage?” CBS 6 reporter Melissa Hipolit asked Williams.
"Yeah, we see it every day. That is part of what the float pool is there for, because we go and fill in spots where there might not be the nurses to work that day. It allows staff nurses to take a vacation to have these other people who can come in and fill that spot,” Williams said.
She does not see how cutting pay is going to help that situation.
“We were heroes two or three years ago, and now it’s like, 'OK, where can we cut things on your side?'” Williams said.
We checked with other area hospital systems to see if they have changed supplemental pay for float pool nurses.
VCU Health told me they have not cut supplemental pay for float pool nurses, but they did not tell me what that supplemental pay dollar amount is that they pay.
We are still waiting to hear back from HCA about whether they have cut or maintained their supplemental pay for float pool nurses post-pandemic.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
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