What do you think of nursing for college major/career future

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is the pay for nurses these days??

Neighbor works at Inova faurfax and she nurses start at $80K plus potentially more with shift differentials and overtime. Seems good to me for starting pay.

yes but there is very little increase over time. It's not like other fields where you can start out at $80K (first job) and expect to make $130K in 5 years and $180K in 20 years (or whatever).

If you don't get a master's degree and become an NP you'll be getting hired for $95K 20 years later as an RN. Master's degrees in nursing are very expensive these days--generally $150K. It's a significant investment for a small salary bump: from $95K as an RN to maybe $120K as an NP.
Master's degrees in nursing were not always so expensive. Even 10 years ago you could go to Hopkins for $50K; now it's almost triple that which frankly is maddening because the end salaries don't justify the cost.

I know there was tons of press coverage about Covid travel nursing salaries but those were TRAVEL contracts--i.e. you sign a 3 month contract and then move to a different city and live in temporary housing. This was great for young nurses but pretty irrelevant for anyone with children. I do have a good friend whose husband did this for a year and just lived in 4 different states for a year. They were able to save a decent amount of money but he didn't see his kids for more than a week total that year. Kind of a high price to pay for a $250K salary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is the pay for nurses these days??

Neighbor works at Inova faurfax and she nurses start at $80K plus potentially more with shift differentials and overtime. Seems good to me for starting pay.

yes but there is very little increase over time. It's not like other fields where you can start out at $80K (first job) and expect to make $130K in 5 years and $180K in 20 years (or whatever).

If you don't get a master's degree and become an NP you'll be getting hired for $95K 20 years later as an RN. Master's degrees in nursing are very expensive these days--generally $150K. It's a significant investment for a small salary bump: from $95K as an RN to maybe $120K as an NP.
Master's degrees in nursing were not always so expensive. Even 10 years ago you could go to Hopkins for $50K; now it's almost triple that which frankly is maddening because the end salaries don't justify the cost.

I know there was tons of press coverage about Covid travel nursing salaries but those were TRAVEL contracts--i.e. you sign a 3 month contract and then move to a different city and live in temporary housing. This was great for young nurses but pretty irrelevant for anyone with children. I do have a good friend whose husband did this for a year and just lived in 4 different states for a year. They were able to save a decent amount of money but he didn't see his kids for more than a week total that year. Kind of a high price to pay for a $250K salary.

MPA is a two year program. EVMS is 13k a semester. If you are spending 150k you are doing something wrong