Demand for Psych/Mental Health RNs

Specialties Psychiatric

Published

Specializes in Forensic Psych RN.

Greetings,

I am a RN with the Department of State Hospitals, State of CA. Many years ago, this department transition from community psyche objectives to 99% patients found NGI and placed in one of the state hospitals. Coworkers and new grad nurses with psych experience as an LVN or PT that became an RN, are getting aggressively solicited for very high paying jobs. I believe that when the AFCA made mental health a medical diagnosis, the game plan changed for many hospitals and this created jobs for experienced mental health nurses. Recently Mark Zuckerberg and his wife built a new hospital in San Francisco as part of San Francisco General Hospital which is City and County of San Francisco public health. A nurse I work with, 6 years experience, applied and was accepted for a position. He showed me his acceptance letter. He was slated to start at level 3 (1 is the lowest and it goes to 6). At level 3, he would be started at $127,000 a year. Ultimately, he was bumped up,without asking, to level 5 and he is getting around $140,000 a year. To gauge the need, even interim permit RNs are being hired. I have not heard of this for a LONG time in the SF Bay Area. Another LVN I work with became and RN and he could not keep up with the offers immediately after he was licensed. I am asking if anyone has experience working at San Francisco General Hospital in their psche department. I am interested in how safe it is since it is not a corrections setting.

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Uh... Holy cow

I make around 1/3 that

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Specializes in psychiatric, corrections.

That is a decent wage I suppose. I now live in TX but I am from the bay area. The cost of housing makes that wage decent at best. The cost of a decent home in the bay area is closer to 1M dollars and over. That wage would be more worth it if you decided to live in a townhome maybe in the bay area, unless you have a spouse who brings in similar money. Or living in Davis, Vallejo, Vacaville and just commuting.

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SF is known for its high cost of living so those salaries are justified.

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