A Nursing Salary Varies According To Skill And Position

Nurses Salary

Nursing is a wonderful career choice with many different options. While a demanding career, many people choose this field based on the nurses salary. A well trained nurse can often find themselves being recruited while still in completing their courses at a university, and competition among recruiters across the USA and abroad is fierce. The large number of vacancies for nurses only makes the competition among the recruiters even more intense.

The field of nursing is expected to have above average growth through the year 2008. Hundreds of Colleges and Universities across the USA offer various training programs in the nursing field. Typically, anyone wishing to pursue a nursing education, must spend at least two years in a private college or University and train to the Associate Degree level and then pursue RN or Registered Nurse designation. For those wishing to specialize especially in the surgical or psychiatric nursing field, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing is essential, to ensure employment in a higher paying job.

There are fifty-six sub specialities of nursing, with varying nurses salary available. Nurse's salaries often begin around $37, 000 and go as high as almost $80,000 in the USA. Pay levels depend not only on how much training a nurse has received, but also the area they choose to practice in. In 2004, more than twenty-five percent of all Registered Nurses earned more than $64,000 per year.

Most nursing jobs of course are found in large metropolitan areas. In 2004 New York City employed 69,600 Nurses, Los Angeles employed 53,000, and Boston employed 33,000 and Washington 32,000. The larger cities typically offer more job variety for nurses, and more opportunity for specialization. While the larger medical facilities may indeed offer higher nurses salary than rural, often nurses who choose to work in the inner city clinics and teaching hospitals may find themselves at the lower end of the pay spectrum, even with a specialist designation.

When choosing a nursing career, salary and lifestyle play a significant part in how much training someone is willing to undergo. All nursing careers ensure that a nurse will live way above the poverty line in the USA. The salaries of nurses is increasing due to the large number of vacancies for nurses.

The lower end of the salary scale for nurses is for that of an LPN or Licensed Practical Nurse. The median scale or average annual salary for an LPN is $37,471 annually. Typically Licensed Practical Nurses have obtained either a diploma from a recognized medical college, or completed a two year associate's degree. Licensed Practical Nurses work and report directly under a Registered Nurse or Doctor and assist with the care and comfort of a patient. As you can well imagine the number of these types of nurse with the demand is increasingly larger each year as continued vacancies for nurses rises.

At the top end of the nurses pay scale is the Nurse Practitioner. The median scale or average salary for this highly skilled Nurse is $77,886.00 per year, or almost double of that of a Licensed Practical Nurse. Nurse Practitioners hold at minimum a Bachelor of Science degree and the Registered Nurse designation and often train to at least the Master of Science level. Working alongside a Physician, or in some cases in place of a Physician in rural areas or inner city clinics, Nurse Practitioners may write prescriptions, order tests, and perform examinations.

For the average non-specialized Registered Nurse the salary per year is approximately $59,061. These nurses are typically employed within hospitals and may rotate between different wards. For RN's who do specialize, in areas of Obstetrics or Psychiatric Nursing the pay only increases between $700 and $1000 per year, on average. Many companies are trying to fill their vacancies for nurses and are offering higher and higher pay incentives and sign-on bonuses.

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