Making 100k salary/ income as a nurse?

[foggnm]

Working in CA (as I have done, but don't live there now) makes it pretty easy to make 100K+ but it comes at a cost. I live in NM and the cost of living here is very reasonable and nursing wages are decent. You can push 90k here without having to work like crazy. In general though nursing is not a 100k/yr job. And since we are shift workers you generally have to work all the time to earn big bucks (as opposed to salaried professionals that get to 'move up' in the world when they work hard). But to answer your question, the OR is probably the BEST place for a nurse to make bank. Because the OR is so bad about training new nurses they are severely short all across the country. And as an OR nurse you often have to do OT or call if you're working in a hospital setting. If you have 3 daughters in nursing school advise them to graduate and become NPs or Pharmacists and they will have a better work environment and be able to easily make $100k per year. But if they insist they want to make money in nursing, then OR, L/D, Cath Lab, ICU, etc will always be the high demand areas and get the best pay.

[LovingLife123]

I'm guessing you could make that much by being a weekend option night shift RN and picking up some extra shifts. Unless you live in a high cost living area, I don't know very many RN nurses that make that much.

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

The per hour amount or annual salary is subjective. The cost of living is a factor. You may make $100k/ yr, but the high cost of living will eat away at your take home pay. Finding an area with high salary and low cost of living would be the ideal location (financially at least).

[NICUismylife, ADN, BSN, RN]

In my area, psych RNs are paid more (due to high demand and low supply) and CRNAs are paid more. Other than that, it comes down to years of experience, union hospitals, certifications, shift differentials, managerial position, etc. Specialty really doesn't matter.

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

I am a WEO nurse and even with an extra shift per week, I am no where near 100K more like 70. This is NC though Agree with PP about where you are and cost of living. I am in school for informatics and I am told it has the potential for 6 figures. Time will tell.

[Luckyyou, BSN, RN]

I have made 96-100k the last two years as a NICU RN by working a huge amount of OT and bonus shifts. Also picked up extra skills that pay more. Got a 5% bump for ECMO and a 5% diff when doing transport. Low cost of living area.

[verene, MSN]

Why do you think your daughters would come out of nursing school and be able to make a 100K a year when you as an experienced nurse only clear that amount with copious overtime? The only RNs I've heard of making 100K+ a year with out also living in a high cost of living area (like San Francisco) all had experience and overtime hours on their side. In my area an experienced acute care night-shifter taking home differentials for nights + weekends, and picking up some overtime could clear 100K/year, but I don't think it is possible for a new grad even full-time nights/weekends unless they are working at the highest paying facility in the area and taking on an unhealthy amount of overtime.

[emmy27]

By and large variations in staff nurse pay are determined by geographic location, experience, and shift, not specialty (although of course working in a higher-demand specialty makes it easier to go where the money is).

All the facilities I've worked at have a standardized scale based on years of experience for starting pay for staff RNs regardless of unit.

If they want bigger salaries, going back to school for advanced practice or becoming travelers is probably the way to go. Big money in clinical staff nurse positions tends to come, as I'm sure you've experienced, only with a correspondingly huge number of hours.

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

I am interested in what specialties are making 100k. I have 3 daughters in nursing school and can advise them on a lot, but not necessarily give them a big pic of the financial opportunities from across the nation. I am a 25 year RN and have a 65k salary, but double it most years with ot. not much fun working 68-72 hour weeks though. please tell me your specialty, experience , salary, and salary with diff and ot. oh, and where you r in the USA thank you all and hope your practice is professionally and financially rewarding

I work in acute psych and depending on how much overtime I choose to do I make around $80,000.00 a year. I could make more if I finished my BSN but I'm 54 and mine is the second income for our family. My husband's job pays the bills and mine pays for all the other stuff that comes up. It took some time to pay off all my debts related to my Diversion Monitoring program so this is the first year we are thinking about a real vacation. Has anybody here been to Spain?

PS I live and work in California. Cost of living is very high here so salary is relative to that.

Hppy

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

You have twenty-five years of experience and only make 65k/base? Where on Earth do you live?

It's all about location, location, location. I am an experienced RN and that's about what I make. It's considered a darn good wage around here. I also make that working a 36 hour week instead of the traditional 40 and working 12 hour shifts which means I only work 3 days a week. If I picked up OT with bonuses I probably could break 100k a year, if I was willing to do nothing but work which I'm not.

[mystory, BSN, RN]

I make six figures without any OT or supplemental income/jobs. To maximize pay I would suggest working nights and joining the float pool. I have 12 years experience and get differentials for BSN, certification, nights, and floating. Granted, I also work in a high COL city.

[guest042302019, BSN, RN]

I'm a progressive care travel nurse. I can tell you it's relatively easy to make 100k per year without significant overtime. And, you don't have to work in California which usually has the highest paying contracts. No matter what specialty you're in.

I've been in Acute care for about 2.5 years. I don't work ICU or any fancy specialty. I work nights. I work 36 hours/week. I rarely work overtime. I do get floated ALOT. Med-surg, ortho, medical, cardiac, etc. My first year as a travel nurse was about 80k with little overtime.

I travel nurse with my wife whom also is a step down nurse. We work the same floor and schedule together.