Do pediatric nurses get paid less??

[melc2009]

I am in my third year of nursing school working on my BSN and I recently heard that nurses that go into pediatrics are on average paid less. Does anyone know if this is true? It doesn't make any sense to me why they would be paid less, if you ask me they should be paid more! I am interested in pediatrics and would like to know what the pay is like, any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!

[TazziRN, RN]

Nurses are paid the same base rate. Some facilities will offer more for experience or for working critical care, but all units get the same base pay. A nurse working in medsurg will get the same as a peds nurse with the same amount of experience.

[nurse4theplanet, RN]

I don't know what the statistics are for pediatric nurses nationwide. But I do know that our local children's hospital started new grads out at a lower rate than other adult hospitals. It was also harder to obtain a job at the Pediatric hospital because the demand for pediatric nurses was very low. Many people wanted to work there and few left. I think that is why they were able to offer lower pay. People who really wanted to be employed there would not mind taking a dollar or so less in pay. However, in the adult hospitals there is a huge demand for nurses and a high turnover and hospitals are in stiff competition to draw and retain nurses. This is reflected in the higher pay they offer.

[leslie :-D]

the nurses who work at children's hosp where i live, also make less money.

not sure why, but do know it to be one of the lower paying hospitals.

leslie

[widi96]

Same input as above. I think the peds unit in our hospital pays the same, but it is a very small unit that is closed a lot. We have a major pediatric hospital in our area (Children's Mercy) and I know in general they pay less than any of the surrounding areas. They don't have to pay more because they have so many people wanting to work with kids. They don't have the shortage like the other areas do.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

Kids hospitals do tend to pay less. As an adult nurse, I have my pick of hospitals. As a peds nurse, it's where I work, or go take care of adults. And most peds nurses absolutely do NOT want to work with adults.

[Michellex1013]

That is exactly correct, I have heard this many places accross the county. Peds nurses (especially those that work for a children's only hospital) do start at a lower wage than the nurses who work with adults. Hospitals know that if nurses wanted more money they could go work with adults but most only want to work with children. In a lot of cases children's hospitals retain there nurses longer and have fewer shortages. I think specialties like PICU and NICU do have more shortages so they might get paid more.

Michelle

[FlyingScot, RN]

I took a $1000 dollar per month pay cut when I moved from an adult hospital to a children's hospital recently. It has been quite painful but my sanity was worth it.

[ICRN2008, BSN, RN]

the nurses who work at children's hosp where i live, also make less money.

not sure why, but do know it to be one of the lower paying hospitals.

leslie

Ditto. Our hourly starting rate is the lowest in the metro area. I was told that it's because my peds hospital has its pick of nurses and has a monopoly for anyone wishing to work with kids.

[llg, PhD, RN]

I agree with the above posts. In hospitals (or hospital systems) in which the peds nurses are part of a larger staff, the base pay rates are the same. However, because peds is a popular specialty, employers don't have to pay as much in bonuses to attract nurses to the peds unit.

Most (all?) separate children's hospitals are run by charities and depend on charigy dollars to meet the payroll. The culture and philosphy of most charities is that they want most of the money to go to serving the patients -- not buying fancy houses and sports cars for the staff. The donors in the community donors won't continue to donate if they believe that the staff is better paid than necessary. They also believe that the people who work for that charity should be working there because of a deep personal committment to serve the patients, not because the pay is better than other local hospitals.

That "charity culture" leads many (most?) children's hospitals to strive to be "average" for their market in terms of pay and benfits -- not to be near the top in terms of the compensation package they offer. That's usually good enough because that "serving the children" culture pervades the organization and they are generally more pleasant places to work. They don't need to offer the highest salaries to attract staff.

However, I think some of that is changing as the nursing shortage has worsened as had shortages in other professions (e.g. pharmacists, RT's, etc.) It puts those hospitals in a bad position -- wanting to appear "humble" to keep the money flowing in from the donors, but needing to pay big salaries to compete in the job market.