What is the highest paying job in nursing?

Nursing is not a high paying job at all. I suppose head nurse is the highest position.
How did we get from Doctor to nurse so quickly on this?

nurse anesthetist is one of the highest paying jobs in nursing. i know someone who’s one that makes 600K a year.

Eighteen to twenty two dollars an hour for a RN in my part of the country.

A nurse of anesthesiology. That’s what I’m going to get into, they usually make over a hundred thousand.

@Oxymoron Is correct.

I’ve done quite a bit of research, and a Nurse Anesthetist is paid quite well. It requires a graduate degree. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurse_anesthetist
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Nurse_Anesthetist_%28CRNA%29/Salary

@casheroo well anything that pays highly requires a graduate degree in case you didnt know…..

@MrGeneVan You can get paid great money in my area with an associates degree in nursing. A bachelors might help, and of course a graduate degree helps. Not all nurses have graduate degrees, unless they want to do certain specialties.

@MrGeneVan That is not true. One of my brothers has a high school education and owns his own construction company and makes well over 200,000 a year. The other brother has a high school education and is a plant foreman making over 100,000 a year.

I know nothing about the industry, but I assume that dealing with bedpans is unpleasant enough to require high pay.

@casheroo a bachelors is preferred. when it comes to nursing a BSN is much rather preferred than an AD. (my girlfriend is in nursing school).

@chyna your brother does not count. he started his own business that did well. most people tend to not go to college and start a career fresh out of college but it’s risky. i was referring to people who go to college, not those that dont.

@MrGeneVan Of course it’s preferred, but you can sit for the boards after an associates, so tons of people do so. Especially where I’m from.

@casheroo you cant practice nursing without taking the NCLEX so your whole even with an ad you can take boards theory doesnt really work because in order to work you HAVE to take it no matter what.

@MrGeneVan Um. I just said that. boards=NCLEX. That’s what I was referring to. You can sit for the NCLEX after getting an associates. Is that sentence better for you?

@casheroo i wasnt correcting you. i knew you meant NCLEX. what i meant was it doesnt matter what you have. you HAVE to take it to work. you HAVE to be licensed to work. so when you said you can sit through it after an associates i was merely pointing out that you HAVE to take it to work.

It really depends on what you mean by “in nursing.” It really depends on your level of education. My mother taught in the Doctoral program of nursing at the University of Maryland, taught nurses getting there Ph.D.s and her student ended up doing all sorts of different things. There is a lot more involved in the field of “nursing” than most people think. But if you want to move up the career ladder and start to make more money in this field you will probably have to get more advanced education and training. I think nurses that specialize, surgical nurses, neonatal nurses, etc make more money than most nurses. And there is always the option of becoming a nurse-practioner. I think they make pretty good money but it’s a very demanding form of nursing and it will take a lot of work to get to that point.

My mom made approximately $100K last year and has a BSN (bachelor of science in nursing). She does agency home health and travel nursing. I hear the extra money available in those two areas can really add the extra padding to the paycheck. For travel nursing you typically get housing allowance and maybe some mileage. With agency nursing, you make more, but I can’t remember why. I think it has something to do with being sort of PRN. She is currently working on her master’s degree and will become a nurse practitioner when she’s done. As with any field, the more education you have, the more money you will make. So I’d recommend going ahead and putting in the extra time to become at least a BSN rather than stopping at LVN or RN.

Nurse Anesthetist is a specialty and you need a master’s degree from an accredited nursing school to become one. It is no doubt the highest paid. Compensation for nurses is quite promising; the main factors that determine salary are, of course, level of qualification and need. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the average annual salary for a registered nurse as $62,450, with the top 10% making over $92,000 a year. Also, because most nurses work for institutions (hospitals, government health care programs, schools, agencies, et cetera), the benefits are usually attractive.

@markylit points out, nurse anesthetist is a highly paid speciality but it you want to make even more money you would need a doctorate in nursing.

According to this site salaries can be very, very good for nurses with advanced degrees. Administrative positions, like head of nursing pay well to as you can see.

Chief Nurse Anesthetist: $172,724
Head of Nursing: $177,500

This site discusses the varies types of doctoral and Ph.D programs available in the field of nursing and what types of careers those programs would prepare you for. Nursing is a pretty wide open field with the right education, training and experience.