Thinking about nursing

Nursing Students General Students

Published

I've read thru some of the comments here and I consistently see "low pay" and "hard work", well the hard work is something I can deal with but I don't see where the "low pay" is coming from since the AD's I see for RN's start at around 20$'s an hour and go up to 40+$'s an hour with experience and further training,

When you people say low pay what do you mean? That you make 25$'s an hour but you've over extended yourself or that you make far less than this and decent paying jobs in nursing are not the norm.

Nursing is a demanding, frustrating, and fulfilling profession in many ways, but when nursing salaries are compared to other "occupations", nursing usually comes out low on the pay scale. Consider what UPS/USPS workers make an hour or factory line workers. I have worked both Psych and Med-Surg, work 12 hour shifts, and seldomly get a break other than lunch (which is docked automatically), work every other weekend, and am only paid $17.73/hr for day shift as a "staff nurse". Oh yes, that hourly wage includes "extra" $1/hr for having BSN. Expected to stay late, give up my days off due to call ins or understaffing and God forbid service without a Smile!

Hi all. I stumbled upon this page tonight and couldn't help but register and add my input. Quick introduction... I'm an Air Force reservist who switched specialties (when I left active duty) to become a med tech to get an idea if nursing was for me. Oh, and I'm a guy and an ex-military cop. And my wife is currently a civilian cop. Talk about breaking stereotypes!

Anyhow, to the point. Here in mid/northern California (south of San Jose), a starter home (3/1 ~1500 sf) in a 'not so good' area will run you $350,000 or more. A starter home in an 'okay' area will set you back over $400,000. And believe me, I am talking about boring, small homes here. You will not get into a home for under $300,000. A condo, perhaps.

Gas is often over $2.00/gal. I have paid $2.89 before.

Everything else is probably pretty close to about the same. I speak from experience, having lived in both Utah and Florida.

Now the fun part. All of the nurses in my reserve unit that have discussed their civilian nursing salary seem to make very good money. My lieutentant (who is also a guy) has been a civilian RN for about 3 years and made about $130K (with OT) in 2003. Other nurses discuss pay openly often, and I have heard hourly wages ranging from $37 to $50/hr. I would not be surprised if some made more. I am unsure of what the average starting salary is.

More examples of high California pay: Police Officers start at about $60k/yr. City of Santa Clara police starts 'em at $72K out of the academy. Most seasoned cops here make well over $100k/yr. There was a story somewhere about a firefighter in this state who made something like $237,000 in 2002 due to shift diffs, maxing out the scale, OT, etc. Amazing.

I used to work on the management team of a security company. We had unarmed security officers making $20/hr. Many spoke English very poorly. Starting pay was generally $14/hr or more.

Many fast food jobs start at over $10/hr.

So long story short, the person that posted that he/she makes over $100K/yr is almost certainly from California!

Finally, I cannot believe that it is still possible to get into a nice home in America for under $100K! :eek:

Anyhow, glad I found this site. Seems like there is a lot of good info here. I'll be back, gonna go look around a bit.

Jason

Specializes in Adult Med-Surg, Rehab, and Ambulatory Care.

Wow, old thread dredged up! Welcome to the board, Jason, post often! :)

+ Add a Comment