NP Salary vs. RN salary

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I have a friend who just started working as a NP about a year ago and she said she is really disappointed she didn't go to CRNA school because she is making the same money she made as a RN in the hospital. When she did agency work she made even more, she says another nurse said she should should have looked into travel Nursing, they average around $100,000.00 some years depending on the assignments they choose. I am considering CRNA school cause I want to make a great income too but if you can be a BSN with over time, travel nurse on occasion and do some agency work why bother going into debt? and suffering 30 months in a CRNA or NP program. Could anyone clarify this for me? This just doesn't make sense to me? I can see if you want to open your own clinic as a NP, that was my dream until I found out in Missouri you cannot open a clinic. I'm still investigating if this is true. That's the reason I chose to go the CRNA route. Anyway can someone explain the salary differences to me, I read NP magazine by advance and they are giving salary ranges that are for NPs who have been in the field for a while. I believe I'm confused. Any clear answers will be greatly appreciated I'm also sharing this info with nurses at work who are in limbo about what advanced degree to pursue.

Thanks!

"I guess this will depend on where you work. We use a lot of NPs in the NICU, and they do NOT get to sit an concentrate on one thing. They are constantly being interrupted with everything from quick questions and telephone calls to codes. And, they are not at all immune to disrespect from families or any staff. Oh, and our NPs work rotating shifts including nights, weekends, and holidays. Sure, there are M-F 8-5 jobs, but I don't think they will get you away from the other things you mentioned. Just my two cents."

This is precisely why I have chosen to stay away from any sort of inpatient work as an NP. I work strictly outpatient and yes I do have time to think about patients and no rotating shifts for me, thank you. I am done working nights, holidays, and weekends for eternity. :yeah:

I am applying to ACNP programs, but does that mean that I will never be able to work outside the inpt setting? I am thinking someday I might want the outpt setting just not now? What are the thought on this? Is it possible to work outpt with the ACNP concentration?

Thanks!

That is a tricky issue, I believe. I actually know of an acute care NP who is practicing outpatient, HOWEVER she is limited to her field of experience and clinical background as an ACNP. She can only pretty much see cardiology patients on an outpatient basis. She told me many times that she should have gone the ANP route so that she would have more options open to her and so she could do primary care. Me personally, I would only do ACNP if I knew I was going to do inpt forever. Aside from this, the ACNP route I believe is geared more for people who have intensive care background. The grad school I went to required ACNP students to have at least 2 years ICU experience.

I know it's hard but it would be good to know exactly what you are interested in doing before starting NP school. That way you don't waste any time in terms of clinicals and coursework. If you go the ANP route, you can still inpt, but just not ICU. I work with ANPs who are part of the CV surgery team where I work and they work on CV step unit and manage the patients there. They like it and there has been low turnover in those positions. I would go with the route that's going to give you the most options when you are done because as you said you may want to do outpt at some point in your life and you want to give yourself the opportunity to do just that. Good luck with whatever you decide!

I'm in Central Ohio and the average RN salary at my hospital is $84,000. I can't imagine at that salary that the NP salary increase would be worth the time and money invested in furthering your education.

Specializes in CVICU.
I'm in Central Ohio and the average RN salary at my hospital is $84,000. I can't imagine at that salary that the NP salary increase would be worth the time and money invested in furthering your education.

They pay 40-42 dollars an hour for a staff RN in Central Ohio? That is the average salary for staff RN? Thats on par with San Fran. Sounds fishy...

They pay 40-42 dollars an hour for a staff RN in Central Ohio? That is the average salary for staff RN? Thats on par with San Fran. Sounds fishy...

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2009/snapshots/19.html

"Most common job (hourly):

Staff Registered Nurse $84,096"

I was surprised as well and took a survey of the nurses I work with that were willing to share their salary information and it appears to be pretty accurate.

I have a friend that works at Mt Carmel and they don't come anywhere close to that salary though.

I'm in Central Ohio and the average RN salary at my hospital is $84,000. I can't imagine at that salary that the NP salary increase would be worth the time and money invested in furthering your education.

Wow. Have you checked into what NP's make in Ohio? Maybe they make even more than those nurses!

I live in N. Va where salaries run pretty high. As a full time RN I'm making around $60K. It sounds good, but cost of living and taxes are higher also. It just doesn't seem to go very far. I can't believe RN's are making that in Central Ohio, but I guess I could be wrong.

I'm into furthering myself. More education always helps. I say if you've got the means to do it, do it for the sake of educating yourself and gaining more knowledge.

But, for me, as in so many of these prior posts, it's about wanting a different lifestyle and a different focus. I'd rather devote my time here on earth into keeping more people OUT of the hospitals, rather than trying to fix hopeless trainwrecks once they're in. Both roles are important. Both have their place. There's just only one way for me to go, though, personally -- and that is the route of preventative care. It just makes so much more sense to me.

Regardless of money, I'd increase my education too. I love to learn and I wouldn't be satisfied being anything less than a mid-level provider. I'd get frustrated with my lack of knowledge and the inability to provide complete care to my patients.

I totally know what you were trying to say. I was a L&D nurse for 8 years before going back to school. I worked my first Mother's Day. For 3 years after having children I was asked to work Christmas Day because my "kids weren't old enough and wouldn't remember." I hated it. Yes! there is tons more responsibility as an NP and you never get to just concentrate on one patient. You know how on a bad day on the floor you could afford to have your mind elsewhere say for a few minutes because you had orders to fall back on......you have absolutely no room as an NP for a bad day. It can be somewhat exhausting because your description involves going in room after room after room listening to.....you guessed it....their chief complaint. No problem unless you're having a particular bad day. There is no room for any added weight on your shoulders.

With all that said, it IS a "gravy train" when it's all over.....because it's over. I leave work at work. I get to leave at lunch and go to my kids school to volunteer. I'm even my kindergartener's room mommy and I would never had gotten to do that as a staff nurse. If I want to meet up with friends for lunch, I do. And at 5-6pm....I'm home, with my family, and my kids have my full undivided attention. I don't fret about being called back into work, taking call, etc.

One piece of advice if you do decide to become an NP, is leave your work at work. don't get into the habit of bringing it home. It's a trap that will sabotage your family life. Treat it as you do that 12 hr shift....as if your passing it on to someone else and taking it home is not an option. You will be much more satisfied in the long run. I think you said you were a mom. Keep in mind, you wouldn't take your family to work.....that's crazy! Consider it just as crazy to bring your work home to your family! Because as a career mom you can all too quickly feel like you're always supposed to be somewhere else. Do your job, do it well, then be done with it!!! Good luck in your decision!!

Specializes in mostly PACU.
I totally know what you were trying to say. I was a L&D nurse for 8 years before going back to school. I worked my first Mother's Day. For 3 years after having children I was asked to work Christmas Day because my "kids weren't old enough and wouldn't remember." I hated it. Yes! there is tons more responsibility as an NP and you never get to just concentrate on one patient. You know how on a bad day on the floor you could afford to have your mind elsewhere say for a few minutes because you had orders to fall back on......you have absolutely no room as an NP for a bad day. It can be somewhat exhausting because your description involves going in room after room after room listening to.....you guessed it....their chief complaint. No problem unless you're having a particular bad day. There is no room for any added weight on your shoulders.

With all that said, it IS a "gravy train" when it's all over.....because it's over. I leave work at work. I get to leave at lunch and go to my kids school to volunteer. I'm even my kindergartener's room mommy and I would never had gotten to do that as a staff nurse. If I want to meet up with friends for lunch, I do. And at 5-6pm....I'm home, with my family, and my kids have my full undivided attention. I don't fret about being called back into work, taking call, etc.

One piece of advice if you do decide to become an NP, is leave your work at work. don't get into the habit of bringing it home. It's a trap that will sabotage your family life. Treat it as you do that 12 hr shift....as if your passing it on to someone else and taking it home is not an option. You will be much more satisfied in the long run. I think you said you were a mom. Keep in mind, you wouldn't take your family to work.....that's crazy! Consider it just as crazy to bring your work home to your family! Because as a career mom you can all too quickly feel like you're always supposed to be somewhere else. Do your job, do it well, then be done with it!!! Good luck in your decision!!

This is soo true! I would NOT go back to staff nursing for anything! Money simply is not my #1 motivator for anything in my life. It was very important to me that I improve my quality of life, along with furthering my education in order to enter a different role. When my son was a baby it was HELL for me to be gone 14 hours a day (gotta count the travel time to and from work). I would come home late at night exhausted as all hell, only to have him wake up as soon as I walked in the door! Then I spent the next hour trying to get him back to sleep, often falling asleep on the couch while holding him in the process. My husband was great, because he was there during the evening with the baby and probably did the most work. But that doesn't make me as a mom feel good. I personally would have traded the evening/night differentials, weekends, and holidays for evenings at home with my baby.

Hi everyone,

I was going to post a seperate thread about this, but I'd figure I would ask here first. I was wondering if anyone could give me some insight into RN vs NP pay in regards to psychiatric nursing. I just applied to a very expensive private direct entry program. My co-worker was telling me it may not be worth it because psychiatric homecare pays as much as psych NP's. All of the psych RN's that I interact with make over 100k (with OT) I just want to make sure that all this money will be worth becoming a psychiatric nurse practitioner when I could become an RN with a lot less debt heh. In other (simpler words) do psych NP's make more than pscyhiatric homecare RN's and if so, how much more. Thanks in advance!

Specializes in mostly PACU.

The thing is, depending on the region you live in, any RN can bust their butts with overtime and make tons of money. I knew a number of nurses where I used to work in NYC who made close to 200k a year!! How did they do that? Well they basically worked nearly every damn day of the year, all holidays, some nights, etc. Their life was the job. I don't know about any of you, but I'm not willing to do something like that just so I can say I make 100+ thousand dollars as an RN. My current job has so much flexibility that I can honestly show up and leave when I want to. I actually don't spend more than 6 hours physically present on the job each day. I have to be available by phone, but that certainly isn't the same as being present on a unit for 12 hours straight. The point is, no matter how many hours I work, as long as I get my work done, I'm still getting paid! So I'll keep my little under 100K-a-year salary any day over killing myself working 5 or more 12 hours shifts a week to make that much.

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