Las Vegas Nursing ?'s Help! Thanx!

MikeyJ, RN · Jan 16, 2007

Hi I am a New York State nursing student and I have some questions. I actually got my BA from another field at UNLV and I want to venture back out there after I get my RN. I would like to work at Sunrise Children's right out of school is this possible or will it be difficult? I would like to go back to UNLV for my Pediatric Nurse Practitioner so I would like to jump into peds right away. Do any of the hospitals offer tuition assistance? I also heard something about NY nurses getting paid more but I wasn't sure if it was true. Also in general what's the process like if after I finish my NY boards go to a LV hospital sit down with a recruiter or manager and set something up, will they take me on board fairly quickly or is it one of those thanks for your resume we'll give you a call? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

I don't think any of the local hospitals offer tuition assistance for out-of-state students. There are a few hospitals (Valley is one of them) that will pay for your in-state nursing tuition in return for your promise to work for them for 2 years. However, Sunrise does have a good sign-on bonus program for nursing moving to Nevada, but once again, you do need to sign a contract stating you will work for them for 2 years (sometimes longer depending on the amount of money).

If you end up taking your NCLEX in New York, make sure you signify that you want to be licensed in Nevada as well. They will charge you extra $$ of course, and with Nevada they require fingerprinting, etc.

Of course NY nurses are paid more than LV nurses, but that has everything to do with cost of living. It obviously depends on where you are in NY (you stated Buffalo), so I assume nurses start out with good wages, but then again your cost of living is probably much higher. Nurses in LV start off making good money for our area. I think the average new grad starts off around $23 or $24 before differentials (once again, depends on hospital).

buffalowing81 · Jan 16, 2007

I don't think any of the local hospitals offer tuition assistance for out-of-state students. There are a few hospitals (Valley is one of them) that will pay for your in-state nursing tuition in return for your promise to work for them for 2 years. However, Sunrise does have a good sign-on bonus program for nursing moving to Nevada, but once again, you do need to sign a contract stating you will work for them for 2 years (sometimes longer depending on the amount of money).
If you end up taking your NCLEX in New York, make sure you signify that you want to be licensed in Nevada as well. They will charge you extra $$ of course, and with Nevada they require fingerprinting, etc.
Of course NY nurses are paid more than LV nurses, but that has everything to do with cost of living. It obviously depends on where you are in NY (you stated Buffalo), so I assume nurses start out with good wages, but then again your cost of living is probably much higher. Nurses in LV start off making good money for our area. I think the average new grad starts off around $23 or $24 before differentials (once again, depends on hospital).

OK I think you misunderstood me about the NY nurses getting paid more, I was asking if NY nurses will get paid more being out of area because our criteria is higher than say a regular NV licensed nurse? In Buffalo, our ecoonomy is not that great either, cost of living not bad but economy is not good at all. Also I posted a new thread about this but someone told me that Nevada is the lowest paying for nurses??? Hard to believe...anyone comment...

MikeyJ, RN · Jan 16, 2007

OK I think you misunderstood me about the NY nurses getting paid more, I was asking if NY nurses will get paid more being out of area because our criteria is higher than say a regular NV licensed nurse? In Buffalo, our ecoonomy is not that great either, cost of living not bad but economy is not good at all. Also I posted a new thread about this but someone told me that Nevada is the lowest paying for nurses??? Hard to believe...anyone comment...

I am not sure what you are asking exactly about pay in NV compared to NY. I don't understand what "criteria" you are speaking of. In regards to economy, I am not sure where you got the notion that Las Vegas is a poor economy. It is exactly the opposite (considering we have multi-billion dollar casinos on every corner and tourism brings in billions every year).

I did a quick search on google with the intent of trying to locate articles that compare cities or states in relation to nurses pay; however, I was not successful. Call a few nursing recruiters around the city and you will see that nurses make awesome money here in Las Vegas. Approximately a year ago, St. Rose just signed a new union contract with nurses and the base pay for new grades shot up. As I stated before, hospitals are almost willing to pay their nurses anything they want because they would rather fork over a ton of cash and force you to work in unsafe conditions, rather than hiring new nurses. And considering you haven't even started nursing school yet, I would assume that the base pay for nurses will continue to rise over the next few years. Hope that helps.

buffalowing81 · Jan 16, 2007

:monkeydance: It did help and it is encouraging thank you. I have just heard that if NY state registered nurses relocate to wherever they will get paid more but I am not sure if that is exactly true. But anyway, my plan when I got out of school initially was to go into peds but I figure I should probably worry about getting my foot in the door first. Is it easy getting a job at any of the local hospitals out in Vegas right out of school or am I gonna be pulling my hair out with the old "thank you for your resume we'll keep you on file" mumbo jumbo? Thanks. You've been a great help with answering my posts! i know I still have about a year and a half to go til I take my boards but it will be here before i know it!