Registered nurses are highly trained healthcare professionals that spend years in college learning how to properly care for patients who are dealing with a wide variety of injuries and/or illnesses.
The training these nurses acquire through schooling and through field experience makes them an invaluable asset within the healthcare field.
In order to provide you with a better understanding of why registered nurses earn what they do we’ll look into some of the potential reasons for why a registered nurse would earn a good income and then we’ll try to answer the question of whether or not nurses really do make a lot of money based on their efforts.
As stated earlier registered nurses receive specialized training and experience that requires years to learn.
This education and training makes registered nurses extremely valuable and allows them to provide a level of healthcare that would be impossible to achieve otherwise.
The fact that nursing schools often requires students to maintain excellent grades and the competition for getting accepted into a nursing program can be extremely difficult based on the schools accreditation and how many seats are available, only a small number of qualified students may be able to enter the nursing program.
These requirements help ensure that those who are training as registered nurses are able to provide adequate healthcare, however it also makes it difficult for lot’s of students to get into.
In addition to all of the training nurses receive they must also pass a national licensure exam and become licensed to practice in their state.
Because of the specialized training and license registered nurses receive healthcare organizations are willing to pay their nurses well, especially in areas where their is a high demand and low supply of qualified nurses.
With proper education and training registered nurses are able to work in a wide variety of fields within their practice such as pediatrics, acute care, trauma, neonatal care, women’s health and family care among many other fields.
This training requires extensive knowledge within the nursing field along with additional education.
As nurses advance in their career the amount of training and qualifications they need to get into a specific career field grows and their ability to provide greater healthcare is amplified.
As in most careers those who are able to provide a higher level of expertise within their field are able to take on additional responsibilities and earn a higher income because of their increased efforts.
Cost of living
Depending on where a registered nurse works their cost of living can be significantly higher or lower.
The higher a nurses cost of living the greater their income requirements will be and the more important it will be for hospitals and healthcare organizations to financially compensate that cost.
Factors such as rent/mortgage, taxes, food, child care, clothing, insurance, education and other items all affect the cost of living in a particular area, and in order for a registered nurse to live within that area they would need to be well compensated.
While not always the case a highly populated metropolitan area such as a large city will likely have a higher cost of living associated with it, which can lead to a higher demand for qualified registered nurses and an increase in salary.
Nurses that work in New York City for example may earn a higher income than nurses that work in more rural populations where the cost of living and/or demand may be lower.
As more and more of the baby boomer population of nurses begin to retire and the economy continues to grow the need for experienced nurses also continues to grow creating a gap between the amount of people that need good healthcare and the number of nurses that are available to provide adequate healthcare.
Without a good supply of nurses waiting room times will increase, opportunities to provide good healthcare decrease and the stress placed on healthcare works and the healthcare system becomes continually overwhelming.
This growing demand means that more and more healthcare organizations will be willing to increase the salaries of highly trained registered nurses in order keep them happy and provide an incentive for their continued efforts and hard work.
After all registered nurses work very hard to ensure that their patients are properly taken care of.
In addition to providing existing nurses with an incentive to work for a particular healthcare organization, it is also extremely important for incentivizing students to take up a career in the nursing field.
When a student has a choice to make in terms of what career they want to focus on, the amount of pay they can earn and the benefits they might receive can go along way in helping them decide on whether they want to go into a particular field of study such as business, education, engineering or healthcare.
If a student is going spend to multiple years training for a career that they plan on spending the next 30 – 40 years or more doing then pay and benefits are an extremely important driver for helping them make that decision.
In addition to the high demand for registered nurses there is also a good incentive to pay well educated and trained nurses when it comes to competing for employment opportunities.
Hospitals and healthcare facilities that want to ensure themselves that they’ll have adequate and qualified staffing may incentivize nurses with a good salary and/or healthcare benefits.
This may be especially true in areas where the demand for nurses is significantly higher than the availability of qualified nurses.
When multiple organizations compete with one another to hire a good nurse that may help drive up the potential salary for qualified nurses.
Overtime and additional hours
It goes without saying that a registered nurse who ends up working overtime and/or extra hours on a regular basis is likely to earn more money, which can have a significant impact on their salary and advancement opportunities.
For example nurses who work for a hospital or healthcare facility that’s dealing a nursing shortage may rack up significantly more hours than they would working at a well staffed healthcare facility and thus earn a higher salary.
A nurse may also choose to pick additional hours from another employer in order to make more money.
In either case a registered nurse may be able to earn a much higher salary then they would otherwise make if they worked part time or full time without the overtime or extra hours.
Simplifying it all
One of the easiest ways to explain why a registered nurses makes so much is to think about supply and demand.
The higher the demand there is for highly skilled and trained registered nurses the more likely they are to receive a higher salary as an incentive to get them to work for the healthcare facility.
Likewise the lower the supply of qualified nurses the more important it will be to keep those who do work for the facility happy while also increasing their chances of hiring additional necessary staff.
The education and experience registered nurses receive makes them a valuable and limited commodity that healthcare organizations are often willing to spend good money for.
Where a nurse works, the cost of living, their qualifying experience and training, and the demand for nurses in the area will all contribute to how much a registered nurse can make.
Do registered nurses really make so much?
It may be easy to say that registered nurses make a lot of money, however when you really think about the years nurses have spent acquiring the education, skills and training they need to provide patients with the level of healthcare that hospitals and healthcare facilities require it becomes a little easier to understand.
If nursing was a relatively easy career to get into (and if more qualified students could get into the nursing program) than the supply of nurses would be much higher and the demand would be much lower.
In addition to the education and training registered nurses acquire they also have to work very hard on a regular basis.
Registered nurses can spend all day on their feet treating patients that are dealing with a wide variety variety of mental/physical illnesses and injuries, assisting other medical professionals in the workplace, constantly moving from room to room and working long hours with little time to take a break.
Registered nursing is an extremely rewarding career, however it can also be very stressful and demanding at times and requires an individual with the right education, interpersonal skills, attitude and patience to be done well.
When we think about all of the efforts and sacrifices a registered nurse goes though on a daily basis it becomes easier to understand why some nurses make what they do.
Rather than asking why do registered nurses make so much, a better question to ask may be, “given all of the mental, emotional and physical efforts it takes to work as a registered nurse, do they really make a lot of money”?