Higher Paid Nursing Jobs

[mbrn1985]

Hello everyone! I was looking for some advice based on your experiences with higher paid Nursing Jobs. I am currently working as a staff RN in an intensive care unit at a major trauma center in the southeast. I have been a nurse for 4 years. At the current time, I am making $23.00/hr (12 hours shifts/3 days a week). I am interested to hear about other options in nursing that will allow me to have higher pay (excluding travel nursing and/or going back to school for MSN). What jobs pay better than others? For example, home triage nurse or dialysis nurse? Any input would be appreciated.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

Every staff nurse in every hospital I ever worked in got pay and raises by seniority, not by area. It's an insulting myth that ICU is somehow "worth" more than med/surg or OB (and I was an ICU nurse). All work hard to the best of their abilities.

So... if you want to be paid more as a staff nurse, you'll have to work a lot of OT, go to another hospital with a higher pay scale, or move a higher-paying area of the country...if you can find a job there. And be sure to check out the differences in cost of living-- you'd be surprised.

[optimist]

New RN grad here (with LPN experience), very rural southeast, just accepted an offer for outpatient Dialysis position, 3 twelve hour shifts, $24.50/hr.....Im still smiling!

[seemerun]

In my area there is a pay difference between nursing homes, home care, clinics and hospitals but if you are in the hospital it doesn't matter what unit you are on you make the same amount. I seem to be among the few (on a national scale) that feels I am fairly compensated.

If you have the option I would suggest: working for a hospital with a strong union that has fought for fair wages, precept new staff or train to charge or get certification in your specialty. At my facility those all come with extra pay.

[SalineFlush]

Get out of the South. I'm leaving. I've been with my current NC hospital for 3 years and my base is still less than yours ($22.44). I'm tired of working nights, and I don't feel that we should have to work "overtime" to bring home a decent wage. I see nurses all the time pulling extra hours and my question is "Why?". There are people in manufacturing with no degree of any sort making more money on the hour than we do. It's sickening. I had a great realization earlier this year that if I stay where I am, I will never get these student loans paid off while still being able to enjoy life as an adult and have the normal that people seek (i.e. my own home, a decent car, vacations, etc.). It doesn't quite jive with me either to incur more educational debt before I've got the debt from my first degree paid off. Therefore, I've decided to move on. The South will always be behind.

[darlink]

If you can do it, look at travel nursing. ICU is always well paid, housing is paid.

I know what area you live in makes a big differance. I can tell you jobs here in California pay far more then what you are making. Starting for a new grad here in San Diego is $28-30. I have 4 yrs experience. I had a job making just under 100k doing home health/palliative nursing that I just left because I wasnt happy with management. This was a union job and raises were part of the contract.

[SLUPPLACE]

Do not limit yourself to the hospital setting. As a long term care nursing administrator, I can tell you, the myth that you will not use your nursing skills in long term care is indeed a myth! The company I work for employs a high percentage of RN's and we encourage (and pay for) advanced degrees. We provide care that is very similar, often more intense than a hospital med-surg unit, and very often we take our admission straight from a hospital ICU. We use advanced assessment techniques including voice recognition documentation, telemedecine for accessing physicians and other specialists. We require a 4 hour or less turn around on lab and xray results, 4 hour pharmacy to bedside for new medication orders. All of our quality indicator measures are lower than the national average. All of that plus a person centered care model which supports patient choice in waking/sleeping hours, meal hours, medication schedule conformed to waking/sleeping hours, personalized care plans... Long term care is a great place to work and make more money than in hospitals! The reason? Long term care operates on a nursing model and the operation is corporately very thin. Hospitals are overloaded with administrators, consultants, committees, that eat up all the money that could be paid to strong nurses. It is common for a new grad RN to make > $28/hr and advance to $30 within the first year. Average RN salary in our company is $37/hour. Directors of Nurses make between $80 and $110K per year depending on the size of the facility. If you are GOOD, and you want to have more autonomy, and you want to make more money, consider a career in a long term care. Do your research and pick a great company - just like hospitals, there are some companies that we are not so proud of! We only get better when we hire and nurture a strong RN workforce!

[mclennan, BSN, RN]

I am in Los Angeles, and when I moved out of ambulatory clinic nursing and into case management, my salary doubled. And so did my quality of life.

[klone, MSN, RN]

If you can do it, look at travel nursing. ICU is always well paid, housing is paid.

Yes, and if you live in a larger metro area with several hospitals, you can also be a travel nurse while still living in the same general area. No need to move all over the country in order to travel.

[WillowNMe]

I have my full time job, and now I'm picking up for an agency. They are a travel agency, but I am on local contracts only... I make about $15 more an hour.

[green34]

We just started offering nurses around 24 dollars an hour to start out and we're in the midwest. You can get differentials for working nights like an extra dollar for nights, 45 cents for 2nd shift and 45 cents for weekend hours. The nurses also get on call pay and that is where it gets screwy. There is a huge formula involved in calculating it.

Every year, the raises are like .25 cents per hour.

[klone, MSN, RN]

We just started offering nurses around 24 dollars an hour to start out and we're in the midwest. You can get differentials for working nights like an extra dollar for nights, 45 cents for 2nd shift and 45 cents for weekend hours.

Yikes, that doesn't sound like a lot! Everywhere I've worked, night diff was around 18-20%.

[SalineFlush]

Actually, it is that ICU is "somehow worth more than med/surg or OB", and I am an ICU nurse. The care we provide carries more risk for harm and liability. Nurses in med-surg and or telemetry may have more patients, but they are doing less for them than we do. There is a much greater risk of liability when you are caring for physiologically unstable ventilated patients, running CRRT, managing vasoactive drugs like Levophed, continuous sedation and paralytics, an aortic balloon pump or hypothermic resuscitation than passing out sleeping pills, Percocet, and walking patients to the bathroom. So yes, we should be better compensated. Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen. It's an insult to the profession as a whole, however, and not just to those nurses working in the ICU.