Labor and Delivery Salaries

slm · Apr 4, 2001

Thank you for your response. I live near Augusta, GA. Could you give me the approx. dollar range for this area of nursing? I would have thought that 2 extra year's of schooling and a BS Degree that I would make significally more than a nurse just starting out with 2 year's of schooling and an associates degree. Let me hear your opinion.

Originally posted by kday:
As far as I'm aware, all across the country, ADN and BSN nurses start out at the same salary, and get raise increases at the same rate based on merit and seniority. Your degree is a moot point in the $$ area, unless you go for your advanced practice degree. As far as L&D in rural areas, I'm an L&D nurse...it all depends on what you want to 'see.' By the way, what part of GA? I lived in Albany for 6 years. Anyway, in a large urban setting...let's use Atlanta for an example...you're going to get the sickest of the sick. Especially somewhere like Grady or Emory. Lots of drug use, lots of preemies, lots of things like HIV and severe pre-eclampsia. If your goal is to see these kinds of things, an urban setting may be your niche. You'll still get the drug use, preemies, and other stuff in a rural setting, but less of it. In a rural setting you get more teenagers, no prenatal care, etc.. In an urban setting, you'll definitely get a lot of hands-on experience in a fast paced environment. You'll do a lot of deliveries and get used to things like pitocin, epidurals, and c-sections. In a rural setting you'll still get some experience with these things, but mainly you'll have normal lady partsl deliveries with less use of anesthesia, which is important to know how to handle. Lots of nurses get very used to laboring women with all the 'high tech' stuff, but haven't the faintest clue how to deal with a woman in labor who doesn't want to be on the fetal monitor, who has no IV, and no epidural. Try them both out...work part time at one setting, and PRN at another. That way you can have a taste of both settings! Sorry to be so long winded! Good luck in school, and welcome aboard!

rn500 · Apr 12, 2001

SLM - I've worked as an L&D nurse at 3 different hospitals in 2 different states, and in my experience BSN vs ADN doesn't do squat for you as a bedside nurse, as far as salaries go. I am an ADN nurse, and do regret not getting my BSN from the get-go only because it would help me get away from hospital nursing now that I am burned out...

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