Seeking longterm career advice for finiancial goals

[icarr757]

I am lucky enough to have started nursing as a 2nd career at the young age of 43. I have a job at a decent hospital on the medsurg floor working nights and I have the support of some great coworkers and a boss who do not mind all my innane questions and lack of experience. I am blessed and my short term goals are to spend next few years learning the basics, doing the BSN and maybe getting some professional certifications.

But what about long term goals? If I told you good people I am a single 43yr old male with 2yr degree in nursing and my long term dream 10 years from now to be still in nursing but doing something that pays $35/hr or such, could anyone recomend a field of nursing so I could get a idea of what path I need to start aiming walk down to reach said finiancial goals?? Not really interested Managment or Mother/baby, but other than that, I am pretty wide open to most any ideas.

Thanks and have great Holiday season!

[iPink, BSN, RN]

A few questions you have to answer for yourself, so you know what direction to take....

What professional certs are you looking to get? Do you plan to stop at the BSN? Do you want to stay in the hospital setting or look to leave in a decade or less? Is eventually working a M-F 8-5p (no weekends/holidays) sound appealing? Is teaching an option?

You would have to looking into such sites as salary.com to find what area of nursing hits the target rate you're looking for in your state. Is getting to $35/hr not attainable at your current hospital through clinical ladders or merit increases?

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Aim for nursing leadership positions. You'll probably need to move towards an MSN to achieve a 6 figure salary, but this is definitely achievable right now in all areas of the US. Nurse leaders with specialty expertise are a very hot commodity - particularly if you have demonstrated progressive career growth and evidence of savvy business skills as well as clinical know-how/certification. I know someone who went from new grad to (small) hospital CNO in 8 years. He is now a regional VP of nursing - 15 years after graduation as a BSN.

In my experience, climbing the ladder will probably require relocation to take advantage of better career opportunities unless you live in a major metro area with plenty of different employers.