doobinator

I just moved from Milwaukee, WI and had a couple(6 that I know of) of my friends that made over $100K a year. We are all ICU nurses, with either an AAS or BSN. I did not particapate in this but they were able to do this by: Working almost exclusively as a agency nurse, and 4 of them opened their own agency, (3 of them being their only nurse on staff). Therefore the would make the full $60-$80/per hour charged to the hospital. Generally this is a better option in ICU, as these agency RN's get paid a premium rate. This rate is similar in tramua, burn units and NICU's - anything that is specialized but does not require further schooling beyond the normal on the job training. The real biggie with this is buying your own liability insurance, which is pretty cheap( about $85/year). It also enables you to deduct more of your general nursing expenses on your taxes. They also worked at least 50 hours a week if they didn't own the agency, and made more like $40-50/per hour. Most of them worked the off shifts, and were no stranger to having to work 16 on day and come back after 6-4 hours of sleep, as they had to work when the shifts were available. And you never knew when the $$$ would dry up. Most of they gals and one guy owned 2 homes and were trying to pay one off so they could have additional income that way, as they all knew they would burn out from the long hours. There are a number of hospitals that pay a premuim for picking up extra shifts and some of my other friends would work part time and one hospital, and pickup extra shifts to full time and work pool/agency at other places. We got $10/hr extra for picking up shifts, so that helped, plus 50% differentials for working night-weekends. 2 friends also got travel contracts in a town 50 miles away, and would get travel allowance(rent) and would drive home every night and bank that extra income.