Graduate Nurse Residency Salary

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Hi everyone! I'm in the process of interviewing for a graduate nurse residency program in critical care. I recently found out that if I secure the residency my pay will be $1000 every 2 weeks for the full 3-4 months of the program without an hourly wage. I was just curious if this is normal for residency programs? The normal new grad hourly wage is around $23-$25 for the area, but I know this is just a residency and not a guaranteed full-time position. I appreciate any feedback! :)

I suppose it would depend on the specific hospital. In my area, new grads in residency programs get paid around $22-23/hr, then the rate increases at the 1 year mark.

As such, I personally wouldn't take that position because it equates to around $13/hr. Again, that's in my area though.

Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

If they're quoting you a flat rate salary, this would seem to indicate that the residency jobs are 'exempt' status rather than hourly. From the employer's standpoint, this would be much easier to manage because it would be a fixed cost with no pesky overtime to deal with. I am noticing some creative new salary schemes for residencies - even unpaid with stipend only to cover expenses. However, I don't think that the characteristics of a typical residency job meet the usual requirements for exempt status.

I suggest that OP do a thorough investigation of the residency arrangements before making a decision in order to avoid dealing with nasty shocks later on.

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