Nurse Salaries For Different Nursing Fields
by: Robyn Knapp
Many new graduate nurses are readily offered jobs prior to graduation. The positions that they are offered are usually those with the title graduate nurse or GN. For the most part, new graduates are looking for employment near their home. Since the general nursing student is now in their early to late thirties, they have already established a secure family base. While jobs for graduate nurses are plentiful it helps to have some idea of how many jobs are actually offered throughout the United States. The wonderful fact of being a nurse is that they can work just about anywhere.
The following information should be helpful in getting some idea of the pay for different nursing fields. Hospital Nurse Recruiters will inform the new graduate nurse that obtaining a bachelor degree in nursing is favored. Many hospitals will offer some form of tuition reimbursement for those nurses who seek to obtain a BSN degree. Tuition reimbursement can go as high as one hundred percent to fifty percent. For nurses who work in hospitals, there is a world of opportunity to move into many different nursing specialties. As the nurse gains more experience in their field, their salary will also increase. The salaries listed below are not all inclusive, but merely present to the reader a general idea of the salary range that exists. The reader should keep in mind that each hospital will be unique in what type of salary is offered depending on the nurses qualifications and prior work experience.
Just as you might think, large cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago hold the top spots for the number of nursing jobs available. The larger cities also have higher salaries and better benefits for their nurses. The tradeoff is longer hours and more stress in large city nursing jobs versus the small community jobs where hours are usually better and the number of patients to serve is lower.
The median expected salary for a typical Staff Nurse – RN in *Detroit**, MI*, is *$65,817*. This basic market pricing report was prepared using our Certified Compensation Professionals’ analysis of survey data collected from thousands of HR departments at employers of all sizes, industries and geographies.
Job Description
Staff Nurse – RN:
Evaluates, plans, implements, and documents nursing care for an assigned patient population. Assists physician during examinations and procedures. Performs various patient tests and administers medications within the scope of practice of the registered nurse. Promotes patient’s independence by establishing patient care goals and teaching patient and family to understand condition, medications, and self-care skills. Requires an associate’s degree and is certified as a registered nurse. Familiar with standard concepts, practices, and procedures within a particular field. Relies on experience and judgment to plan and accomplish goals. Performs a variety of tasks. A wide degree of creativity and latitude is expected. Typically reports to a manager or head of a unit/department.
Registered Nurse Salaries
Staff RNs working in the United States average a median base salary of $41,642. Half of all US RN’s are expected to earn between $38,792 and $44,869. Nearly 67% of nurses are employed in hospital inpatient and outpatient settings. 32% of all nurses are employed in medical offices and clinics, home healthcare agencies, nursing homes, temporary help agencies, academia, and government agencies.
Learn more about nursing education at The NET Study Guide.
TEACH THE PATIENT AND FAMILY
Teaching is a major role of the nurse in restoring health, promoting
health and preventing illness. When a person is ill, the nurse
demonstrates things the patient can do to help with recovery. For
example, nurses teach patients to cough and breathe deeply after
surgery to prevent lung complications. They show patients how to
walk on crutches. They teach people with diabetes to monitor their
blood sugar.
Whenever the nurse works with a patient, the nurse uses the
opportunity to teach that person about self-care. Nurses teach both
patients and their families about proper diet and nutrition, cleanliness
and hygiene, exercise, sleep and rest and all the other aspects of a
healthy life.
Before the patient leaves the hospital, the nurse teaches the patient
and family about care at home. For example, nurses teach family
members how to bathe the person or wash his or her hair in bed,
and how to feed the person or change dressings.
Nurses teach people how to minimize the effects of disability so that
they will have the best quality of life.
Nurses are with people during the most critical times of their lives.
Nurses are with people when they are born, when they are injured or
ill, when they die. People share the most intimate details of their
lives with nurses; they undress for nurses, and trust them to
perform painful procedures.
Nurses are at the bedside of the sick and suffering 24 hours a day.
They are there when patients cannot sleep because of pain or fear
or loneliness. They are there to feed patients, bathe them, and to
support them.
Nurses have a long history of caring for the patient and speaking for
his or her needs. That is what advocacy is about: supporting the
patient, speaking on that person’s behalf, and interceding when
necessary. This advocacy is a part of the nurse’s caring and a part
of the closeness and trust between nurse and patient that gives
nursing a very special place in health care.
CARE FOR THE PATIENT
Nurses care for patients continuously, 24 hours a day. They help
patients to do what they would do for themselves if they could.
Nurses take care of their patients, making sure that they can breathe
properly, seeing that they get enough fluids and enough
nourishment, helping them rest and sleep, making sure that they are
comfortable, taking care of their need to eliminate wastes from the
body, and helping them to avoid the harmful consequences of being
immobile, like stiff joints and pressure sores.
The nurse often makes independent decisions about the care the
patient needs based on what the nurse knows about that person and
the problems that may occur. For example, the nurse may decide
that, in order to prevent pressure sores, the patient needs to be
turned every two hours. However, the nurse may consult the doctor
about this if it is possible that turning the patient might cause some
other problem. Thus the nurse uses understanding of medical
conditions, as well as knowledge of nursing, in deciding on patient
care.
The nurse not only takes care of the patient but also gives comfort
and support to the patient and his or her family. When the patient
cannot recover, the nurse helps to make sure that the death is
peaceful.
When a person becomes ill or is injured, generally the doctor
assesses the patient, diagnoses the patient’s problem and decides
on the treatment needed to cure the problem or relieve the patient’s
symptoms. In the past only the doctor assessed and
diagnosed. Today, however, nurses play a large role in evaluating
patients and detecting problems. In some rural areas, nurses admit
patients to hospital and manage their care, referring only the most
critical patients to distant medical centres.
In every hospital nurses carry out many of the treatments prescribed
for the patient. For example, the doctor may prescribe surgery or
bed rest or a certain therapy. The doctor will perform some of these
treatments, such as surgery. It is the nurse who gives most of the
treatments. If a patient needs intravenous therapy, usually the nurse
sets up the intravenous line and gives the patient the fluids and
drugs prescribed. If the patient needs an injection, it is the nurse
who gives it. The nurse changes the patient’s dressings and
monitors the healing of the wound. The nurse gives medication for
pain. Many physicians order medication for pain “to be given as
needed”. They let the nurse decide when to give the medication.
The nurse also monitors the patient’s progress to make sure that
the recovery has no complications. Because nurses have more
frequent contact with patients than other staff, they often find
problems before anyone else.
