LVN Salaries... California

nursenow · Jul 23, 2009

In my area, North of SanFran, new grads start at 29 to 32/hr. My classmates in Socal started at 15 to 18/hr. When I lived in Socal(last year) my rent was the same as I pay now. If you pick up one extra shift a week thats not bad.

JenRN2011 · Jul 23, 2009

I make $21/hr as a part time treatment nurse. I am a new grad out of school almost three years (getting pre reqs done). I am supposed to work 4 hours but typically I average a hour of overtime a shift.

Jenn

newtress, LPN · Jul 23, 2009

Do you mean new grads north of San Fran start at 29-32/hr for RN's? I've never heard of new grad LVN start at that rate. If that was the case I'm heading back out to NorCal where I'm originally from!

nursenow · Jul 23, 2009

The normal is 8 hours a day for full time. You can hopefully pick up shifts at other facilities when you get experience even though the market is tight right now.(grrr i just spent 20 minutes developing a long answer and it didnt post)

nursenow · Jul 23, 2009

Do you mean new grads north of San Fran start at 29-32/hr for RN's? I've never heard of new grad LVN start at that rate. If that was the case I'm heading back out to NorCal where I'm originally from!

I only know of one facility that doesnt pay at least 29 an hour( I am an LVN and that is who I am talking about.) How long ago did you live in Norcal?

jjjoy, LPN · Jul 23, 2009

I've heard, though, that the job market there is saturated and that even experienced nurses are having a hard time landing a job in parts of No Cal.

newtress, LPN · Jul 23, 2009

Nursenow, I left NorCal back in 1990. Yes I've been gone a long time. But I keep current on job postings and the average median anual salary for the area. Most positions I've seen are around 19 to 22/hr in Sac area and up towards El Dorado Hills. I lived in Sac and further up in the foothills past El Dorado before I moved away. I truly hope that LVN positions pay as high as was stated. But.. not many positions being offered at all. I am a new grad LPN here in Louisiana. I've been here 10 yrs. I am so at home here. My father is from Alabama and we lived there when I was young and I still have family there. But I also have both parents and brothers living in Cali now. I want to move back to be with them, but dread the thought of traffic, high rents, what I consider stuck up people and no hospitality. I have a hard time when I go to visit out there. They can hear my accent and kind of make fun of me. I don't care though. I think going to nursing school here in Louisiana has shown me a high caliber of compassion, and above all, nursing with hospitality. We truly did treat our patients like they were mama or daddy and those patients always told me how greatful they were. I was born in Bama and will always have a Dixie heart. I won't put that away on a shelf with my patients anywhere. Just hope I can get a decent position in NorCal. I do worry how I will be treated by other nurses though, and that certainly would be another subject topic!

nursenow · Jul 24, 2009

Nursenow, I left NorCal back in 1990. Yes I've been gone a long time. But I keep current on job postings and the average median anual salary for the area. Most positions I've seen are around 19 to 22/hr in Sac area and up towards El Dorado Hills. I lived in Sac and further up in the foothills past El Dorado before I moved away. I truly hope that LVN positions pay as high as was stated. But.. not many positions being offered at all. I am a new grad LPN here in Louisiana. I've been here 10 yrs. I am so at home here. My father is from Alabama and we lived there when I was young and I still have family there. But I also have both parents and brothers living in Cali now. I want to move back to be with them, but dread the thought of traffic, high rents, what I consider stuck up people and no hospitality. I have a hard time when I go to visit out there. They can hear my accent and kind of make fun of me. I don't care though. I think going to nursing school here in Louisiana has shown me a high caliber of compassion, and above all, nursing with hospitality. We truly did treat our patients like they were mama or daddy and those patients always told me how greatful they were. I was born in Bama and will always have a Dixie heart. I won't put that away on a shelf with my patients anywhere. Just hope I can get a decent position in NorCal. I do worry how I will be treated by other nurses though, and that certainly would be another subject topic!

I don't know about the Sac area wages. Sac is well inland in the central valley and a totaly different world/culture than here. I have spent time there visiting friends and pass through it often as I head to Tahoe for snowboarding. I live north of San Fran(about an hour) and being an LVN here I am pretty comfortable with my info on wages in this area. My rent for a small one bed house with a small private yard/garden area is 18% of my pay.

It sounds like you are lucky to love where you live! I spent a couple years in the southern Louisiana and Miss area and I agree it is a different culture for sure! I am sorry they make fun of your accent. That is something I haven't seen since grade school.

I work with nurses with accents from around the world and have never heard anyone make a negative comment about them. Everyday I literally have to stop to figure out what they just said to me because of their accents and I am sure they do the same to me! I work with a guy at my station that has a very strong accent and sometimes we wind up laughing when I totaly misunderstand him. In the end we are all just adults trying to work together to make a living.

newtress, LPN · Jul 24, 2009

For true! Are you considered still in the Bay Area? If you are I can understand why your hourly could be higher if within the Bay area and further from Sac area. I am currently in the process of trying to endorse my LPN license to Cali. I've heard it is so difficult to currently get hired in the Bay Area. LPN's are utilized a lot for med surg here in Lou. I had a heavy med surg rotation in school. My program even got the students IV certified and have to do many Foley's to graduate. I spent 2 months at LSU med center teaching hospital for maternity, peds, and med surg floors. I was offered a position here at a faith based hospital on an acute med surg ESRD (end stage renal disease) floor as a new grad! I would like experience like that on my resume before going west and hope that would help my chances of being hired in such a tough new grad hiring slump. I couldn't accept the job unfortunately because I have to get a surgery done first. If my doc said no tx, I'd be working there. So I hope to be moving out west in 6 mo or so with at least 6 mo of med surg experience. It isn't much, but I think a dandy good reference from the DON at this hospital may be as valuable as the experience. What do you think? I know hospitals in NorCal don't hire LVN/LPN's any more. Am I making a mistake by moving out there?

nursenow · Jul 24, 2009

I honestly dont know if you would be making a mistake to move to Sac because I dont know anything about the job market there. I also dont live in San Fran so I cant answer that either. I work in a SNF/LTC facility and to be honest it takes doing one catheter on your own to be proficient at it so I am not sure the facility would care about that. I know for sure that your experience as a student would affect your self confidence which is a big plus. I was told by a DON that she assumes all students are equal in the schooling they recieve and she looks for a no BS, mature confident personable attitude and also tries to determine whether or not they would fit in at the facility.(personality wise)

I was hired without being asked any nursing "stuff" as were the few classmates I kept in touch with. I think 80% of the time I am learning it has to do with facility protocol, charting, what MD you can write an order for without talking to them first, when to write a telephone order, when to actually talk to the doctor on the phone to get the order, when to fax a request for an order(and then write it into the Physicians orders without waiting for a response because you know he will approve it, the difference between comfort care and hospice(it wasn't what I learned in school) and it goes on and on. When and how to do so many things I never even heard of in school.

It is a given that if you walk into a facility after going to school that you have a basic knowledge of certain procedures...It sounds flaky but often new nurses will have to do a procedure they kind of remember from school and they stumble through it trying to figure it out a couple times before they get right. Everything from trach care to administering meds you never heard of in school to femcaths...(again it goes on and on) It's kind of interesting how you can practice something in school multiple times but you do it once by yourself in the real world and you remember it forever. One biggy is wound care because as an LVN you do aLot of it. It is very little like you learn in school. A SNF is a great place to learn and build confidence for an RN or LVN. Oh, I almost forgot. LVNs cant push IV meds in California. Start an IV but no meds.

newtress, LPN · Jul 24, 2009

Wow, thanks for all your helpful insight!