oldeddieboy

Threads like this make one question if its worth it to work hard for 2.5 yrs and spend $20k+ on school. Judging from my other thread, I would probably make $10-15k/yr more nursing than many other jobs, but is it worth it? Sure, I really want to help people, but I'm sure everyone in this thread went in with that attitude.

Judging by the comments, it seems like $60-70k ($32-$38/hr) is more realistic for the highest paid nurses with lots of experience and normal working hours. Not really wealthy, but still pretty good. Teachers top out at around $46k with a bachelor degree and 30 yrs experience. Not sure which is job is harder.

does your school have lab as a seperate class from lecture? I like having having them part of one class so if I do bad on lab, I can pull it up with my lecture grade. with a 48, i would just calculate what your potential grade would be assuming you make 85+ on the rest of your tests. if it comes up to a C or worse drop the class. talk to the teacher too and tell them what grade you need - they can tell you what your chances are.

when i took bio classes like this, i would sometimes stay in the lab for FIVE hrs 3 or 4 times before the test. i was the only person in there 90% of the time. i got A's whereas a lot of smart people got B's or Cs. looking in the book at pictures does nothing for me.

i got my gf to be my patient and proctor. :) big difference between memorizing from the book and having a real person playing the role of patient and proctor!

Staff w/ ADN/BSN degree.

So what do yall think the top 5% of RNs working days in a hospital down south are making? Would you say they average about $85k (~$45/hr)? Little more little less?

if they only look at 4 classes to calculate your gpa that should be pretty easy. you could have those knocked out with As in 6 months (spring/summer semesters). the CC close to me looks at nine classes and you need a 3.6+ gpa.

i've heard of people using it to mask the smell of poop. :poop:

I'm not sure if it's right to ask how much people make, but I'm trying to get an idea of how much nurses usually make in the south. Most figures include data from states where pay is much higher. Specifically, I'm looking for wages for weekday day shift nurses...so not including any night or weekend differentials. Please include years of experience. I'm curious to know if $100,000 is possible without working nights, weekends or crazy amounts of overtime...

If they could make $140k+ they could do it around here...but that might make them the highest paid ADN/BSN south of the mason dixon line. :)

So why mention $140k? The state is irrelevant regardless. Average pay in MN is $74k, BTW. I never said new nurses shouldn't plan to work nights. I'm talking long term... I don't disagree. Key words were "ultimate plans" - I'm not talking about what new nurses HAVE TO do.

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I agree. I want a regular life with regular hrs. This might mean taking a paycut once I get some experience.

Obviously, I cannot speak for your specific organization, but I can say with some certainty that the overwhelming majority (98%+) of nurses will never make close to $140k at any point in there career. Perhaps you have found the utopia of nursing pay, but obviously your specific area doesn't represent the country as a whole - it doesn't even represent the state of Wisconsin where the average nurse makes a little over $60k. It's sorta pointless to talk about a single spot on the map when discussing "most people" all across the country. Working days may contribute to more mental stress in some places, but working nights may be just as stressful in other areas. What's known is that working nights has proven health complications. The human body is made to sleep at night. Our society functions on a day schedule. Several people have mentioned that the only way to go night shifts long term is to keep night hours even on your days off...this means sleeping all day and watching the tube all night because everyone is asleep and everything is closed. Horrible life, imo. With nursing already being mentally/physically stressful and having such a high burnout rate - I don't think making plans to work nights long term is smart for the new nurse. Personally, I don't see why someone shouldn't enter nursing because they only want to work days. If your ultimate plan is to work days, I think it's good to have a realistic idea of what you'll be making. Not many people can work nights long term - maybe this is why getting a day job is so difficult? Apparently, taking on the politics and added BS far outweigh the stress/inconvenience of putting yourself through the grave yard shift?

It sucks to be so far in debt before you even get started. After pre reqs and nursing school that could be 120k+ of debt...something like $1300/month. This might be one of those times where you are so far in that you might as well keep going. The payment on 80k isn't much less than 120k or whatever it will end up being. You really need to do some soul searching and know 1000% that you want to be a nurse. Also be prepared to work nights/weekends/overtime.

According to the Bereau of Labor, the average salary for nurses in Wisconsin is $64,800 (take home pay probably well under $50k). And I think those Wisconsin winters would keep me away too.:) I love the south and having my family close. Regardless, point is, I think very, very, very, few nurses are making anywhere close to $150k/year - I'd guess it's less than 2% (mostly NPs, CRNA, etc). I think it's always good to have the option of working different shifts. My main objection to working nights is simply for health (and sanity) reasons. To me, health trumps money all day. Although, many people may work nights with no apparent side effects, I think there is a very good chance it will catch up to them if done for extended periods of time. The few people I know working nights say it kicks their butt all week. Therefore, if a RN tells me their wage, my next question would probably be do you work nights/weekends?

what i did was just get someone to hold the book and act like the patient/procter. they let me know when i left something out and this meant starting over. i might have spent 30 minutes on just one skill. after you do this enough you'll know the steps backward and forward. even when i laid down to go to sleep i would imagine doing a few of the skills in my mind.

if he is single with no kids and averages $3500 every 2 weeks, he probably brings home about $65k/yr....that's great money, but without overtime, I'd need to make $50/hr to bring that home! :) I'm guessing that might be possible with 25-30 yrs experience.

most schools around here are 2 years plus a summer so I guess that's like 2.25 yrs. A BSN is obviously 4-5 yrs for most people (and potentially $30k+). Community colleges are around $10k but most want all pre reqs, 3.8+ GPA, CNA cert, 75+ on TEAS, etc....and then you still might not get in! It can easily take a person 2 yrs just to get those pre-reqs...then 2.25 yrs of nursing school. It's about a 4 yr time investment + whatever time it takes to find a job. PMFB-RN - where do you live? On $140k+/yr in much of the south you could be living in a 5,000 sq ft mansion on the lake surrounded by pro athletes/celebs haha.

I think the average RN salary in NC or SC is ~$55k. Weekend and night work can make pay go up a lot, but I'm not sure how long many people would actually want to keep that up. Working nights can wreck your body/mood which keeps you from enjoying the money. Working weekends means you dont have much of a social life and don't get to see your kids/spouse/family. Working nights AND weekends hasthe highest pay but it combines the worst of both...I'm not sure if any amount of money would lure me to those hours. I think a salary average for ONLY weekday 7am-7pm nurses would be more relevant to me and the lifestyle I want. This is a schedule I could see myself working for 20yrs. When I first came on the forum and heard big hourly wages thrown around, I got very excited about the pay and thought that's what I would make. However,when I get down to it, I think those numbers just set me up for a big let down money wise. I wont work nights and probably wont work weekends for more than a few months. So that means it will probably be a long time before I bring home (net) anything close to $50k. If I complain, I guess you could say I would be bringing it on myself for being picky, but I imagine most people are like meand wont work nights/weekends (only 3% of people work night shifts). I'm thinking that night/weekend shifts appeal more to new graduates who are usually younger, unmarried and have student loans to pay back. I bet most don't stick with it long term (>5yrs) though.

Thanks to both of you for the great replies! That is pretty cool how your salary adds up so fast Penguin. Do you mind me asking if you are in a big city or small town? Would you say you are pretty mentally/physically strong being able to work nights plus overtime? My cousin says she is mentally/physically drained after working three 7am-7pm shifts...however, she does drive 50 minutes to and from work so this may make it a little worse for her (effectively ~15 hr days). For myself, I didn't figure in night differentials because I just couldn't do it for a sustained period of time. It throws me out of whack and I usually end up not being able to sleep so I couldn't put patients in the position of having a sleep deprived zombie working on them.

Hello. I plan on starting an ADN program Fall '13. I don't want to discuss the love for nursing or other intangible perks of the job - just the financial aspects. When I tell people I plan on being a nurse, they almost always say something about making great money, but is the money really that good? It's almost like some people think nurses are rich or something, but in reality it seems like they make pretty average money without 20+ experience. I'm no financial expert so feel free to correct everything I'm wrong about. First of all, nursing school takes about 2.5 yrs. Most people I know say its a full time job and working is out of the question. Thus by pursuing nursing, one is essentially "losing" 2.5 years of pay. If you assume it takes 6 months to find a job, that is a 3 year time investment. At 15k/yr, that's 45k. With 3% compounding interest, I think it's about $50k of "lost" money. At 3% interest this is about $125/month Now comes to cost of nursing school. Depending on the school, it can be anywhere from $10k to $30k. My cousin paid about $22k at a local health sciences college (community colleges were almost impossible to get into). At 15k, thats about $175/month to pay back loans. Nurses start off at ~$19/hr around here (south) - about $35,500....gross $25k? $25k gross - $2100 ($175 x 12) loans = $22,900 net. That isnt much money to live on considering all the time invested and physical/mental stress of the job. You also don't have $50,000 in the bank due to being in school. I'm not sure how long it would take to make up the $50k difference...I guess it would depend on how much money you would be making not doing nursing. What do you think?

Here's the story.... This has been the worst weekend of my life. I was driving my mother's car and was pulled over for a tail light - the officer asked if he could search the car and I said sure....well, 10 minutes later he shows up with a little white pill and ask me what it is. I told him "I have no idea" and he says it's OXYCODONE. I've never illegally done a drug in my life so I told him it must be my mother's medication. He didn't care and I went to jail. From jail, I called my mother and she said "that belongs to your aunt - she left it in the ashtray when I gave her a ride." Anyway, I was arrested for "simple possession of a schedule II controlled substance" - a class 1 misdemeanor. I pretty sure it'll be dismissed seeing as it was aunt's medication, BUT the arrest will always be on my record. :sniff: I looked at the North Carolina BON website and it says "In the application, the question is asked whether or not the applicant has ever been convicted of a misdemeanor/felony/DUI. If the response is yes, a certified copy of the criminal record must be submitted." So to my understanding (and hopes) when I apply for a nursing license, I can answer "no" to that question if I've only been arrested, but not convicted of anything....right? This is my first run in with the law since I was a stupid 18 year old (7.5 yrs ago) and arrested for speed competition (racing). The case was dismissed. I have my bachelors degree in human services with a 3.9 gpa and a 4.0 gpa in all the nursing pre-reqs. I've worked hard and thought I was doing everything right.....I would hate for my great aunt's pain pill to destroy everything I've worked for. I know you folks can't give me a definitive answer, but any comments would be appreciated. I would hate to go through nursing school and end up not getting licensed or being able to get a job.