Revolving door. UNMH knows it can exploit employees who are eager to learn and advance their practice. They have the lowest wages for inpatient registered nurses in Albuquerque. This is supposed to be justified by free health insurance offered to full-time employees. The caveat being, you must use UNM providers. UNM health system is completely saturated, employees experience significantly long wait times for appointments. Additionally the insurance is not great, and patients end up paying a big portion of services rendered. Most people leave at 2 years, and the people that continue working at UNM because they love the patient population and the medicine continue making the same wage, indefinitely. UNM does not give raises!!! They gave one raise a few years ago that after negotiations with the union (terrible), was only some cents. Loyal employees are not valued, and the longer you stay the less money you'll earn compared to the new hires who get a higher rate at sign on. Moreover, if you are loyal, you'll spend every shift you work precepting because retention is so terrible that the units are always full of new staff, oh, and you don't get paid to precept either! This is a patient safety issue on so many fronts. The ICU's, at this point in time, are primarily staffed by new hires and a big portion of those are new graduates, because again, no retention.
