Hourly Pay Help

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Hi,

I am graduating in December 2014 with my BSN degree. I'm starting to look at potential hospitals where I would like to work after I graduate. I really would like to start out doing psych nursing, however, I know it is highly important for me to start out in Med Surg in order for me to gain the proper experience for my nursing career. Does anyone know what the base pay is for NEW GRADS at St. Patrick's Hospital in Lake Charles, LA and Our Lady of Lourdes in Lafayette, LA. If you happen to have any other information regarding the highest paying hospitals in Lake Charles, LA and Lafayette, LA, please share with me. Also, has anyone worked in Beaumont, Texas, at St. Elizabeth or heard anything regarding Beaumont, TX, hospitals? If so, did you like it and how was the pay?

Thanks in Advance!

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

You should post this in the Louisiana and/or Texas nursing forum.

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Thanks for the suggestion. I am new to this site; so how do I go about doing that?

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Specializes in Hospice, Palliative Care.

Good day, ab2014

Start United States Nursing

Thank you.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
You should post this in the Louisiana and/or Texas nursing forum.
Threads merged and moved to the Louisiana Nursing forum to hopefully attract responses from nurses who live and work in this region.
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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

No comment on the wages but it is a complete myth that you have to start out in med surg.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
No comment on the wages but it is a complete myth that you have to start out in med surg.
You have a salient point. No one is forced to start out in med/surg, although many nursing school instructors encourage new nurses to obtain a year or two of med/surg experience to build a foundation of procedural skills.

In eight years of nursing, I have never worked in med/surg. My instructors were telling my class the same things about med/surg experience being "mandatory." In reality, it all depends on what you want to do with your career.

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Hello,

i graduated from McNeese, worked at Lake Charles Memorial for a few months, base pay was a little over $17/hr and a little over $18/hr at St.Pats. That was a year ago. Pay isnt too great in Southwest LA...

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Started out in MICU as a new grad then went to ED. You don't have to do med/surg as a new grad!

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Thanks for the info. My friend who just graduated in May 2014 said she's getting base hourly pay $20.25 at Lake Area (the old Women's and Children's). Also, a few days ago I heard that St. Pat's is starting off new grad RNs at $21.25 or either $21.75. I would hope it is true, but who knows. I really appreciate you all's feed back. My interest is to do psych nursing.

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Rapides Regional in Alexandria, La. is starting at $22.10 base, $3 extra for nights, and 15% extra for weekends. Christus St. Frances Cabrini in Alexandria is paying $22.25 base, $3 nights, $3 weekends. After 3 months you have an option of signing a contract to work all weekends for 6 months and you'll get an extra $4 an hour added to base pay. She said during that 6 month contract you do get to choose one weekend off but you must work all the rest to get the extra $4 an hour. So during that contract you'll earn $32.25 per hour which ain't bad if you are a new grad and got some bills to pay off. She also said you have the option of taking some extra shifts if they are available, but only after you been working for 3 months. (that means you can get some overtime which is paid at time and a half, possibly $48.37 an hour during OT which is a whopping $580.50 for a 12 hour shift, lol). Man you could pay off some bills quick if you willing to bust your butt a couple extra shifts a week.

Also my wife was offered her choice of ICU, med/surge, etc. but she chose to work the step down unit for the first 3-6 months. They don't offer ICU to every new grad though, only those with high GPA and good reviews from the Professors. Otherwise they said they have a 6 month program that lets you start in med/surge or another floor and gradually trains you to move up to ICU after the 6 months. My wife chose stepdown where all the bypass patients are because she did most of her clinicals there in school and she got to be friends with a lot of nurses on that floor. She said she will probably move up to ICU after she gets comfortable with all the hospital procedures and signs her 6 month weekend contract.

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Thank you for all the great info and breakdown of hourly pay. I will have to look into the hospitals located there. Thanks again.

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