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Vice presidents of patient services received a 10.1% salary increase this year, and directors of nursing received an 8.5% salary hike, making them the big winners in this year's Hay/MODERN HEALTHCARE Nurse Compensation Survey. Meanwhile, pay hikes for registered nurses showed moderation across the board, especially for nursing supervisors, who saw a sharp drop from past double-digit increases.

Modern Healthcare's third annual survey shows that raises for nursing supervisors continued to outpace raises for staff positions last year. However, those raises varied by region, presumably reflecting regional differences in the severity of the recession and local personnel shortages. The survey also showed that many hospitals have added salary levels, called clinical ladders, to compensate experienced bedside nurses.

There's a recruiting war going on, a pitched battle for nurses. The pitch includes lucrative sign-on and shift bonuses, which then must be matched by competing hospitals that need to keep their beds staffed. It's all leading to an explosive rise in nurse compensation, for bedside nurses and managers alike, according to the Hay-Modern Healthcare nurse compensation survey.