Clinic vs hospital nurse pay

[Newnurse75]

I'm a new graduate RN in Texas. I just my first nursing job at an urgent care clinic here in Texas. My family and I are wanting to move to Colorado (not sure where exactly right now...just not the eastern side....cause it looks more flat, honestly...but anyway) in the next year or so.

I tried researching online for clinic nurse pay in Colorado, but wasn't really coming up with much. Do you guys know the pay for clinic/urgent care/physician office/outpatient care nurses?

Also, my long term goal is to get into the hospital setting in Labor & Delivery or Mother/Baby, but I know to get into these units you either have to 1) get into a residency program or 2) have experience in acute care setting (which I'm not sure if working at an urgent care clinic counts as that). I've researched residency programs that accept nurses with experience and found that UC Health in Colorado Springs and Centura Health accept nurses with under a year of experience. Do any of you know of any other places that accept nurses with under (or over) a year of experience for their residency programs?

I know Colorado nurses make A LOT more than Texas nurses. The clinic pay here for a new grad is around 20-24 dollars and hour. And the hospital pay that I've seen is about 25 to maybe 30 (for nights) an hour. Do any of you know comparable pay for Colorado?

Also, any tips for an out of state nurse wanting to get a job in Colorado- like in a clinic or (preferably) a residency program?

I appreciate any help you guys can give!

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Hate to burst your bubble, but we make the same based on those numbers.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Yep, like That Guy mentioned, the pay ranges you quoted for TX new grads/nurses with less than a year experience is very similar to what you would find here in Colorado.

And I only know about UCH and Children's, but their new grad residency requires you to be BRAND NEW. You have to have graduated within the previous 6? 12? months, and not have worked anywhere else as an RN in order to qualify. Edited: just looked at their website - it looks like the residency requirements are different in Colorado Springs - you have to have graduated within the past 12 months, but you will qualify if you've worked as a nurse somewhere else.

[klone, MSN, RN]

If you have urgent care clinic experience (preferably at least a year), you could look into a job at the urgent care clinic at Denver Health. DH has an acute care hospital, as well as primary care clinics throughout the Denver community. What's great about DH is that they pay their nurses the same, regardless of if they work inpatient/acute care or in ambulatory care. And they post their pay ranges in their job listings - for a nurse with 1+ years of experience, the starting pay is $27.38/hour.

Outside of DH, you're going to find that nurses in ambulatory/clinic settings typically make $2-3/hour less than those who work inpatient (you pay a premium for no nights/no weekends/no holidays/no call).

[Newnurse75]

Yeah UC at Colorado Springs is one of the few programs that I've found that will accept a nurse with some sort of experience. I've researched on different threads and stuff and have seen that it can be hard for an out of state nurse to get a spot in a residency program...Do you know if it's the same for just any job period?

[Newnurse75]

And it's nice to see that the pay increases with experience. I will have at least a year of experience when I move to Colorado, so it's good to see that the starting point is higher.