It seems like everyone but nurses make more money

[rearviewmirror]

I didn't become a nurse because I had a calling or anything. I was one of those few idiots in high school who had no dreams or aspiration, so my dad said "hey nursing sounds good" and I said "okay"...... mistake. Now, I am no Trevor the psychopath or Mary the maniac, but certainly not a bleeder of heart. I just did my job well and went home.

I got sick of humanity at ER, so now work at insurance donig medical reviews.

As I am at that weird age where people around you either make mediocre money vs tons of money, it's hard not to notice those that make a ton, and what irks me is that none of them work at healthcare field.

My brother who's been in workforce only few years already makes well over 120k, not mentioning bonuses, incentives, 5 star hotels and lux meals, my friend at airline industry living a nice, rich life, a regular marketer at company owning two expensive sports cars...

Where do these people get these jobs? It seems like unless you're running the corporate side of healthcare, you work your butt off and get few change and a key chain for Christmas.

[AnnieOaklyRN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

Trying working in EMS BEFORE You complain!! I have been doing this for 18 years, 12 as a paramedic and am still in the LOW 20s range for pay per an hour!!! I have a two year paramedic degree, same as some nurses and tons of responsibility. I feel like part of how well you get paid is how many people are willing to do the job for crappy pay.

EMS is fun, I won't lie and nursing sucks in my opinion, thus nurses make more because if you didn't pay them more they wouldn't do the job. It's not all about what sex dominates the profession or how much education is needed to do it.

Annie

[northbynorthwest]

Nurses, listen to me. After 40 years in healthcare, starting out as an RN and then getting my MBA and now run physician practices, there is something very important to understand about how nursing services are CHARGED to insurance companies. When we as nurses go about our daily work, entering various documentation in the patient's record, we know we are doing our job. We use nursing diagnoses to assist with our documentation. We complete our documentation at the end of our shift. We then see our biweekly payroll check. Yet behind the scenes, nursing documentation is not paid for by insurance companies, and nursing hours aren't either. Nursing services are included IN A DAILY ROOM CHARGE TO PATIENTS. There is no detailed accounting of specific nusing charges for nursing medical services rendered. Nursing services are categorized as an HOURLY LABOR EXPENSE which is calculated into the daily room charge to a patient. Unfortunately, our value is never based on what we do - it is based on an overall expense, and falls into the expense side in accounting. And when a room charge goes up or down based on patient volume, that is when a hospital downsizes nurses if the volume decreases due to market forces. Nursing is not valued for its expertise from a REVENUE charge, unfortunately. There is not, in our current healthcare finance system, any medical coding to charge for nursing services and even procedures everyday, i.e starting an IV Line, inserting a urinary catheter, measuring and emptying body fluids including surgical drains, cleaning trachs, changing trachs, changing dressings, flushing ports, blood transfusions and its monitoring, and monitoring patients for changes in status. This is all part of their ROOM CHARGE. So I ask, if nursing diagnoses are not paid for, why have them at all? It helps us for sure in understanding our patients, but those diagnoses are not paid for. On the contrary, a physician is paid by medical services provided to each patient. Physicians bill the patient's insurance for each and every medical service and procedure, every day, including the quick checks by both PCPs and specialists, and surgeons. using medical coding terminology they give to their offices to bill. This includes a CPT code for the service provided followed by specific diagnosis codes. Thus,doctors get paid everyday for their medical services performed, and they are considered a REVENUE source. So enter into nursing knowing this. Understand the finance system you are in. Ask your Nurse Manager for the Hospital financial statements provided every year. See the numbers. Don't assume anything until you see those numbers. Yet as far as I see it, until nursing services become a REVENUE CENTER, nothing will change in nursing. My personal feeling is this will never happen, it is too expensive to do, and massively expensive to implement, and there is no backing to do so from National Nursing Organizations, State Nursing Organizations, Hospital Associations Statewide, and on the federal level. If you want to make more money, and are good at what you do, get an advanced degree, like I did.

[Jules A, MSN]

I feel like part of how well you get paid is how many people are willing to do the job for crappy pay.

Amen Sister!

[qnmimi]

Wow, I was struck by the tone of envy in your letter. Please do not mistake this response as an attack, it is not. Do these other people have the job security, and a wide field of career choices in jobs as you do? Are you happy in nursing? If not, you are still able to make any career choice you have a passion for. ? Maybe a life coach can help you find happiness/fulfillment in a career. I send you a lot of good wishes to find what makes you happy.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Most of my neighborhood friends drive expensive cars and live paycheck to almost paycheck. Looks can be deceiving. An RN makes more money than the average American. You wouldn't ball out of control but you have a solid middle income. Top 40% income earner

THIS!!

An RN makes a solid, middle class income. I don't have expensive cars, but ours are reliable and have gotten us where we want to go without stranding us anywhere. I don't have a huge house, but we have always had a safe neighborhood and a comfortable home. We are able to take a nice vacations most years, and I'm retiring in my early 60s. My sister who is a Gucci nurse in hospital administration makes buckets of money and drives luxury cars, has a waterfront home and takes exotic vacations all over the world every three months. But she's not any happier than our cousins who have menial jobs, drive junkers and live in small, older homes in our small home town. You never know what someone else's life is like where you're looking at it from the outside. Nurses make enough to be comfortable; as far as satisfied, you're exactly has satisfied as you make up your mind to be.

[Avid reader]

Love my career and love nursing. Just do not like being a slave to the rat race and the brain washing by society influencing my aberrant thinking. I leverage my skills set quite well and I think therein lies the problem. Nurses are the hub in the entire machine of a hospital. We manage everything and everyone because we are the individuals on the floors. We just don't leverage that value well enough.

[Channabanana]

You have to be willing to do what it takes within a profession to make money. Usually that requires risk or self sufficiency. Working for someone else is equivalent to making someone elses dreams come true monetarily.

Being in business for yourself is always a better option if money is your dream.

This is true. A friend of mine told me that, he realized there is no money in anything. There is only money in longevity. You have to be willing to put in the time to earn a decent wage.

[NewRN'16, ADN, RN]

.. If money is all that you love, then that's what you'll receive

Who cares that much about money? All I'm ever reminded of is the Star Wars quote.

I grew up in a very financially comfortable well to do family. Not so rich it was a "big deal" to us, but very comfortable life style. My parents were miserable, and all us "kids" are pretty miserable as adults!

I never strove for riches. Give me poor but happy over rich but miserable any day! Yeah, I'm being a little sarcastic, unrealistic. I do need enough to put a roof over our heads, food on the table, etc.

Since we live modest comfortable life styles we are very comfortably off financially even with our "poorly" paid jobs. My husband was a social worker, (also a traditionally female job). With his MSW and advanced certification, being bilingual, working 40 hours a week, I made more money than him working 32 hours a week with my ASN degree!

Who cares that much about money? Umm.. pretty much everyone does. You can't possibly live without it. Besides, having or not having money can mean the difference between life and death in certain circumstances (I.e being able to afford good health ins and the copayments ). Sorry, but money do matter.

[AliNajaCat]

Key Points:

1. Nurses do not actively make money for health care businesses, so why should we be payed a ton of money.

2. Nurses are female and want favorable schedules. This compromise results in lower wages from employers. I can't emphasize enough how important this is. How many nurses would agree to extend their availability and accountability to their employer for a 120k salary. In my experience, not many. Nurses WANT to be paid hourly and they WANT a minimal commitment to their employer.

3. There are a lot of nurses, so there is little need to offer RNs serious money.

Fallacies abound here. But clearly your experience isn't wide enough to have a wider perspective, so let me help.

The first and prime assumption here is that all (or even most) nurses are working staff positions in hospitals or other facilities. In my state, approximately 50% of licensed nurses are employed in non-staff positions. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there.

Second, can the assumption that nurses don't make money for their employers, so they don't deserve to be **paid** more. Many facilities attract business because of the excellent reputations their nursing care earn. Beyond that, though, those non-facility positions often make a lot of money for their employers-- and we are paid correspondingly. If you're willing to learn how to justify your worth and prove it, you too can earn a better income being a nurse.

So there are a lot of nurses so there is little need to pay them well? Hmmm. This only works for the first assumption. I am proud to work with a lot of outstanding nurses who are not your average drone, LOL... and we are well-paid for being outstanding. You want to be outstanding too? Do it. But if you don't want to or won't do it, then get out of the way of the ones who do and are.

Many nurses, especially new ones, have no fricking clue as to the number of opportunities there are out there for a smart nurse. In part, you cant blame them much, because they are educated in the health-care-delivery mode that is largely hospital centered. Just ... learn more.

A good place to start, just to open your eyes a bit, is that know-it-all Wikipedia. I don't usually cite it, but in this case it's a good jumping off point. Search "nursing specialties" there, roll around in it a bit, and then go to the ANCC website looking at specialty certifications, and to some nursing specialty organizations. It's a big world out here, folks.

[RegularNurse]

Fallacies abound here. But clearly your experience isn't wide enough to have a wider perspective, so let me help.

The first and prime assumption here is that all (or even most) nurses are working staff positions in hospitals or other facilities. In my state, approximately 50% of licensed nurses are employed in non-staff positions. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there.

Second, can the assumption that nurses don't make money for their employers, so they don't deserve to be **paid** more. Many facilities attract business because of the excellent reputations their nursing care earn. Beyond that, though, those non-facility positions often make a lot of money for their employers-- and we are paid correspondingly. If you're willing to learn how to justify your worth and prove it, you too can earn a better income being a nurse.

So there are a lot of nurses so there is little need to pay them well? Hmmm. This only works for the first assumption. I am proud to work with a lot of outstanding nurses who are not your average drone, LOL... and we are well-paid for being outstanding. You want to be outstanding too? Do it. But if you don't want to or won't do it, then get out of the way of the ones who do and are.

Many nurses, especially new ones, have no fricking clue as to the number of opportunities there are out there for a smart nurse. In part, you cant blame them much, because they are educated in the health-care-delivery mode that is largely hospital centered. Just ... learn more.

A good place to start, just to open your eyes a bit, is that know-it-all Wikipedia. I don't usually cite it, but in this case it's a good jumping off point. Search "nursing specialties" there, roll around in it a bit, and then go to the ANCC website looking at specialty certifications, and to some nursing specialty organizations. It's a big world out here, folks.

Thank you for your post!

My post answered the original poster's question about why nurses are paid less than other healthcare professionals. I'm sure there are many RN level positions that pay well. However, the fact stands that most nurses work in staff positions at hospitals. Please don't confuse my post with an opinion on nursing compensation, or instructions on how to make more money; I wasn't trying to do either of those.

Bureau of Health Workforce | Bureau of Health Workforce has great info on nursing workforce demographics.

[RegularNurse]

Finally, someone else who gives an honest answer to this question.

[NurseNeLz]

I always thought nurses made great money. I guess it depends where you live. Being 22 years old making 80 grand was just fine for me. And that was 10 years ago. Only thing is over the years the pay doesnt jump greatly but im still happy with my salary.