NP working as RN

Zookeeper3 · Dec 21, 2007

one of my peers is an NP and has never worked a day as one. She staffs occasionally in our ICU and switched to a pharmacuitcal rep. Why work more hours for comparable or less pay? This is very common from my area... which is short docs and NP's

core0 · Dec 21, 2007

I have seen a number of NP's working as RN's on the floor at the hospital I work. One of them told me she did not like working as an NP because of the doctors, and another said she worked as an RN to suppliment her income. Is this normal everywhere? Just curious to know how many of you dont like working as NP's, or went back to the floor working as RN's after obtaining your NP license. Or just dont make enough to work strictly as NP's.
I work in a teaching hospital where continuing education is highly valued. I approximate that 3 out of 20 nurses is in a mastesr program or well on their way, yet when they graduate most of them still work as RN's. So what do you think of this?

I saw this a lot when I worked in Colorado. A lot of them were ICU nurses that did an FNP and then found out they would take a $10k pay cut to work as an FNP. More work for less money didn't seem very appealing.

David Carpenter, PA-C

tulips134 · Dec 21, 2007

I have seen this trend of NPs working as RNs here in NYC. The hospital I work at has a starting salary for brand new NP is about 90K and for RN is about 72K w/ differential . For a seasoned RN, 90K is a peanut pay. I personally know two ICU RNs who first worked as NPs when they finished school but later swicthed back to RNs role because of the pay cut. I made 97k last year with OTs. I am going make over 100k this year. A lot of senior nurses where I work make well over 100k w/ OTs. 2 RNs I work with made over 130K w/ Ots and they vowed that they'll never be NPs for less pay and more responsibilities. We get $500 bonus for doing 3 OTs and we have a lot of OTs. NP pay just does not reflect the level of work and it should start at 100k.

core0 · Dec 22, 2007

I have seen this trend of NPs working as RNs here in NYC. The hospital I work at has a starting salary for brand new NP is about 90K and for RN is about 72K w/ differential . For a seasoned RN, 90K is a peanut pay. I personally know two ICU RNs who first worked as NPs when they finished school but later swicthed back to RNs role because of the pay cut. I made 97k last year with OTs. I am going make over 100k this year. A lot of senior nurses where I work make well over 100k w/ OTs. 2 RNs I work with made over 130K w/ Ots and they vowed that they'll never be NPs for less pay and more responsibilities. We get $500 bonus for doing 3 OTs and we have a lot of OTs. NP pay just does not reflect the level of work and it should start at 100k.

In Denver its worse. Starting FNP pay is about $65k. You can make more than that with a specialty position but most of the hospitals won't credential an FNP (as of six months ago). While the RN pay is not NYC levels its still a pretty good pay cut without the opportunity for overtime.

David Carpenter, PA-C

Trauma Columnist · Dec 22, 2007

I graduated in May 06 and stayed a staff nurse until July because there were no positions where I didn't have to take a pay cut! And...who can do that with mega student loans?

eugenie98 · Jul 28, 2008

lol, I guess the NP's realized working under a "professional" salary scheme meant being screwed over by administrators versus a "blue collar" shift scheme where every OT hour is compensated.

Unfortunately the original covenant in professional salary schemes that one stays as many hours as required to get the job done without OT in exchange for certain privileges, such as not being screwed over seems to have disappeared thanks to the bean counters and managed care.

Seems like only the ED physicians have realized this... wonder when the rest will... it must suck to go through 4 years of undergraduate, 4 years of medical, and 4 years making $12.50 an hour as a resident to realize you've just won the opportunity to work around 55 hours per week making about $10 an hour more than the nurses while enjoying $250k in in debt and eight years of foregone income. I feel bad for the primary care docs, they seem woefully underpaid. Just the other day I read that pediatric dentists make about 3x as much as pediatricians ($380k vs. $150k) for 2/3 the hours (38 hours on average versus 52).

I wonder though, with the increasing privileges and scope of PA's and NP's, perhaps this will allow primary care physicians to [finally] unionize without worrying that all their patients will die in their absence. So perhaps they can finally demand pay raises. Thoughts?

Jo Dirt · Jul 28, 2008

The responses in this thread contradict the responses in other recent threads where most everyone said they enjoyed working normal hours, predictability and more money compared to the workload of being an RN.

So, what the heck is going on?

Is it is or is it ain't...???

Ang_RN · Jul 28, 2008

The one NP that I know well loved working as a NP, but the insurance was just so crazy high she decided to start teaching at my college.

Editorial Team / Admin · Jul 28, 2008

The responses in this thread contradict the responses in other recent threads where most everyone said they enjoyed working normal hours, predictability and more money compared to the workload of being an RN.
So, what the heck is going on?
Is it is or is it ain't...???

I think you answered your own question, "contradict the responses in other recent threads".

This thread was started end of '07. Maybe the general opinion now is that NPs are happy in their role?

carachel2 · Jul 28, 2008

The responses in this thread contradict the responses in other recent threads where most everyone said they enjoyed working normal hours, predictability and more money compared to the workload of being an RN.
So, what the heck is going on?
Is it is or is it ain't...???

I just don't see this at all here in Texas. As I've said before, STARTING salary for NPs is in the mid 80's with a lot of people negotiating 90-95K. A *very* seasoned RN MIGHT make in the 70's here with a lot of OT, holiday pay, etc.

I have no problem making 85K if I don't have to work 12 hour shifts, put up with floor nursing and work holidays.

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide · Jul 29, 2008

The responses in this thread contradict the responses in other recent threads where most everyone said they enjoyed working normal hours, predictability and more money compared to the workload of being an RN.
So, what the heck is going on?
Is it is or is it ain't...???

Well, with all due respect to allnurses.com, you can't take all information posted and accept it blindly without any doubt or reservation. You also have to consider whether the facts are offered as first-hand information. No offense to the above posters but it seemed like references were made about "this NP I know" and "that NP I used to know". The reasons for working as a RN instead of a NP did not come direct from the horse's mouth so to speak.

The few and far between NP's I know who work as RN's currently had a hard time finding a job or didn't do quite well with a previous NP job they had. I am not sure if it was a problem with self-confidence but this person I knew actually never held a NP job for a long time and kept going back to being a RN. Eventually, this person found a CNS position in an ER and from the last time I heard was enjoying the role.