I'd really like to know how to make a lot of money doing it. I've given it some thought, and I'm asking for practical advice on the matter. For all my idealism, romanticism, and so on concerning the art of nursing and direct patient care, with my wife insisting that we make babies until she gets her girl and this most recent US indicating that she might not get her way yet again, I'm pretty sure making real money is enough of a necessity to merit certain concessions in my professional goals.
I gave up on the nurse anesthetist track when I caught the psych bug. I may be giving up on the pysch aprn track now with DNP conversion being imminent. I have a handful of associate's degrees, and will have my BSN at the end of the year, and will start school again when the time comes. Uh, now what?
I make fair money now - working nights on an inpatient psych unit. After I graduate, I've been offered a job working per diem as a visiting psych nurse to see if I like it. I've been told by reputable sources that a visiting nurse (in my state, CT) could make 6 figures easily annually, but I'm not sure if that means working 12 hours a day 5 days a week driving as fast as I can to give someone meds and be on my way. How about I do that for a few years, get my MBA, and start my own agency?
I don't know. Obviously, I'm just trying to work it out by typing some options and don't need to bother you fine people about my problems. I guess the specific question that could be asked in light of what I'm trying to figure out is: How does one make "real" money in nursing? I know it's subjective, so let's say 200K+. Is this an uncomfortable subject? Do I come off like a d**che, or greedy, or motivated by the wrong reasons? Why is talking about salary in general, much less telling someone what you make or asking them how much they do, a little sketchy?