Considering career change from counseling to nursing (degree, employers, jobs)
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I am in California. I work in a hospital as does my wife.
You can get a job without a BSN. The trend though is we normally hire with a BSN. Starting first year pay was recently increased to $33 an hour with a BSN, $22 without. We also hire first year RN's with a BSN or not to join our float team. That is another 6 months of training at each of our nursing floors, at our rural hospital, and at our skilled nursing facility. After the 6 month training the float team makes $45 an hour. They do not have a home yet and each day could be a different day. After working on the float team they can apply for openings as they come up.
After the first 6 months the BSN's income will increase to $36 after the first year of working the non BSN RN income will increase to $33 an hour. After a year or two and when an opening happens an RN or BSN can choose a discipline within Nursing, L&D, NICU, ICU, CCU, Surgical Nursing, or many others. Depending on the change will also depend on how much more they get. A critical care RN can make an additional $5 an hour and chances are within a year will be making $45 or more an hour.
Most RN's and BSN's leave the heavy lifting to the tech's. California also has strict patient to RN ratios. You won't have 6 or more patients as an RN on any floor. Chances are you will never have any more than 4 patients a night. In critical care you will have one patient.
We work 12 hour shifts, three a week or 6 during a 14 day pay period. You will be asked to work additional shifts. Those are paid out as overtime. Many RN's work at another hospital or do some other kind of care. This area is a high cost of living area.
The cost of an education in nursing should not be an issue.
Our hospital offers education reimbursements for employees. It is up to $3,000 a year. This is a big help with the Junior College stuff. Many RN's attend a JC to complete their educational requirements and also complete the requirements to become an RN. The cost is low for residents that have lived in state for at least a year.
Our hospital also offers loans of up to $8,000 that can be paid back with years of service.
In our area you can apply for nursing grants to help pay for the cost of becoming an RN and a BSN. Our hospital has three in house scholarships for employees going into nursing. They only pick a few people a year but I bet other places have a similar set up.
For someone that has student loan debt and they work at a hospital the Fed's will eliminate your student loan debt after making 120 payments. This applies to anyone, not just RN's.
Lets say that you end up with a lot of student loans as an RN. It turns out that the
Last edited by SOON2BNSURPRISE; 01-16-2016 at 01:33 AM..
I am in the same boat. Have a bachelor's in Psych and have worked in the Psych field for four year's.
I have been debating to go back for nursing to work towards becoming a APRN Psych Nurse. Torn though considering being a Medic instead feel as it be more freedom.
Now the only thing that's still irking me us the lingering fact that one could be called in on their days off.
Happened to me working security, happens to me as a truck driver right now.
From the few nurses I have spoken with, it does happen, but not as often to the point where they're feeling whooped.
But then again, like one of the posters said, there seems to be so many different segments of the career that one could get into that would mitigate the issue of lack of time off.
At this point in life, time off to go do things is something highly desirable for me, more so than pay standards that everyone gripes about.
I just want to make sure I find that healthy balance which I have yet to encounter with either of the two jobs I've held over the past, 13 years.
Either low pay and quite a but of time off, or high pay and almost no time off.
Now the only thing that's still irking me us the lingering fact that one could be called in on their days off.
Happened to me working security, happens to me as a truck driver right now.
From the few nurses I have spoken with, it does happen, but not as often to the point where they're feeling whooped.
But then again, like one of the posters said, there seems to be so many different segments of the career that one could get into that would mitigate the issue of lack of time off.
At this point in life, time off to go do things is something highly desirable for me, more so than pay standards that everyone gripes about.
I just want to make sure I find that healthy balance which I have yet to encounter with either of the two jobs I've held over the past, 13 years.
Either low pay and quite a but of time off, or high pay and almost no time off.
Getting called in (or 'cut') as a nurse is generally only something that happens when you work in acute (hospital) care-- if you work for an insurance company, a school, a doctor's office, etc, you generally work set hours-- and, more often than not, you work Monday-Friday and office hours.
Bedside/floor nursing in a hospital setting is NOT the only kind of nursing-- though that's what people generally think of when nursing is mentioned.
Getting called in (or 'cut') as a nurse is generally only something that happens when you work in acute (hospital) care-- if you work for an insurance company, a school, a doctor's office, etc, you generally work set hours-- and, more often than not, you work Monday-Friday and office hours.
Bedside/floor nursing in a hospital setting is NOT the only kind of nursing-- though that's what people generally think of when nursing is mentioned.
Even more enticing to go after.
Nothing like decent pay to go with some decent hours and time off.
I've looked over the degree requirements for the BSN from ENMU and it seems like something I'm confident I could pull off.
Getting called in (or 'cut') as a nurse is generally only something that happens when you work in acute (hospital) care-- if you work for an insurance company, a school, a doctor's office, etc, you generally work set hours-- and, more often than not, you work Monday-Friday and office hours.
Bedside/floor nursing in a hospital setting is NOT the only kind of nursing-- though that's what people generally think of when nursing is mentioned.
No, bedside aren't the only gigs around, but at least in my area and a few others they happen to pay the most. Experienced nurses on average will earn far more in acute care settings than a physician's office or with an insurance company.
Things vary of course, some are more than happy to trade wage gains for quality of life issues. If a straight M-F, no nights, no weekends, no holidays, etc... nursing job is your ideal then have at it.
I'm a nurse recruiter. While it's challenging to get your first job-- once you have experience, you'll have recruiters hounding you.
First, get your BSN, not an Associates, if you can. Second, nursing is SO much more than just bedside/floor nursing (though there's nothing wrong with hands on, clinical nursing, of course- just there are many, many additional options that many people aren't aware eof)-- you can get into case management, either on the provider (hospital) or payor (managed care/insurance company side)-- you can get into analytics (i.e. HEDIS, data abstraction)-- or research, disease management, infusion, etc. Or you can opt to do home care, hospice, school nursing, etc.
The only "issue" is that nursing salaries, unless you're looking to go into management or have very specialized skills, tends to top out right around $90-$100K (depending on which part of the country you reside in)-- not that that's a bad salary-- but the salary differential between nurses with 2-3 years of experience and those with 20+ years of experience, for the most part, isn't all that different.
And, there's not a glut of nurses in LA or NYC, at least not those with managed care or case management experience-- my company is headquartered in NYC and I place nurses nationally, but many of my clients are based in LA. In fact, I just placed 3 nurses into jobs in and around Los Angeles this week; two at a large insurance company and the third in a management role at a hospital-- and I just got a requisition for a number of openings at a health plan in Boston. If there was an oversupply of experienced and qualified nurses, my firm would cease to exist, as my services wouldn't be needed.
Again as one said the shortage/supply of nurses varies by geographical location. It also includes factors such as education level, experience, specialty and so forth.
Just go over to AllNurses.com or read media posts about how difficult the market is for new grads/newly licensed but RNs with <two years experience. That demographic in NYC, much of CA and other areas is certainly saturated as nursing programs continue to churn out record numbers of graduates. Meanwhile for host of reasons experienced/older nurses aren't retiring or haven't retired in numbers many predicted.
In NYC for instance something like ten hospitals have closed along with many nursing homes over the past ten years. This along with shrinking inpatient bed counts means hospitals have adapted their staffing to suit. Yet we actually have *more* nursing programs over that same period largely due to the increase of second degree BSN schools.
When you hear of any sort of nursing "shortage" today places are likely referring to RNs well seasoned with experience in a particular specialty. Case management would fit such as area as it isn't something a new grad/low experienced nurse can just walk into.
No, bedside aren't the only gigs around, but at least in my area and a few others they happen to pay the most. Experienced nurses on average will earn far more in acute care settings than a physician's office or with an insurance company.
Things vary of course, some are more than happy to trade wage gains for quality of life issues. If a straight M-F, no nights, no weekends, no holidays, etc... nursing job is your ideal then have at it.
After putting up with 7-8 days straight of driving a 90'-100' long vehicle for 10-12 hours a day, those banker-like hours would be a welcome change regardless of the drop in pay.
Right now, I'm bringing in between $900 and a $1200/week, but I'm usually pushing 7-8 days and burning up the FMCSA 70hour driving rule.
From what I've gathered from the various nursing threads on CD and other sources, even an office, or insurance company would net me about the same as I'm making now, while working less hours and not as exposed to deadly weather, or deadly drivers.
However, nursing still seems to be just one option I'm thinking of jumping into.
I've mentioned it before and I feel as though I've reached the highest end of the payscale as far as this current line of work goes.
After putting up with 7-8 days straight of driving a 90'-100' long vehicle for 10-12 hours a day, those banker-like hours would be a welcome change regardless of the drop in pay.
Right now, I'm bringing in between $900 and a $1200/week, but I'm usually pushing 7-8 days and burning up the FMCSA 70hour driving rule.
From what I've gathered from the various nursing threads on CD and other sources, even an office, or insurance company would net me about the same as I'm making now, while working less hours and not as exposed to deadly weather, or deadly drivers.
However, nursing still seems to be just one option I'm thinking of jumping into.
I've mentioned it before and I feel as though I've reached the highest end of the payscale as far as this current line of work goes.
In California you would make more as an RN than as a driver. Maybe not starting out buy you would be making around $30 plus in the first year. RN pay increases each year, especially as you move from RN I to RN V. An RN V would be making a 6 figure income.
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