What kind of money does a nurse REALLY make?

[oldeddieboy]

Hello. I plan on starting an ADN program Fall '13. I don't want to discuss the love for nursing or other intangible perks of the job - just the financial aspects. When I tell people I plan on being a nurse, they almost always say something about making great money, but is the money really that good? It's almost like some people think nurses are rich or something, but in reality it seems like they make pretty average money without 20+ experience. I'm no financial expert so feel free to correct everything I'm wrong about.

First of all, nursing school takes about 2.5 yrs. Most people I know say its a full time job and working is out of the question. Thus by pursuing nursing, one is essentially "losing" 2.5 years of pay. If you assume it takes 6 months to find a job, that is a 3 year time investment. At 15k/yr, that's 45k. With 3% compounding interest, I think it's about $50k of "lost" money. At 3% interest this is about $125/month

Now comes to cost of nursing school. Depending on the school, it can be anywhere from $10k to $30k. My cousin paid about $22k at a local health sciences college (community colleges were almost impossible to get into). At 15k, thats about $175/month to pay back loans.

Nurses start off at ~$19/hr around here (south) - about $35,500....gross $25k?

$25k gross - $2100 ($175 x 12) loans = $22,900 net. That isnt much money to live on considering all the time invested and physical/mental stress of the job. You also don't have $50,000 in the bank due to being in school. I'm not sure how long it would take to make up the $50k difference...I guess it would depend on how much money you would be making not doing nursing.

What do you think?

[jaiyewill]

Hi PMFB-RN, where do you live?

[PMFB-RN, RN]

Hi PMFB-RN, where do you live?

Wisconsin. Why?

[nurseladybug12]

Sounds like you should go into banking dealing with numbers and not people. If you are not in it to help people, regardless of 50 grand this 3 percent that, dont do it. Go to school for something you are passionate about, because you wont care about the numbers then.

[cnmbfa]

NO ONE should go into nursing for the money, or for job security. You will make a LOUSY nurse, will be unhappy, and will drag down the profession.

Getting into nursing shool is higly competetive, and involves a lot o effort. Stayin in school is even harder, and involves a huge amount of work. There is no guarantee that you will get a job right off the bat. And, it is demanding (but highly rewarding) work--physicallyy, emotionally, and intellectually.

Money is the reward you get for going through all of this. It should not be the motive for becoming a nurse, ever.

[stopthepenguins6]

Thanks to both of you for the great replies! That is pretty cool how your salary adds up so fast Penguin. Do you mind me asking if you are in a big city or small town? Would you say you are pretty mentally/physically strong being able to work nights plus overtime? My cousin says she is mentally/physically drained after working three 7am-7pm shifts...however, she does drive 50 minutes to and from work so this may make it a little worse for her (effectively ~15 hr days). For myself, I didn't figure in night differentials because I just couldn't do it for a sustained period of time. It throws me out of whack and I usually end up not being able to sleep so I couldn't put patients in the position of having a sleep deprived zombie working on them.

I'm actually in a smaller town, however we're about 30/45 minutes away from an area with several large, well known hospitals, so our hospital tries to stay competitive as far as payment goes. As far as staying awake on night shift, It really depends on how you personally handle it. I'm fine as long as I keep the same schedule, even on my days off. The problem is when I try to switch my schedule back to being awake during the day time, for instance if we go on vacation, etc. I know some co-workers with children handle that with minimal issues, but I find myself tired all the time if I try. My husband and I went on vacation a few weeks ago, and I was miserable trying to stay awake during the day just to spend some time with him. I'm the type of person that needs to stay on nights all the time, or on days all the time...I couldn't imagine working swing shift like some people do. So my answer is do what your body tells you to do, and if you find that you need a day shift, don't hesitate to make it known to your manager that you'd like to be considered as soon as a position opens up. I'm already on the list at work, myself. I look forward to seeing daylight again .

But as previous posters have said: it's not all about the money. If you go into nursing just for the money, you'll be miserable, bc while the money is good, no money is good enough to deal with what we deal with Just for the money, if that makes sense. If it's your goal, go for it, be a nurse, go into debt, then dig your way out of it like the rest of us ...but do it bc you want to be a nurse, not because you hear they make good money :).

[RN2Be77]

Do any of you reside in NY and can provide average salary figures for NY state?

[Kimynurse]

Average LPN starting 24.00 an hr

Average RN starting 30.00 an hr