how old were you when you realized you weren't going to make real money as a nurse

Nurses General Nursing

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Laid off pilot use to make 12K a month, sitting in nursing school. That's when

Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.
We clean our own pt. beds after a delivery; we take out the trash from our patient rooms; we have to put in our orders because sometimes we don't have a secretary; more and more, we are being asked to do things that are definitely NOT nursing duties, except that they make them part of the job. Then they complain because we don't have enough patient contact time documented.

This is what I was saying in my last post. I spent most of the time on one shift answering the phone, and swiping people into and out of the psych unit, and at visiting hours it gets VERY busy with multiple relatives coming & going. I felt like I was going insane! And cos it's cold at the mo, you don't want to leave people standing outside, and they get very annoyed if left there for more than a few minutes. It got to the point where I complained to the shift coordinator (SC), as there are no clerical staff on after 4.30 pm (some hospitals have clerical/admin staff till 8 pm, but other hospitals don't think it is justified). I said to the SC I'm not getting to the patients because I am doing all this other non-related stuff, and I believe my patient's care is compromised. Now I do need work at the moment as we all do, but I will stand up and say something if patient care is not being done. The hospitals need to get personal care assistants (PCAs) to do all these extra duties. If this goes on, I will just refuse to answer the phone and tell them to get someone in to do it. And yes, we should get extra money for doing all these extra duties; it's got to the point some days where I'm doing more clerica/admin/paperowork than actual patient duties, and I'm forgetting to give meds at a certain time, etc because I'm caught up with all these stupid other distractions that have nothing to do with my actual job (and I'm not talking about cleaning the operating table inbetween patients - that's part of infection control).

I actually wasted about 30 minutes one day just chasing around for a certain chart that I needed - a ridiculous carry on! (I passed this on as well that clerical staff need to ensure all our paperwork is stocked up for each shift).

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As a new grad working at an ICU on Puerto Rico. i only make 11.54 per hour. I work very hard sometimes with 4 patients by myself. Before taxes i only see a little more than $800 per 80 hours. :crying2:

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Specializes in Med/Surg, ENT/Plastics, College Health.

Nursing should more then just money for you. For me it is a passion for people and making a difference in their lives. It is using my knowledge and skills to help them achieve the best possible outcomes and my compassion to support them and their family during the dying process.

It has also been very lucrative for me. I have worked as a staff nurse in a inner city teaching hospital for 13 years and make $48.00 hr plus shift/weekend differential which is over $100,000 yr. Starting pay currently is $30.00hr. I also work part time as a nurse practitioner and make $10 less an hour then my staff nurse job. I consider that to be pretty good compenstion for a very flexible and rewarding career.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.
Nursing should more then just money for you. For me it is a passion for people and making a difference in their lives. It is using my knowledge and skills to help them achieve the best possible outcomes and my compassion to support them and their family during the dying process. It has also been very lucrative for me. I have worked as a staff nurse in a inner city teaching hospital for 13 years and make $48.00 hr plus shift/weekend differential which is over $100,000 yr. Starting pay currently is $30.00hr. I also work part time as a nurse practitioner and make $10 less an hour then my staff nurse job. I consider that to be pretty good compenstion for a very flexible and rewarding career.

I'm surprised any nurse makes $100,000 a year. I know people with several nursing degrees/qualifications who also do teaching and they don't make anywhere near this money. My gf is a nurse/midwife - she told me she makes $50,000 a year and gets paid for some overtime (as a midwife would). But she makes nowhere near the above amount.

You must work a lot of hours to make that money do you?

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