Is the pay really that bad??

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I've read a couple of people on this site saying stuff like "Don't go into nursing for the money" and "Don't expect to get rich with nursing", etc. I'm curious as to why some are saying this. I've been working in the banking field for about 6 years or so and I'm still only making about $25k a year and there's not much better in sight for the future for me. Nursing would have me starting out making at least in the low $40's in my area. There is really not much else in my area where I could make this amount of money unless I get into sales, which I am no good at and it's not stable. I know $40k a year isn't making it rich, but it is making it comfortable and I would be able to take care of my family without struggeling so much. Is there a reason that there is such an attitude about the money? Is it worth it? I really feel that I have a calling to be a nurse (as cheesy as that sounds!), it's all I think about and I don't know why but I'm so drawn to it and the pay makes it even that much better for me. But I'm just curious as to why some seem so down on it.

Specializes in LABOR & DELIVERY, Float Pool, med-surg+.

HI,

COme to the Bay Area, Cali. We get $$$$$$$$$ here. Im experienced RN about 12 yrs and making 80k+/yr working part-time, 7/10. High cost of living though so you have to weigh it out. Lots to do and beautiful area. Most have CNA union with great pay.:yeah:

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Where in Texas do GVN's make that? In a small town like Del Rio GVN make $16-18 dollars an hour.

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I have been offered $65K as a starting salary, and I do not think that that is a bad starting rate. It also depends on the state that you are working in, and the cost of living. Nursing is one of the only professions that you can start off with a pretty decent salary with no experience.

In comparison to a lawyer, doctor, or a movie star, just remember that they had to struggle for a while before they all made that kind of money. As a nurse you are guaranteed a pretty decent pay right out of school.:nurse:

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I have read some of the posts; I have been in the profession for 28 years and I wont work overtime, you cant pay me enough to work overtime. I do not feel that a nurse of any kind anywhere needs to work overtime. We should have good pay and benefits, period. I work paycheck to paycheck, and I could make more money doing overtime, but if I did, I would be out of nursing in a heart beat. I dont enjoy nursing like I did 28 years ago.

Nursing will have more nurses available in a short period of time that dont speak English because we NEED them and they will take the lower pay. Makes ya proud to be a nurse and soon we may be without a job because of the nonEnglish speaking nurses.

except it is not the esl speakers that concern me so much as those who speak their own mother tongue with more skill - THAT worries me. if people don;t care enough to take care of their own knowledge base - why allow them to be practitioners?

regardless, the other person was right in terms of this not being the correct forum. best of luck. out -

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Yes the money is good but when we are stressed and we give a lot we sometime wish for more!

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Specializes in psych -22 yrs, med-surg and a little OB.

No. The pay isn't that bad. When I found myself a single mother of 4, the youngest of whom was 6 months old, back to school I went to learn how to support myself and my children. Nursing was what I wanted to do as a very small child and went to a 3 yr diploma program right out of high school. Lasted 1 year and romance problems ended that course of study. So .... on to a two year program - the first year for it - and that program died (the next year) but I quit at the end of first semester because I fell in love - or something. 11 years later, back to school and this time to graduate with a BSN. That was 1985 - and I'm still in it. HOWEVER, I went from bedside nursing to psych and until I promoted to the level of supervisor - I loved it. I'm within less than a year and a half of retirement with the gov't - and going to stay in nursing, but change focus again. Nursing has been good to me. Fed and clothed my family, took us on vacations, allowed cable TV to be paid for, and helped the kids go to their colleges, vo-techs - etc. I live in NW Oklahoma and nursing is one of the highest paying jobs you can find - we make a LOT more than MSW or psych people with MSs. BUT they have all the political power - we're just pill-pushers/teachers and JCAH requires that the facility have us - but my checks come every two weeks like clock-work and they don't bounce (so far). When I get completely fed up with the paper, I go talk to a client and remember why I'm there. It's usually uplifting to be able to just listen - and be a helper.

Nursing is a great profession - if you're built to do the job (internally). I think you should go for it - there are so MANY things that you can do in nursing, almost anyone could find a niche. NO the pay isn't that bad. Took care of me and mine at a comfortable level. Never be wealthy - but remember - you can't take it with you anyway.................

much love! and best wishes:yeah:

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Specializes in Case Management, Home Health, UM.
I guess I am at the low end of the nursing pay scale, I bring in about $32,000 a year.

Same here. I work in a rural area and for a program which is State-funded. They have frozen salaries, bonuses, travel and anything else they can think of, due to mandatory budget cutbacks (our office's budget alone was slashed by $150,000 just this week)--yet they are still expecting us to stay in compliance with their stupid regs, which they endlessly tweak to their advantage.

I'm looking for another job, but I doubt if I will find one....not in this tanked economy. :(

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Specializes in psych -22 yrs, med-surg and a little OB.

Are you in Oklahoma? Sucks working for the state as far as our budget cuts..... to top our problems, everyone is retiring and people who are in charge don't know anything except rules and regs.......... they have no idea how to manage the PEOPLE. Our budget was cut in my facility by 1 tenth! Our "catchment" area is everything west of I 35 and North of I 40 - including the panhandle of OK - otherwise known as No Man's Land - for a reason.

Just keep stacking jobs on our heads and then complain that the work isn't getting done. What a hoot! Utilization Review meetings are a scream - and the exe. gets mad - but gotta hire people if you want the work done and they don't have a lot of licensed people out here - in any field. The money won't bring them, that's for sure:wink2:- --- and then there are the doctors :bow:- but that's another whole topic - maybe another whole message board! LOL

But on the up-side - I've stayed 20 years and so now get 16 hours per month AL along with 10 hrs./mo SL + holidays - and I work M-F 0730 - 1600 hrs. and I live 1.2 Mi. from work - so don't spend much in fuel. All in all - have it pretty good. I do my work well and thoroughly - I have lots of help cross-trained to do everything and we don't have bosses running around us all the time - they pretty much forget we're there - (we're residential). Can retire in 1 yr, 144 days - not that I'm counting - but it'll be a milestone when I get there........... thinking I might work a little home health after this - we'll see - whatever I do, won't be full time.

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Specializes in Case Management, Home Health, UM.
I have read some of the posts; I have been in the profession for 28 years and I wont work overtime, you cant pay me enough to work overtime. I do not feel that a nurse of any kind anywhere needs to work overtime. We should have good pay and benefits, period. I work paycheck to paycheck, and I could make more money doing overtime, but if I did, I would be out of nursing in a heart beat. I dont enjoy nursing like I did 28 years ago.

:yeahthat:

I spent over 20 years of my life working 50-70 hours a week as a supervisor with NO overtime, which has contributed significantly to my burnout in this profession. Even as I speak, I have over a month's worth of paperwork that needs to be done, because The Powers That May Be can't (or won't) hire any more nurses to help me and my co-worker cope with the massive number of admissions and reassessments which are coming through our office as if they were on conveyor belts. I brought my laptop home with me last night, with the intention of getting "caught up" over this weekend. But I doubt very seriously if I will open it again before Monday morning, for the mere thought of being trapped in another job with uncompensated overtime literally makes me ill. :barf02:

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Specializes in Case Management, Home Health, UM.
Are you in Oklahoma? Sucks working for the state as far as our budget cuts..... to top our problems, everyone is retiring and people who are in charge don't know anything except rules and regs.......... they have no idea how to manage the PEOPLE. Our budget was cut in my facility by 1 tenth! Our "catchment" area is everything west of I 35 and North of I 40 - including the panhandle of OK - otherwise known as No Man's Land - for a reason.

Just keep stacking jobs on our heads and then complain that the work isn't getting done. What a hoot! Utilization Review meetings are a scream - and the exe. gets mad - but gotta hire people if you want the work done and they don't have a lot of licensed people out here - in any field.

No. I work for a company which does Case Management for one of our State's Medicaid-waivered programs. We are dealing with the same problems which you describe: mandated budget cuts during a time when we desperately need more (and not less staff in order to service a growing and needy population, unending directives from a bunch of mindless bureaucrats whose regs are so vague and complicated that their own attorneys can't figure them out, :bugeyes: and useless Provider Meetings (the person who just cut our budget was conspiculously absent from Wednesday's meeting, citing "travel restrictions"). :rolleyes: I didn't go, telling my supervisor that either I took care of the Clients who had been assigned to me, or I went to that meeting. I couldn't do both. She had to get permission from our Executive Director for me to be "excused". How stupid is that?? When you have six exhausted caregivers begging for help, and doctor's orders and care plans running out on ten others, whether or not your name belongs on yet another "State-mandated" attendance form shouldn't be a variable. Then there's the matter of the Lead CC (who is overly impressed with her own importance, and talks down to us and her CC's as if we were all idiots), who spends most of her time in her office writing "reports" and "delegating" her substandard files to others to clean up.....as my supervisor and our Executive Director watches...and does nothing. :angryfire

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Specializes in psych -22 yrs, med-surg and a little OB.

Man oh, man,

Life's too short. Are they going to fire you? Bet not.

Get centered again. Find yourself, take lots of deep breaths. If you can, walk. Walk even 5 minutes at a time - leave - get a break - deep breathe - it'll help - it will make you more effecient and you'll make up the time lost effeciently. 15 minutes is better - get an ipod and walk to 50s or 60s music - go to mywalkingmusic.com and download the music you want - on 3 levels of fitness - it's wonderful........... wanting to hear the music makes me get up and go out.

As soon as my back is once again stable - I'm out the door.

Go read Erma Bombeck's poem - what she would've done with more time. Yours and mine are also limited. Make the most of it - and that's not doing the work for someone else - do it for your own fulfillment - or don't do it.

There is a LOT of happiness out there and you deserve it as much as anyone else.

Best of my wishes,

DS

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I hear of nurses complaining about making 50k a year working a couple of shifts a week and this is what floors me. I'm an RN working at a nursing home 4 to 5 days a week and I don't make that much.

I don't know what people are griping about. I guess it's human nature to complain when there is plenty (never know the value of water until the well runs dry kind of deal). I'm trying not to get on that trip. I remember my brief stint as a CNA working myself ragged making $6.50/hr and looking at what I do now for $25/hr I can't really complain. This income isn't making me wealthy, for my large family my children still easily qualify for Medicaid and free lunches at school, but so far I'm not in the food stamp line. I guess there is something to be said for that.

Not to hurt your feelings or start a fight but look - I make only a few thousand more than you but do not have a large family. So I get to be taxed so that you can have free medical care and lunches for your children. Where's the justice in that? I limited my procreation to what I could afford but I have to pay for your offspring. I know you are working hard but this stuff just makes me very angry and makes me realize what a fool I've been.

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