Reasonable RN Pay in Pediatrician's Office

[irish_rn]

I am currently working Med-Surg in the hospital setting. I live in Florida, and am making around $27 an hour in the hospital.

I interviewed for a job yesterday at a really nice Pediatrician's office. I would be doing mainly immunizations and triage. I really liked the office, but they only offered me $16 an hour! The same rate that they pay LPN's there. The physician said "Our highest paid nurse (LPN's) are paid $16 an hour. I reminded the physician that I was an RN, and asked if that made a difference.

The physician told me to consider it over the weekend, but I am really unsure how to negotiate the pay rate. How do I go about doing this? I want at least $20 an hour.

Any advice?

Thanks!

[peaceful2100, BSN, RN]

For clinic nursing? Sounds reasonable. Acute care is and should be where the money is.

Wow, Seriously $16 for a RN sounds reasonable even in a clinic? I take it you have never worked in a Pediatric clinic before? It is work and it is not a easy walk in the park especially this time of year. No doubt about it Acute care will always make more money compared to Clinic nursing but $16 is ridiciulous. I was making very close to what I could make in Acute Care. It was a trade off considering no nights, weekends, or holidays so I never expected to make money like Acute Care but I would never take such a ridiculous wage even if I didn't need the income (Like if my husband made more than enough and I was just working just because). My brother who has only a high school diploma makes almost more than $16.00 an hour.

[pfchang]

For clinic nursing? Sounds reasonable. Acute care is and should be where the money is.

Reasonable? This is a naive comment. Ambulatory is also where the money should be for an RN doing triage, procedures, treatments, patient and family education, chronic disease management,and numerous other things.

[klone, MSN, RN]

For clinic nursing? Sounds reasonable. Acute care is and should be where the money is.

Nobody is arguing that a clinic RN should make the same as an inpatient RN in the same region. But $16/hour?? Come on! That's an insult.

[LTCNS, LPN]

I have to agree $16 an hour for a RN in any clinic setting is an insult. I'm a LPN working in a clinic doing all sorts of things from adult to pediatric care and *I* make more than $16 an hour.

OP, I wouldn't settle for $16 an hour as an experienced RN unless you desperately need the income right now.

[featherzRN, MSN]

I work in a clinic now and our LPN's make in that range, actually I think they make more. Ambulatory care can be and often is just as much work as an inpatient position, believe it or not. You do generally get paid more inpatient as you have to deal with weekends/holidays/rotating shifts/etc. I live in the boonies where the RN pay is generally pretty low (even at the hospitals), and I would not take a clinic job for that rate no matter how nice it was.