8-10hr nursing jobs that give hospital paygrade

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Specializes in Under 4 months of nursing..

Hello everyone,

While I have been venting quite a bit on this forum about my declining health and lack of job offers, I am trying to look at things from a different perspective. Yesterday I was rejected from two more positions in the community(no interviews just based on my resume) and I sort of reached this state of acceptance that I was going to have to stay on my hospital unit for a bit longer. ? I am in my late 20s so going back to school really isn't a smart decision for me financially. I'm going to have to make the best of the degree I chose. Also, as I am not dating and may never wind up finding a romantic partner it is important to me that I am able to provide for myself financially, hence why I am looking into strictly hospital paygrade roles in the future. That being said, I want to be proactive while I am at my current job and want to set myself up for financial and personal success in my life for the long run. 

I am interested in knowing what positions are available to nurses that are 8-10 hour shifts days or evenings and offer hospital pay. I do understand that there is not a lot, but want to see what is out there so I can make decisions regarding courses/specializations. From what I have seen online there seems to be a few avenues: 1) Clinics linked to the hospital 2) OR/Recovery Room 3) Nurse Practitioner roles 4) Management or Office roles. If there are any other high paying nursing roles that do 8-10 hour shifts I would love to hear about them. From everyone's experience, what courses should I be looking into? I know that OR requires pre-operative courses and the like, should I be looking into that to boost my resume? Or would you suggest I focus my attention more on advanced life-saving courses? While it would be nice to take a lot of courses the issue, of course, boils down to money and time.  I am finishing up two courses this month and starting another few months course in September. As always and insight or ideas would be much appreciated. 

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Specializes in school nurse.

Are the courses you're taking going to lead you down a particular path?

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Specializes in Under 4 months of nursing..
7 minutes ago, Jedrnurse said:

Are the courses you're taking going to lead you down a particular path?

Both of the courses I am currently taking are required for each one of my jobs. So I had to take them to stay in my current roles. The one in September is a recommended course for the hospice, and they offered to pay for me to take it provided I stay in that job. 

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

Clinical educator (unit-based) might be a good option at some point. Hospital educators tend to work 8s. I was a clinical trauma education for a few years, I made decent money (but not always great work/life balance).

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44 minutes ago, Pixie.RN said:

Clinical educator (unit-based) might be a good option at some point. Hospital educators tend to work 8s. I was a clinical trauma education for a few years, I made decent money (but not always great work/life balance).

True but you need a little more than 4 months of experience for this and in my facility they require a masters.

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Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.

I don't understand what kind of "courses" you are taking. If you are a nurse already and not back in school, can you not get whatever education you need through your facility? 

I have not taken any courses outside of schooling for work. 

So far, I have not heard of any positions that pay what bedside nursing pays, even NPs in certain positions. I know my manager is salaried so if you're looking at per hour pay, I make more. 

I wouldn't teach, that is a hard job. I was a teacher before I was a nurse and I know how nursing instructors work. Unless you are a tenured university professor, one that brings in $ for research, there isn't a ton of money there either. 

I could probably make more money working for one of the diabetes DME companies, but I don't want to do sales 

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
4 hours ago, Aliceozwalker said:

I am in my late 20s so going back to school really isn't a smart decision for me financially.

Why? You seriously think late 20s is too old to go back for a career change? smh

I'm wondering why you are dismissing hospice work as a viable option? 

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The clinics in my area pay comparable to the hospital I was at. Well, the hospital started me out at a higher rate of pay, but my current clinic is much better at giving appropriate raises and periodic cost-of-living adjustments. I now make more at the clinic than I did at the hospital. 

If you're interested in OR, look for a hospital that offers the periop-101 course or similar -- something that they provide 'for free' after hiring you. It can be a competitive application process but they exist. The one I did required a 2 year contract, but it came with a job upon completing the program, and was well worth it. I grew a lot as a nurse in the OR. 

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
6 hours ago, Wuzzie said:

True but you need a little more than 4 months of experience for this and in my facility they require a masters.

That was why I said "at some point" - I wasn't sure how new OP is, but I knew it was fairly new! 

I have worked in a couple of places now where experience trumps education and an MSN is not required for unit educators. It's definitely preferred, not required. ?

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Specializes in Under 4 months of nursing..
21 hours ago, Pixie.RN said:

That was why I said "at some point" - I wasn't sure how new OP is, but I knew it was fairly new! 

I have worked in a couple of places now where experience trumps education and an MSN is not required for unit educators. It's definitely preferred, not required. ?

I actually have almost two years of experience. ? But yeah not enough for an educator role, the hospital I am requires at absolute lowest 5 years. 

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Specializes in Under 4 months of nursing..
On 6/30/2021 at 4:31 PM, mmc51264 said:

I don't understand what kind of "courses" you are taking. If you are a nurse already and not back in school, can you not get whatever education you need through your facility? 

I have not taken any courses outside of schooling for work. 

So far, I have not heard of any positions that pay what bedside nursing pays, even NPs in certain positions. I know my manager is salaried so if you're looking at per hour pay, I make more. 

I wouldn't teach, that is a hard job. I was a teacher before I was a nurse and I know how nursing instructors work. Unless you are a tenured university professor, one that brings in $ for research, there isn't a ton of money there either. 

I could probably make more money working for one of the diabetes DME companies, but I don't want to do sales 

Believe it or not, my hospital job has a required course for my unit that is not covered by the hospital. So you have to pay for it out of pocket. 0.0 It is actually a source of irritation for many of the people on my unit, they and I feel that if the course is required the hospital should pay for it. If you don't take the recert, you will be forced off the unit/fired within 6 months. 

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Specializes in Under 4 months of nursing..
On 6/30/2021 at 6:56 PM, klone said:

Why? You seriously think late 20s is too old to go back for a career change? smh

I'm wondering why you are dismissing hospice work as a viable option? 

I should probably re-frame that. ? I would maybe consider going back to school if I had something else I strongly desired to do. But since I have anxiety and social anxiety I always really struggled in figuring out what to do. I actually took a super-senior year in high school to try and figure things out and I just couldn't decide what to do with my life. I decided to go into nursing since it was stable work (meaning always jobs available, with a decent living wage) and the fact that my family sadly has a strong correlation with bipolar disorder and mental health issues. I really don't want to burden my family while I went back to school anyway with providing housing/etc especially when we have so many other members to help take care of. I don't have a romantic partner either, and probably never will given the extent of my social anxiety, so I need to become self-sufficient. 

The hospice that I work at is fully staffed right now since a nurse from the ICU picked up a full-time role. So, even if I wanted to I can't pick up any more hours right now at my other job. Plus it is exclusively nights and I don't want to do full-time nights alone. The other hospices in my area are also not hiring sadly, I did look as well. 

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