I’ll admit to being a little offended initially at news reported earlier this week that some nurses earn more than primary care physicians. After all, I spent a lot of years doing a lot of work to get those two letters after my name. Surely I should get paid more than a nurse, right?
But as I got to thinking about it, it occurred to me that in a free market economy, this is what happens. Apparently there’s more demand for well-trained nurse anesthetists than primary care doctors, and therefore they get paid more. Whether or not it *should* be that way you can fuss about all you want, but it won’t change anything.
For example, let’s look at who else probably earns more than primary care physicians:
- Cosmetic dentists
- The guys who encouraged poor people to take out fixed-rate mortgages with no money down
- That dude from the ShamWow commercials
- The inventor of the Snuggie
- The least-famous Kardashian
Should any of these people make more than primary care physicians? In our current economy, yes. Salaries are not driven by a moral code, nor are they designed to reward those who work the hardest, study the most or put in the most hours. They simply reflect what people — including you and me — are willing to pay. Someone somewhere decided that hey, I really could use a blanket with sleeves. That person told another person who told another person who organized a pub crawl in Chicago, all to the great financial benefit of a guy who made a bunch of people look like idiots.
So to all you nurse anesthetists out there, my hat’s off to you. Earn away. For now. With a worsening shortage of primary care physicians, we may see that pattern change soon.
Photo credit: SarahMcD ॐ
from: http://healthcare.change.org/blog/view/nurses_get_paid_more_than_doctors_so
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