pay

Rates can vary significantly based on the specialty, location in the country, as well as experience, etc.

I've read that the pay for CNSs is between $55,000 and $80,000 depending on experience, specialty and locale. I think the average salary for NPs is about $70,000. Advance for NPs will be printing out their bi-annual salary survey soon.

the best place to look i think is salary.com type in clinical nurse specialist or nurse practitioner and your zip code and it will give you salaries for your area

The pay is highly variable, as Suzanne noted. CNSs do not necessarily make more than staff nurses; it depends on the position. I have been a child psych CNS for ~11 years. I have worked in outpatient positions where I made quite a bit less than staff nurses working on inpatient psych units, because that was the kind of work I wanted to do. I taught nursing for a few years, and made quite a bit less than I could have made in a clinical position (that's pretty much a universal "given" ). I've worked in inpatient settings where I made a good salary, more than the base salary of staff nurses, but, with overtime and extra shifts, I'm quite sure there were plenty of staff nurses at the hospital who made more than me over the course of a year (because I was on a straight salary).

There are also significant regional/geographical differences. There are so many variables and possibilities that it's v. hard to make any meaningful predictions about salary.

I would strongly discourage anyone from pursuing any advanced practice role in nursing only because they want to make more money.

Here in the UK and atleast in our Trust CNS's & NP's are higher then staff nurses and are equivalent to junior/senior sisters. Though not sure how it is in rest of the UK.