I mentioned to a guy I work with that I am going to (start) nursing school, and he told me his wife had just passed her NCLEX a year before and has been working for a non-profit ever since. When I asked if he minded telling me about what she made, he said 24k a year....
I live in TN where the cost of living is lower, and I expect to make lower than the national average because of that; but 24k??? I can make that being a manager at a McDonalds. Skimming through sites like Monster.com I have never seen a nurse making anywhere near that little money, even just starting out.
He may be mistaken, or his wife is hiding money on him or something... but if nursing school is 1/2 as hard as people say it is I want to be compensated for all of the hard work I put in to become an RN.
I live in Knoxville as well. After about 5 years what can you expect to make here?
I was curious about the 36 hour week and OT. If I picked up an extra day that would bring me to 48 hours. Would only 8 of it be OT, and the other 4 being regular time? If that is the case it would make working small amounts of OT much less appealing.
That's how it works in the hospital I'm at, and I would imagine most other places. I get $8/hr bonus on top of base rate when I pick up bonus shifts, plus time and a half when I exceed 40 hr/week or 80 hr/2 weeks.
Keep in mind that total pay will be impacted by OT opportunities.
Every ED that I've worked in has offered ample OT opportunities. With OT, it's not unheard of to earn over $200,000 per year here in NorCal which, if you're not trying to live in SF or Silicon Valley, is pretty solid.
Specializes in mental health / psychiatic nursing.
That pay seems absurdly low unless she is per diem or otherwise working very few shifts. As a CNA I make about 20K year and I don't work full time. Admittedly I live in a high cost city and work at a hospital that pays CNAs very well. A new grad RN working full-time here can reasonably expect 45K+ annually.
I'm not a nurse, but next month I'm hoping to learn that I'm a student nurse. I have a good friend who's now a FNP in Austin Texas but when he still lived here in Louisiana he was about a year out as a nurse and making $38/hr working nights in the ER while in his masters program.
I live in a small Ohio town and work at a Catholic health network hospital on a Medical/Oncology floor. Base pay across the hospital for a BSN is $25/hr. Then I work nights and get a $3/hr shift differential. So not too bad to start. I'm hired on for 60 a pay period, but I work 48hrs a week. We get an added percentage (like 15%) for picking up extra days. All in all, I make about $75-80k a year. But mind you, that's working 48 a week, every week, for 52 weeks.
I have four years experience and I work in hospice home health in Knoxville TN. I have acute care experience as well as corrections experience. I make 54000 and mileage as well. Ut is lower paying but is a fantastic hospital with many opportunities to move up. I loved it and was glad for the experience.
Specializes in Nephrology, Dialysis, Plasmapheresis.
RNs in Denver make between $35-45/hr. New grads starting around $25-30/Hr. Cost of living here has gone way up in the last 5 years, so cost of living compared to hourly rate is kinda crappy... Some nurses in my specialty with experience make $100k /year, this does include call back pay and some OT which comes with acute dialysis .
ThePsychWhisperer, BSN, MSN, APRN, NP
282 Posts
That's how it works in the hospital I'm at, and I would imagine most other places. I get $8/hr bonus on top of base rate when I pick up bonus shifts, plus time and a half when I exceed 40 hr/week or 80 hr/2 weeks.