Completely theoretical question

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I am curious what the minimum amount of compensation the nurse practitioners here would have accepted for paying more money for education, spending massive amounts of time getting educated, and then taking on more responsibility/liability. Obviously, this will have no meaning unless we talk about NP pay in relation to RN pay. I am not asking what you would expect to be paid, I am asking in relation to RN pay how much more (or less) would you require to be paid for the role change, money sink into education, time sink into education, and increased liability. In other words, what is the dollar figure (in relation to RN wages in your area) that you would rather have not put the time/money into school and continued working as a RN.

I feel this information will be valuable for those who are considering NP school but are not sure when it is worth it. Different regions you can expect to make more, or less as a NP. I am excited to see if anyone says "I love this job so much I would of done it for 30k less/year then when I worked the floor" or "after the education/time I put into school, and my increased liability, it would not be worth it unless I made at least 30k more per year then when working the floor." Thanks for participating!

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

This will be dependent on many factors but I had decided I would not take less than what I made as an RN. I had 14 yrs experience when I became an APRN and I got 20k more then what I made as an RN. This was 9 yrs ago

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I will be making double what I made as an RN, however I do live in the deep south. Where the RN pay is a little over $20/hr. starting. I have 5 years experience working Medical and Cardiac ICU. I am ready for the increase in pay as well as the excitement of doing something new/different (I will be primary care/urgent care). I will let you know if that changes once I start working in the next couple of weeks.

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I will be making double what I made as an RN, however I do live in the deep south. Where the RN pay is a little over $20/hr. starting. I have 5 years experience working Medical and Cardiac ICU. I am ready for the increase in pay as well as the excitement of doing something new/different (I will be primary care/urgent care). I will let you know if that changes once I start working in the next couple of weeks.

yes but what is the minimum you would take for the increased role/responsibility? Would it be worth a pay cut because you love the role so much? Would you do it for 25$/hour? 20$? 30$? 15$? At what point would it be worth it to you?

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Specializes in Emergency.

I didn't make this career choice for money, if I wanted to make the most money I could in my life, I would have continued to work at a career which held no new challenges for me. I quit that career and became an RN to become an NP. What I earned as an RN was laughable, and although I will demand to be compensated for what I'm worth, salary will not be the first or even close to the top issue when I consider the positions I might pick, lifestyle issues and career issues will be much higher on my list. The biggest thing I learned in my previous career is that no amount of money will buy those memories I don't have of my children's youth.

Don't get me wrong, money is and should be important, but each individuals situation is different and because of this any conclusions drawn from numbers you obtained here would be invalid.

I will say that money will be low on my list when I start looking for my first opportunities as a NP. Instead my top priorities, in no specific order, will be how flexible and supportive the culture will be in supporting me to spend time with my family, the quality of the support I will get in regards to being able to utilize resources when I feel I don't have the requisite knowledge to diagnose and treat the patient, and how much pressure I feel the culture will place on me to meet numbers over quality of care. All of these issues will be more important than salary for my first job.

As for salary down the road, I fully expect that after I obtain a few years of experience I will make a salary that is far above what I made as a RN. There are far too many opportunities as a NP to make a salary that is in a totally different range, and still be able to spend time with your family.

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I didn't make this career choice for money, if I wanted to make the most money I could in my life, I would have continued to work at a career which held no new challenges for me. I quit that career and became an RN to become an NP. What I earned as an RN was laughable, and although I will demand to be compensated for what I'm worth, salary will not be the first or even close to the top issue when I consider the positions I might pick, lifestyle issues and career issues will be much higher on my list. The biggest thing I learned in my previous career is that no amount of money will buy those memories I don't have of my children's youth.

Don't get me wrong, money is and should be important, but each individuals situation is different and because of this any conclusions drawn from numbers you obtained here would be invalid.

I will say that money will be low on my list when I start looking for my first opportunities as a NP. Instead my top priorities, in no specific order, will be how flexible and supportive the culture will be in supporting me to spend time with my family, the quality of the support I will get in regards to being able to utilize resources when I feel I don't have the requisite knowledge to diagnose and treat the patient, and how much pressure I feel the culture will place on me to meet numbers over quality of care. All of these issues will be more important than salary for my first job.

As for salary down the road, I fully expect that after I obtain a few years of experience I will make a salary that is far above what I made as a RN. There are far too many opportunities as a NP to make a salary that is in a totally different range, and still be able to spend time with your family.

These are the kinds of responses I was hoping for. You are suggesting that quality of life and increased pay will come from being a NP, would you be willing to go through everything it takes to become a np, including increased liability in the role if your pay did no increase? What if it went down, would the sacrifices still be worth it to you?

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Well it also comes down to if you enjoy the work and I do enjoy working in the role of the NP but I don't think I would take less than $40/hr. It is much different than being a bedside RN.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

I love being a NP but it is more difficult than I ever could have imagined so there is no way I'd consider doing it if I weren't making considerably more money. I make about double what I made as a RN.

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Specializes in family practice.

When I first considered going back to school, it was more to get my masters and maybe some increase in pay. Now I have better job satisfaction than when I was an RN. I didn't know I would like it this much but I do. I still get the days I'm frustrated, and tired but overall I will say I stepped up the ladder.

With this in mind, I'd say I'd have taken what I got as an RN. I don't think it's wise to get an education for less money considering the amount of loan some people will incur from getting the education

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