Nursing Questions!

[ftee]

Hi Guys!

I'm currently in grade 12 and I live in the Toronto area. I'm extremely passionate about going into nursing and becoming an RN, however, I do have a few concerns.

1. I just wanted to know after your 4 years of undergrad, is it easy to find a job in the Toronto area? And if you're just a general RN without a specialty, what do you generally do at work? Is it true that where you do your clinical placements is usually your first job if you do really well there?

2. What is typically an entry level salary for an RN in Toronto or Ontario in general?

3. After say 2-5 years of working, what is an average salary in Toronto/Ontario area?

I just wanted to know if it was possible to make over 80k or even 100k with experience? Not that I'm money hungry or anything, but everything in Toronto is getting more expensive and living in Toronto isn't cheap either, and if I'm thinking about the future, having a family, taking care and providing for them and my parents, as well as treating myself from time to time. I wanted to know if an RN job would get me through comfortably?

Thanks! :)

[Castiela]

My understanding is that the job market is quite competitive for new graduates in Ontario.

https://www.ona.org/wp-content/uploads/ona_2016hospitalawardhighlights_20160912.pdf?x72008

the link is the wage grid for Ontario nurses. In your first year, it says you will earn about 58k a year. You would need to do a lot of overtime to make the 80k mark, if you can get a regular full time position

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

The GTA is saturated with applicants, including home-grown new grads, home-grown experienced nurses and internationally-educated nurses (who generally only know of Toronto and Vancouver when they think of Canada). While it's not impossible to find a job as a new grad in Toronto, it's certainly not easy. The other part of your question regarding income reveals the all-too-pervasive perception that nurses make a lot of money. Our governments are to blame for that notion. Because most nurses in Canada are paid (indirectly) out of the public purse, when it's time to trim budgets, we're one of the soft targets. The truth is, we make decent money, but not nearly the fortune suggested by our employers. Those nurses who find their way onto the provincial Sunshine List are either in upper management or they do nothing but work.

[dishes, BSN, RN]

Many other graduates of four year non-nursing degrees would love to start their careers with an hourly wage similar to nursing grads >$30.00/hr. Nursing education is worth the time and money because even if the job market is a surplus market upon graduation, the job market is sure to change throughout the nurse's career. I graduated in a surplus market and have been through three shortage/surplus cycles in my career.