Bellaocchi
Hope Faith Love
Member since 2/07 5694 total posts
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Nursing questions
I am toying with the idea of becoming an RN. I was a medical Assistant years ago and I did enjoy it. The pay was not great though. Seems like you cap out at $40K per year. Anyway, if I were to take the 2 year program, can I be an RN anywhere or do I have to start out in the hospital? What is the starting salary? I have read some previous posts and some say that L.I. nurses are paid on the lower side of the spectrum. Why is this? TIA
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neenie
Member since 5/05 22351 total posts
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Re: Nursing questions
You can be a nurse with a 2 year degree, but right now its very competitive out there (b/c so many area hospitals have shut down- so new grads are competing with nurses that have 20+ yrs experiences). Also, i know certain hospitals are trying to obtain magnet status, so they're trying to increase the amount of Bachelor degree RNs they have. Still, there are positions out there, but the hospitals aren't begging for nurses like i feel people sometimes make it seem (yes, nurses are working shortstaffed, but its not because there aren't nurses out there- hospitals just aren't hiring them).
As far as where to start out- it depends on what you want to do. I think the hospital really is the best place to start b/c it gives you a solid foundation, but i know some people who went right to Dr's offices and never looked back.
Salary- that depends also on where you work (not only city, but hospital vs. dr office vs. nursing home, etc). The city does pay better than LI (when i first started, i think the difference was about 10%). To me, it wasn't worth it though, b/c when you factor in LIRR, time, etc... i ended up making more on the island. I know it varies by hospital, but i think the new grads (no experience) at my hospital (for night shift) were being hired at around 75K. You end up making some more than that though since you have to work holidays and stuff like that, but thats whats listed as base. As far as why nurses on LI are paid less than the city- its really no different than any other job- the city just tends to pay more, and i think Suffolk hospitals tend to pay less (but i dont know much about them, either).
Hope this helps. Good luck!
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