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Top 10 Best and Worst States to Be a Nurse
NursingLink.com and CareerVoyages.gov
There is a projected need for 1,001,000 nurses needed in the United States by 2016. Nurses are one of the most in demand professions in America, but with so many job openings, it begs the question: Where should you work? NursingLink is committed to providing its members with the most most pertinent career research available. Below is the 10 best and worst places to be a Nurse based on salary and job openings.
Top 10 Highest Nurse Paying States
| State | Salary (hourly) |
| 1. California | $25.45 |
| 2. Hawaii | $24.76 |
| 3. Massachusetts | $23.38 |
| 4. New Jersey | $23.33 |
| 5. Alaska | $23.09 |
| 6. Delaware | $22.98 |
| 7. Oregon | $22.91 |
| 8. Nevada | $22.83 |
| 9. Maryland | $22.79 |
| 10. Connecticut | $22.62 |
loricuff
about 1 year ago
4 comments
Where is Wisconsin in the statistics?
kalongde
about 1 year ago
4 comments
Tennessee should be added to the lowest paying list, I just moved to East TN from SouthEast VA and make $4.00 less an hour than what I was making before I moved, actually I am making less here in TN than what I started out making as a new grad. My base salary is now $ 18.02 / hr, and cost of living is not any cheaper no matter what they say
nursetb38
about 1 year ago
62 comments
OK, I am currently working here in CA and am making roughly $37.00/ hour. full time with benifits. However one must remember that along with the higher pay nowadays you generally also have to worry about staff shortages and increased work load. This is why the higher wages are being paid to encourage nurses to come there to work. Problem being... politics and health care growth are changing policies and overtime is now a mondatory thing as well as increased pt accuity and higher pt/nurse ratios then what are promised at times. As a nurse we are subjected to many dangerous situations in our careers. From overwhelming stress causing fatigue and burn-out to needle sticks with dangerous outcomes, to a simple case of contact isolation gone wrong. Think before you react to an increadible offer you "can"t" refuse..... Perhaps there is a reason you should......
squirmals
about 1 year ago
42 comments
In California as a LPN I made over $30/hr. Here in WY the GNs start at $20/hr in acute.
Account Removed
about 1 year ago
this is a bogus list. I happen to know in Northern California, new grads start out at over 35/hr
sap
about 1 year ago
2404 comments
I hear that the RN's here in NY are getting paid much higher than this article is showing for the state of California. I hear they are making between $40-50 an hour. I feel the shortages are also their own fault. They make it very difficult to get into nursing school in the first place. I graduate in 2009 and can't wait to take the NCLEX and get my RN license. NY here I come...or NJ, whichever will take me first. LOL
Lisa072288
about 1 year ago
2 comments
PLEASE HELP! I am 19 years old and I am attending a community college taking my gen eds. I want so badly to transfer to a four year school and become a nurse. I would love to be a nurse practitioner, that works in the labor and delivery unit (fingers crossed). I am just having a hard time finding answers. Everyone I talk to basically puts me down saying "nursing programs are very selective, and with you being a transfer student it is going to be very hard to get accepted". I just don't understand how I am going to complete my goal. If anyone has answers, please let me know!
Thanks you
clnc_fnp
about 1 year ago
6 comments
I am a nurse pracitioner and make 90,000.00 per year and most of the other NP's here do also, I do not think this article is correct. I also feel that if schools would provide evening and weekend classes, so working women who want to become nurses could attend, we would impace the shortage in nursing. There also needs to be flexibility for the students to do clinicals in local facilities especially in the current economic crisis we are in. There are a great deal of things that could be done, which over the past 35 years of my experience in nursing has never been addressed. Grass root efforts should take place in every state to improve the ability for anyone who wants to be nurse to become one.
lippy
about 1 year ago
2 comments
I agree. Health care in the US would not be like it is if a nurse was president
wildnursexxx
about 1 year ago
10 comments
Nurses from everywhere need to band together instead of tearing each other apart and rally for higher wages and benefit plans. I feel we as nurses could mandate and control health care in the United States. Let's have a nurse run for President!!!!
wildnursexxx
about 1 year ago
10 comments
I work in Michigan and found these results unbelievable. Was this for hospitals only and how much experience are they talking about? I make over $96,000 annually in the home care industry as a Director. This article says it all-we're underpaid.
theala
about 1 year ago
410 comments
I lived in North Dakota for two years. One job, I got $12/hour, less than I'd made as an LPN in Maryland. The employers treat staff like crap: mandatory overtime, heavy loads, sending people home for low census AFTER they show up to work. I was so glad to leave. In California I made on average $7/hour more than the chart lists.
prisonprincess
about 1 year ago
10 comments
I'm an RN in mn, work in a prison, and make $35.04/hr
Butterfly8
about 1 year ago
18 comments
I made 23-25 dollars as an LPN. As a RN, I now make 30 dollars as a base rate. Most hospitals in Philadelphia start graduate nurses at 25 -25.50/hr. Thoses rates are extremely low. And what about Texas. I heard Texas paid their nurses the best.
Account Removed
about 1 year ago
At a local hopsital where i used to work, we had a lot of overseas nurses being recruited for big bucks, more pay that the regular nurse, needing presepturing with our nurses not getting extra pay for this and their incentive to come here included their spouses coming along and thus after a short period of time and great pay compared to their countries, we have new citizens and our nurses are out of a position and pay. Why not up our anti- pay us more, offer us the Fresh Time, which is O/T after your 3 12's for the extra money. Crazy No? Why are we treated so bad for putting ourselves on the line daily and more so now a days to disease and such, do we get hazardous duty pay as the military does? I don't think so.... and why not?