OK, I have a big beef here. I'm currently in my first year of nursing, and I feel like I have to say something regarding nurses complaining about their pay.
Reading these boards, I just came across someone who said they make $34 an hour in Ontario, and they were telling someone that if they're looking to make money, go into accouting or something. THis just floored me!
$34 and hour!!!! How can you tell me that is not making money? Many many nurses who work in Ontario get WAY less than that.
I just really don't understand.
People are always saying, "if you're in this profession to make money, get out because you won't be rich." This is ridiculous. I live in SK Canada, where nurses make $24 starting (I think) or if not, it's very close to that figure. That is considered a WELL paying job. How can you not live comfortably on pay like that? I know many many many many people who make considerably less than that, and they do just fine.
Some nurses say that there is no money in nursing. Has anyone heard of a Nurse Practitioner? I know they don't make millions, but they do make more than RN's, some even make 6 figures. I am going to be one. Once I'm an RN, I'm working in the ER for one year, then returning to school for a 30 week course. YOu don't have to be a genious to do this either.
I know that you have to love nursing to be in it. You CANNOT be in it JUST FOR THE MONEY, but it makes me mad when people say THERE IS NO MONEY. Some areas pay nurses more than others.
I know it's a lot of work, it's stressful, and it's a hard job, and I know that many people (including me) feel that we should be payed more for what we do, but come on people. Doesn't it make you mad when people who make $34 an hour complain they don't have enough money? Do you spend foolishly? The cost of living in Ont is higher than SK, but $34 an hour is STILL much more than many many people in that prov make.
Specializes in RETIRED Cath Lab/Cardiology/Radiology.
(sigh) just finding someone compatible is a staggering feat in itself (although it can and does happen! ), let alone finding someone who is a nurse and makes what you make! What are the odds?? Neither the fates nor hearts usually consider the hourly wage and profession!
I am very grateful to be living in the U.S......................nurses are generally overworked, disrespected, disregarded and have to put up with a huge amount of BS from mgmt, docs, families, etc., have great responsibility and very little authority. In these kinds of working conditions, no amount of money seems like enough.
I couldn't have said it better HElllllo Nurse. :kiss
For what I do in a 12 to 13 hour shift each time I work, even $34.00 an hour wouldn't be enough. $50/hour might appeal to me more, but if the job still sucks and we still have to put up with abuse as nurses, then even $50/hour wouldn't keep me in that job. Can't put a price tag on one's life. So,,,,,guess they couldn't pay me enough to do that job anyway.
If your a nurse making 25 an Hour, all ya gotta do is marry another nurse thats making 25 an hour and BINGO!!!
Thats 50 BUCKS AN HOUR!!!
$50 x 40 hrs per week = 2grand a week!
2grand a week x 52 weeks a year = $104,000 ayear!!!
whoa!
Figure in the taxes deducted, the insurance for medical/dental, etc., the cost of living in the area where one lives, the amount of taxes that have to be filed and paid by that couple each tax year, and then what's left?
I'll tell you............TWO...not one....but TWO dead-tired nurses who are married to each other at the end of their shifts. :chuckle
Too pooped to pop! Guess what that leads to? Arguments, tension, stress upon stress........money can't buy peace.
I am an LPN and have worked for the last 8 years. I make 21.00 an hour, which is fine by me. 34.00 an hour is good money. I lived very poorly for many years till I finished school and am thankful for a good job and good pay.
Around here, the average factory job pays 7-10 dollars an hour, somewhere around there. RNs probably start around 16-18 an hour. factory workers can work their entire lives there, with the fear that there job will be sent to Indonesia (yay, overseas labor). A lot of people here in the nursing program are laid-off and see nursing as a pretty stable career choice. And, sad to say, without a lot higher education, being a nurse is probably about the best money there is around here.
It is human nature to want to make more money and go after the highest salary you possibly can. Everyone is in it for the money to some degree, to deny that means you are lying to yourself and everyone else!! Going after a higher salary motivates people to do many things, many good things that is and there is nothng wrong with that in my opinion.
As far as nurses' salaries, an earlier post talked about salaries going backward and it is true. Figure in inflation, cost of livng increases, and also a lack of a secure retirement program in healthcare and nurse salaies have definitely gone backward.
To me the strongest point of argument is what the healthcare team collects from reimbursement by various payors and how that money is divided among the members of the team, that being the hospital, doctors, nurses, and other allied health people. For the effort and contribution to patient care that nurses make, nurses are GETTING SCREWED!!
As I have said many times in my posts, ths will not change as long as nurses are paid by the hour and viewed as manual labor, an expense that "must be mnaged" from a business perspective. I work in hospital administration and unerstand fully how admnistration views nursing salary expense. The only way I see this really changing is for nurses to reimbursed directly by the payors and nurses being removed from the hospital payroll. That will require, literally, an act of congress.
So, will nurses continue to complain about their wages, YOU BET THEY WILL!!!!
stop complaining about the money. you make more money than most of america. be grateful for what you got. put your energies into improving the working conditions. then you can say you have done something positive.
I have been a Nurse one month shy of 25 years. I started licensed as a LPN and went back for my RN a few years later. Salaries are low, low ,low! For what I have to do, it is still way undercompensated.
Don't go by the figures. When you start out, you will see what I mean. You're still on the other side of the proverbial fence.
I am not a N.P. I work at the bedside in Intensive Care. This is my love. I hope you find an area that you can devote to like I have all of these years.
I am lucky to be able to tell you that I can still float to med-surg and telemetry as well. That's important to me. I do a good job wherever I go and though I think that all Nurses should earn 6 figures, I invest my money.... hence the name, Lady NASDAQ lol!!!!
I have to agree with the majority of posts, DMR1! I have been an RN for 19 & 1/2 yrs and can certainly understand why other Nurses complain about their salaries! Depending on where you live the tax rate and cost of living definitely cuts into salary. I work in Critical Care as a Travel Nurse, nights and my hrly rate is only $20.45/hr! I do have housing benefits and a rental car provided but, I am also a single mom and finding decent childcare at night is not only difficult but, EXPENSIVE! I have NEVER heard of an accredited NP program in the US that was only 30 wks in length-most require a MSN & after that 18 mths to 2 yrs! If you don't know the whole situation of those "complaining" , maybe you need to find out more information First!
I am not sure which tertiary institution offers the "30 weeks" nurse practitioner qualification course. In Canada, where only 3 of 13 provinces and territories recognise and license NPs, the minimal entry to practice is a graduate (master's) degree, with a nurse practitioner major focus. This is not quite the same as an outpost nursing course. Outpost nurses work in rural and northern Canada, where they indeed have an expanded scope of practice, due to the shortage (or absence in many communities) of doctors. Please remember, that the nurse who posted this thread is from Ontario, Canada, where CAD $34 = only around USD $25 per hour. If RNs would like to make their best income, then why don't you try to magnificent north? Those of us above 60 degrees earn the highest wages in Canada. Yes, I take in more than the CAD $34 per hour cited by the first author, and I gross above the $50 K listed by someone else.
I'm definitely not complaining about my salary. As a new grad, I am making $21.58/hr. in the OR. I even get paid when we have classes. That is awesome pay for a new grad in any position in my state. I'm lovin' it :)
dianah, ASN
8 Articles; 4,724 Posts
(sigh) just finding someone compatible is a staggering feat in itself (although it can and does happen!
), let alone finding someone who is a nurse and makes what you make! What are the odds?? Neither the fates nor hearts usually consider the hourly wage and profession! 