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Old 04-07-2010, 05:40 PM
 
Location: Living on the Coast in Oxnard CA
16,289 posts, read 32,186,268 times
Reputation: 21885

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Yes they can make $100,000 a year and more. Think of going into Anesthesia Nursing and you will be in the $105 an hour range or close to $200,000 a year. Our RN's where I work start at $28 right out of school. In 6 months you can move up to $33 an hour. Within a year you will be up to $38 an hour. After a 2 year period you can move into a specialty such as ICU, ER, or NICU and the income goes up from their. An ICU nurse can get an additional $5 an hour. Now all this is for 1st shift pay. You may have to start working the night shift but that pays a differential of $2.50 an hour for 2nd shift or $5.00 an hour for 3rd shift. With 12 hour shifts the differential is split between hours worked on the 2nd or 3rd shift.

After working your 3 - 12 hour shifts you can also work in house, meaning that when they need you they will call you into work an additional shift or two. For the extra hours they pay double time, so your $28 an hour jumps to $56 an hour for new nurses.

We also have some nurses that also work at another hospital. In our area their are 8 hospitals within a 30 minute range (one being 6 blocks away), and 14 hospitals within a 45 minute drive. I know one guy that worked at our place and at Cottege Hospital in Santa Barbara and within a year had saved $80,000 that he used to buy a boat with.

Are we hiring now? No not at this time. In fact things are slow now. Usually we pick up many of the students that finish school here at Ventura College. This year we only hired those that were working here allready as CNA's and we didn't hire all of them. That doesn't mean that in a few years you could get a job here or some place else. I am thinking this is a temporary thing. Also Nursing will be a strong carreer choice for now and in the future.

Wherever you go to school make sure that your credentials will transfer to California. Not all states RN's can work here. In California all RN's with an Associates Degree can transfer to any state in the USA. But that is not the truth with every state. Make sure that your state's licensing will transfer into California if that is your dream.
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Old 04-07-2010, 08:47 PM
 
Location: Bella Vista, Ark
77,772 posts, read 104,081,702 times
Reputation: 49243
Quote:
Originally Posted by jxndean View Post
No I'm not. I plan on being in nursing school next spring, but I was just wondering if nurses could live a decent life in california. I've always wanted to live out there and think that nursing is a good field to get into to achieve that goal.

Thx for all of the responses. They were very helpful.
Are you going to a 2 year, a 4 year or an accelerated program for those with degrees already? By the time you graduate the work enviornment should be very different than it is now. If is were now, you might not be able to find a great job. Even nurses are having some problems getting good jobs, but you have along way to go plus after you graduate you will have to take the CA license test.

All that being said, you should be able to make a good living as a nurse in Ca. Now, as for not wanting a particularly conservative area, that too shouldn't be too hard. Ca isn't known as one of the more conservative states.

Nita
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Old 04-08-2010, 02:29 PM
 
Location: The mountians of Northern California.
1,354 posts, read 6,356,248 times
Reputation: 1343
If you apply to the Dept of Corrections as an RN you can make 6 figures easy. RN's are in short supply, as are LVN's right now. LVN's make good money working for CDRC also.
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Old 04-08-2010, 10:00 PM
 
Location: Danville, Ca
314 posts, read 933,279 times
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Originally Posted by Inthesierras View Post
If you apply to the Dept of Corrections as an RN you can make 6 figures easy. RN's are in short supply, as are LVN's right now. LVN's make good money working for CDRC also.
Well why are there so many unemployed RN graduates working at Walmart and Starbucks? I personally know a few of them. I also hear Nurse managers at my hospital complain about having 400 to 500 applications for a few new grad positions. Right now RN's are flooding the market here in the bay area and it is very competitive to get a job. I was at a skill nursing facility visiting my grandma and I asked the DON were they hiring and she said not without a year of experience. So I would advise the OP to make sure I had a job lined up before coming to Ca or come with some experience.
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Old 04-08-2010, 11:17 PM
 
Location: The mountians of Northern California.
1,354 posts, read 6,356,248 times
Reputation: 1343
Quote:
Originally Posted by whydoucare? View Post
Well why are there so many unemployed RN graduates working at Walmart and Starbucks? I personally know a few of them. I also hear Nurse managers at my hospital complain about having 400 to 500 applications for a few new grad positions. Right now RN's are flooding the market here in the bay area and it is very competitive to get a job. I was at a skill nursing facility visiting my grandma and I asked the DON were they hiring and she said not without a year of experience. So I would advise the OP to make sure I had a job lined up before coming to Ca or come with some experience.
I think working for a prison scares off alot people. But if you are willing to work there, you can make a good living.
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Old 04-09-2010, 09:34 AM
 
Location: Whiteville Tennessee
8,262 posts, read 18,420,301 times
Reputation: 10148
2000 was my last year working full time as an OR Nurse in California. I made $112,000 with very little overtime. If a person has Kmart taste rather than Saks Fifth Avenue, they can live quite well on a nurses salary.
Danny---RN MSN MICN
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Old 04-09-2010, 11:27 AM
 
Location: Baywood Park
1,634 posts, read 6,695,611 times
Reputation: 714
Unemployed RN grads? That's the first I've heard of that. Did every Tom, Dick and Mary go to nursing school or what?
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Old 04-09-2010, 12:09 PM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
111 posts, read 155,486 times
Reputation: 82
Quote:
Originally Posted by CA central coast View Post
Unemployed RN grads? That's the first I've heard of that. Did every Tom, Dick and Mary go to nursing school or what?
Basically, i'd recommend all RN's go back to get a masters in Family Nursing. Family Nurse Practitioners in the CDCR make over 250K per year at certain facilities. Soon Primary Care Physicians will be taken over by Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants. Due to the shortage of medical school grads going in to Family Medicine as a residency.
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Old 04-09-2010, 12:21 PM
 
28,107 posts, read 63,374,410 times
Reputation: 23222
Quote:
Originally Posted by CA central coast View Post
Unemployed RN grads? That's the first I've heard of that. Did every Tom, Dick and Mary go to nursing school or what?
It's a rather new phenomenon... but true.

Nursing programs are still impacted and emigrating with a Nursing Degree is one fast-track way to work here. Over the last 10 years... the ranks of foreign born nurses has increased dramatically and many are excellent at what they do.
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Old 04-09-2010, 02:03 PM
 
Location: Living on the Coast in Oxnard CA
16,289 posts, read 32,186,268 times
Reputation: 21885
Quote:
Originally Posted by CA central coast View Post
Unemployed RN grads? That's the first I've heard of that. Did every Tom, Dick and Mary go to nursing school or what?
What happened was the economy caught up to hospitals. If you don't have insurance chances are you may not head over to the hospital for help. You may put off having children as well. For the first time in my 12 plus years of working in this hospital our Maternity ward closed and all patients were sent to our over flow maternity ward, a smaller unit.

I have noticed the average patient census dropping over the past year.

Top that off with people hesitating to retire because their 403B retirement accounts may be down and you don't have a place for the new nurses to land a job. The industry considers this a temporary thing. People will still get sick, have accidents, have kids. For now though things are not like the past.
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