Nursing Pay

allnurses Guide · Jan 20, 2012

PT and OT have been smart enough also not to let shortage rumors go viral.

8404Corpsman · Jan 20, 2012

To the OP. The only place I have ever heard of a nurse with a BSN being paid more than a nurse with similar experience but an ADN is here on allnurses. None of the hospitals I have worked in in any of the four states I have worked in did nurses with BSN get pain anymore money.
When com paired to our level of responsibility nurses are very underpaid. Many health care jobs have far less responsibility but get paid far more. PT & OT spring immediately to mind.

I know this is totally off topic but I was wondering if you can assist me in the process of putting my LVN package together I was wondering if there is a template for that letter which is required for Navy Corpsman trying to challenge the CA-STATE LVN Exam. Please let me know. Thanks!

PS can you email me instead-

[email protected]

brandy1017, ASN, RN · Jan 21, 2012

Then again, PT and OT have been very smart by restricting the number of people who enter those fields over the years. Since PT and OT have more barriers to entry than nursing, their salaries remain high and the number of PTs and OTs graduating into the workforce each year remains controlled.
On the other hand, nursing has fewer barriers to entry, so masses of people have become nurses over the past few years, which has resulted in stagnant wages, difficulty finding work in many areas, and local employment markets that are simply glutted with too many nurses.

Sad but true! But also remember the hospital association has been pushing for more nurses due to the fake "shortage" and using this to get more foreign nurse visas, etc. You don't see these same tactics being used for pharmacists, doctors, PT/OT.

ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP · Jan 21, 2012

I know this is totally off topic but I was wondering if you can assist me in the process of putting my LVN package together I was wondering if there is a template for that letter which is required for Navy Corpsman trying to challenge the CA-STATE LVN Exam. Please let me know. Thanks!
PS can you email me instead-
[email protected]

No offense, but this isn't the post to be asking for this kind of assistance. Maybe go to your school's career office and ask for help there.

At any rate, nurses do a lot and need to know a lot for their job. However, people need to look at the bigger picture here and realize that nurses (in America) only need a two year degree. They also make around 20k more per year than the average American, and the working hours are extremely flexible. Social workers, on the other hand, require a Master's degree (usually) and they are paid a pittance for what they do.

PMFB-RN, RN · Jan 21, 2012

However, people need to look at the bigger picture here and realize that nurses (in America) only need a two year degree. They also make around 20k more per year than the average American, and the working hours are extremely flexible. Social workers, on the other hand, require a Master's degree (usually) and they are paid a pittance for what they do.

*** In my opinion looking at one's degree to decide compensation is useless. For more important is level of responsibility. In my job as a rapid reasons nurse, and previously as a critical care transport nurse I literally held peoples lives in my hands A small mistake on my part could easily lead to my patient's death or permanent disability. I must often make life or death decisions bases on incomplete information is a very short amount of time. Lots of other nurses have similar responsibility's. A small mistake on the part of a social worker is unlikely to be truly life changing for anyone.

In my opinion nurses pay is nowhere near commiserate with our level of responsibility. Many in health care with far, far less responsibility make more (PT & OT for one example). Other health care jobs with similar levels of responsibility and knowledge requirements are paid more (pharmacy for example).

Yes it is true one can be an RN in two years. I actually did it in only 9 months. However nursing skills are very suited to on the job learning and a degree is a poor indicator (I would say totally useless) of a nurses knowledge base.

Been there,done that, ASN, RN · Jan 25, 2012

I did not belittle the OP. Anyone that took the time to add appropriate links deserves respect and a heads up as to how to validate their efforts.

I responded with respect... and a valuable opinion.

My attitude is not the issue here, rather yours.

KalipsoRed21, BSN, RN · Feb 22, 2012

I'm not good with spelling and the spell check program provided by this site does not work on my computer. And, no, I did not feel like taking the time and copying my entire post to a word document, verifying the spelling, and then copying it again to post. To me, this is not a formal site and thus a few spelling errors are no big deal. If I were to write something that I intended to use for scholarly purposes or at my place of employment I would be more vigilant about my spelling, my punctuation, and correctly sited my references in APA format. If someone on an informal website does not feel like my arguments are creditable because I did not spell correctly then that is a opinion I cannot deny. But I'm not going to be any more vigilant about my spelling on an informal website than I would when I'm writing a rough draft of a paper. Just how I feel about it.

@llg

I would argue that 1990 nurses were more prepared for the average medical-surgical work enviornment than a nurse produced by the education system today. So not only are students today paying more for school, they are getting less of an education.

In the past nurses were well trained in school to be medical-surgical competent prior to finishing nursing school. New mostly had to work nights, because it was 'slower' and had a seasoned nurse to direct their questions to. After some experience they were allowed to move to days, and then after a year or two could be considered for a specialty.

I would argue that due to the nursing shortage hospitals needed new grads to fill positions that were normally for seasoned nurses. Thus it was their responsibility to provide such education and fellowships to those new nurses and I would not consider that training as something that should be added to a new nurses' pay. What has happend from a decade+ of this sort of education is that nursing schools chose to focus only on getting their nurses to pass the NCLEX and are now expecting hospitals to train new grads the rest of the way. Yet since the recession started, hospitals are going back to a more traditional hiring pattern and hiring new grads only in medical surgical units instead of specialty areas.

(I graduated in 2008. I regularly look for nursing jobs just to see what is out there and since 2010 most specialty nursing positions have a requirement of 1-2 years of nursing experience to be considered for the job. Some like in the ER and ICU areas require 3-4 years. These are not recommendations they are REQUIREMENTS for the position.)

Unfortunatly now that schools are only teaching the NCLEX and clinical hours are reduced, many new grads come out of school less prepared than those who graduated in years passed did and are now being expected to do what a new grad did 20 years ago when they got out of school.

I do not think counting orientation as pay for a new grad is something that should be considered. I would also like to add that the pay increase for experienced nurses is far, far lower than what it should be.

boushie87 · Feb 23, 2012

For a 4 year degree at a public institution the average person spent: $32,900

haha unfortuntely that is what one yr in tutition costs me.

yetzertov7 · Jan 21, 2014

SO, now it is 2014. I am in NY. I am offered $18 per hour. at least the first 3 months. What can 'New nurses' expect to get paid? "new nurses" meaning no hospital clinical work as yet, post school.

and How does one get noticed when one is still Hospital untested?

PMFB-RN, RN · Jan 22, 2014

SO, now it is 2014. I am in NY. I am offered $18 per hour. at least the first 3 months. What can 'New nurses' expect to get paid? "new nurses" meaning no hospital clinical work as yet, post school.
and How does one get noticed when one is still Hospital untested?

OMG! $18 an hour in NY!? So sad to see the decline of what used to be a decent profession. That has been the goal all along, and the reason the glut of nurses was deliberatly created. Amazing how sucessful it has been.