NursingLink

Hawaii sure pays better than South Carolina but don't get too excited, they don't need many LPN's. It has taken 28 yrs to reach the grand salary of $20.25 in LTC. But, you can't get a job in a hospital and CMA's are replacing us in physician offices. It's LTC for LPN's.

Farmgirl, yes you will have a preceptor for about six weeks in most cases. They will hire you as a new grad, ignoring your prior experience except to note that you know what you're getting into. You may surprise yourself at how ready you are to go solo though, maybe a few weeks. A BSN program is very challenging for a reason. My preceptor read books while I worked after three weeks and got paid extra to do it for three more weeks.
I went back into the hospital after four years out working in real estate without the benefit of more education and was shocked at how much I'd forgotten. I knew so much that my preceptor didn't know where or when to guide me but not enough to be safe and secure in what I was doing so I quit and went into clinical management. My knowledge base was sound, it was my skills that suffered. That was true as a new grad BSN as well. They put us through a lot of medical paces without much clinical skills training. They kept saying "don't worry, you'll get your skills on the job in short order," and they were right. I'd have to get my MSN in order to go back into a hospital now but why would I? The pay would not be better than what I earn as an Administrator and I'd have more debt, though I would like not to have a desk job anymore. Oh well, life's full of little trade offs (now off to the gym to deal with this widening behind of mine)

I live in Iowa and work in a nursing home getting paid $21.14/hour

the ten worst states are what they are calling the ten states that pay the least.

The best thing you can do for yourself, as a nurse, is to expand your horizons. There are so many other areas that a nurse is needed. Medical Device companies, for example, pay very high wages and Regulatory agencies (ie: FDA) require that medical professionals provide the clinical expertise. Nurse Education, Sales and Marketing and Legal Nurse Consultants are other areas my RN friends have succeeded. Make sure your resume is up to date. I keep mine on my desktop and update it frequently.

I work in Northern California and make $37.92 working nights. I'm not in a large city and I know if I traveled to somewhere like Sacramento nurses there make somewhere around $10 more an hour.
My question to the off estimates for pay is..... what nurses are they referring to? My mother an LVN for 15+ years makes about $25.00.

I did not think that oklahoma and kansas would be places where the nursing salary was low. This is very useful information to have when I graduate nursing school.