Nurses pay

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I keep reading how nurses get paid so little, but from my understanding the pay is about 40,000 + when you first graduate. How much do you make, if you don't mind me asking? I've applied to nursing school and am curious if I have been misled? I live in the Chicagoland area if that helps any...

Thanks!:eek:

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Hi - I work in Peoria, IL and our new grads make $16.50/hour which works out to $30,900 for days, $32,760 for evenings and $34,632 for nights. I would imagine the figure of $40,000 is correct for the Chicago area. This isn't a bad living. Good luck and take care...

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Christine . . welcome to the wonderful and wide world of nursing. You are about to open a can of worms that all nurses have to open. Best wishes and keep an open mind.

My own take on nurse's wages is that I'm very happy with the amount of money I make based on the amount of education I had to invest time in.

I worked part-time last year and made $33,000. If my husband's and my combined income is over $70,000, the government considers us rich and won't help us pay for our eldest son's college expenses of $24,600 per year. We won't qualify for Cal Grants or anything to do with FAFSA.

If we make over $70,000 we are taxed like rich people too. Thank goodness for George Bush . . . .:kiss

Now, let the debate begin. ;)

steph

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Ok, that makes me feel a bit better. A little about my sort of strange situation....I have a B.A. and recently received my M.B.A. and have a nice big office and work with great people doing HR. I make ok money now and probably could be making good money if I stuck it out here.

However....I have this renlentless desire to go into nursing - wish I would have figured that out prior to going 27K into debt with the MBA loans!!! Anyhow, I have applied, taken the entrace exam and scored a 90% so we'll see. 1,000 applicants with only 120 seats!

Am I crazy to quit, have my husband and I play poor-house for a year or two to try nursing? I have called to ask about job shadowing and volunteer opportunities at area hospitals but no one calls me back :(

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I am in Fla which won't help you much.I work as an RN for an agency,so I choose not to work full-time all year.(major health issues last year that are now with me forever i guess) .I made a little over 52,000 last year.Two of our LPN's work for 2 agencies at the same time.They work all the time,though.Each made over 100,000 last year between the 2 agencies.I saw the year end totals myself.I am just not that ambitious,I guess.Both have paid high prices for all that time at work(in other areas).So there is money to be made in nursing if you can be a little flexible and willing to put up with a lot of self-sacrafice.

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Specializes in HIV/AIDS, Dementia, Psych.

I think that what most nurses mean when they complain about the pay is that it is low considering what we do and are responsible for.

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The starting salary is usually attractive to lure you in, but you will max out very soon.

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Specializes in Emergency/Critical Care Transport.

In the northeast area I can make 24 to 29 buck an hour or up to 39 depending on which job I'm working at, agency nurses are making in the 40 dollar an hour range. Weekend option programs can pay as much as 52 an hour. SO there is money to be made in the nursing field.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
Originally posted by HerEyes73

I think that what most nurses mean when they complain about the pay is that it is low considering what we do and are responsible for.

I think this is what a lot of us mean when we complain about the pay.

We make life and death decisions, have to keep up with current protocols, meds and continuing education, are college educated etc. and have nonstop stress. Sometimes the pay doesn't seem worth it, especially if your new and starting out.

I'm making fairly good money for someone with an associates degree so I don't often complain about the money side of things.

When I was in nursing school making $5.00/hr at the local Pizza Hut, if I heard someone saying $40,000 was too low, then I would as the same questions you are.

Good luck in school.

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Specializes in Nurse Scientist-Research.

I've been saying for a while that I would take a huge pay cute, like 25-30%. But only if I had to care for about 25-30% fewer patients. Please guys don't attack me for that, I'm not suggesting it as a general policy for nurses, just a personal feeling after being so tired after running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I would probably be able to work many more hours too because work wouldn't be nearly as physically or emotionally exhausting. Granted since I left general Med/Surg telemetry nursing things are much better. Anxiously awaiting to see how things will work out in California, waiting to see if they will really move ratios down to 1:5 for Med/Surg (isn't it supposed to move down to that in the next couple of years?). I could do 1:5 or 1:4 with an admit/transfer later in the shift to max out at 1:5.

As someone else said, it isn't that nurses aren't well paid, it is because it isn't commensurate with the responsibility required and sometimes just hard physical labor.

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From what I have seen, I think RN's get paid less in my state then most of the others. I am not a nurse, hope to be someday!! But I do have a friend that works at the hospital and she stated that they hire RN's at $15.57/hr starting out. I am also told that hospitals have a tendency to pay less then other locations, but searching at some of the local hospitals to work, I think we have 8-10 within 20 miles of me, the most I have seen was in the $16/hr range and the lowest was in the $14/hr range. The sad thing is that I currently have a job that pays more then what some nurses start out at, and my job didn't require a degree..... Go figure....

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Originally posted by stevielynn

Christine . . welcome to the wonderful and wide world of nursing. You are about to open a can of worms that all nurses have to open. Best wishes and keep an open mind.

My own take on nurse's wages is that I'm very happy with the amount of money I make based on the amount of education I had to invest time in.

I worked part-time last year and made $33,000. If my husband's and my combined income is over $70,000, the government considers us rich and won't help us pay for our eldest son's college expenses of $24,600 per year. We won't qualify for Cal Grants or anything to do with FAFSA.

If we make over $70,000 we are taxed like rich people too. Thank goodness for George Bush . . . .:kiss

Now, let the debate begin. ;)

steph

Hi Steph,

I mean no disrespect what so ever to you. From coming across your other posts from time to time, I highly respect what I know of you. I'm a single male - I shouldn't have to help pay for your son's college either. Everyone else please let's not make an issue out of my statement. It's simply my opinion and shouldn't be reason to change the direction of this thread. Coming fresh out of school I started around $37,000, but it increased very quickly.

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