what areas of nursing have the best pay?

Answer 1

When you are a staff nurse at a hospital, you do NOT earn more based on the specialty area you work in. Most nurses have unions, and in a hospital setting a nurse working in the OR will make the same as a nurse working in cardiology, oncology, pediatrics, intensive care, etc. What matters is how much experience and years on the job you have.

Money differences come into play based on what type of facility you work at (hospitals pay more than clinics or nursing homes) and on your education and certifications. Nurses with master's degrees who are nurse practitioners or educators or clinical nurse specialists or certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNA) will definitely make more money than a hospital staff nurse.

The best pay is if you're a CRNA. Their starting salary for a new graduate is well over $100,000. But it's a demanding area to get into. Anesthesia programs are SUPER competative and you essentially need to be a stellar student and model employee with lots of work experience in an ICU environment to get into those schools.

Nurses who work in administrative and management positions make the next best salary, and Nurse Practitioners are pretty close too.

Answer 2

Jills answer is probably right for where she lives and is employed. However, In my meager experience, I have never worked in a unionized hospital or health care organization, and never worked in a facility where nurses were paid the same based only on years of experience.

Every state I have worked in, has been a right to work state, and unions, while allowed, never had a very strong voice. Every nurse was free to negotiate their own contract. The hospital, generally, gave their managers and supervisors guidelines, but left hiring salaries to their discretion.

In those facilities critical care nurses (ICU, CCU, ER, and RR) and the surgical specialties (OR and L&D) paid more than med-Surgical or pediatrics. This was expected as these required additional skills and education, whereas any entry level RN could work on the Med Surg floors with basic orientation. Also those nurses who had shown themselves to be outstanding could negotiate for higher salaries.

Otherwise, the highest paid nurses in the US are Chief Nurse Executives at hospitals (usually have at least a masters in hospital administration) national average salary 124,000/yr. Nurse Anesthetist fall secondnational average salary 111,500/yr, and Nurse Practitioners third national average salary 85,000/yr. Though the highest paid in all of these is significantly higher, for example some CRNAs make over $400,000/yr some NPs make over $250,000/yr and some Nurse Executives make $350,000 or more.

Answer 3

Since I don't know what area of the country you're from I can't really tell you. But you can check http://salary.com

The link in the "source" section below gives salaries for the Boston area.

Answer 4

none!!! Just joking. Get into nurse anesthesia.

Answer 5

labor as persons r always happy after having a new born
and tips r more easy

Answer 6

Surgical, I would think they make close to $100 ,000/ann.

Answer 7

Private, go figure.