Are salaries as bad as I have heard?

Hey

I think you will find that the base rate per hour is low and a lot of nursing staff make up the "extra" for their take home pay in doing shift work and with their penalties earned doing so. Also you will find that public v's private pay is different, I can only really speak for SA on the topic, but here I belive it is 4% difference and due to be increased in the comming months. Agency nursing staff are generally paid a little extra per hour as well, but, this is due to being employed as casual.

Hope this sort of explains a little bit for you.

Regards,

Aaron

Hey

Iam afraid Iam going to have tolet a RN - CN answer that question, Iam not sure, Sorry, Maybe Darren might be able to shed some like re this amtter.

Aaron

Darren Mate,

Thank you very much for your reply. This is the graph I was looking at. I may have gotten it wrong, have a look at it if you can. www.health.nsw.gov.au/nursing/pdf/award_july07.pdf You may have to re-type the address.

I am fairly new to nursing., and just have a few questions, if i may. I am currently enrolled in a BA Nursing. I was thinking when i graduate to do a masters, extra 1.5 years and specialize. Does this matter at all, in terms of salary? Or do all RN no matter that their qualifications, have to start from year 1-8 before they can specialize or branch out? How does that work mate, really curious. Any help/info would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers Darren

Sesster

Peter thanks for your reply.

Your grad year means first year as a RN? Or you mean in year 3 of the degree you work full time and get paid?

May i ask is that 46000 Gross or Net? Yeah mate im sure its not all about the salary. Being a nurse can be very satisfying though. Did you work shift work as well?

Cheers Mate

sesster

The first point I have to make with htis issue is that you dont enter nursing for the money. Nurses dont get enough compared to other professions which are like just as stressful in differnet terms.

Now is a good time to enter nursing though apparnetly, coz of all the bargaining and stuff. We had the Qld nurses union come and talk to us a few wks before prac. As a grad, in Qld you start at 1.2 coz you have the degree. The current rate is $46 627 a year BEFORE tax of course. I went onto the ATO to find out how much tax you get out. If you get that base rate, its $1787 a fortnight, and you get 484 tax out, which means 1303 in your pocket every fortnight which doesnt really sound like much a wk considering the work you do!

last year one facilitator handed us the pay scales for Qld Health, and Dec 08, 1.2 nurses are going to be getting 53K.

You dont go into nursing for the money, you go into nursing coz you love helping people to get better. Its a great feeling when you get a patient, esp a long term patient, who leaves and they bring you chocies and stuff as some minor sort of gratidue for all the care that you have provided for them. Its that warm fuzzy feeling you get that gets you back each day, no matter how much shit you get tossed at you.

I think you have to be careful when you are comparing state to state. An RN gr. 3 in one state may actually be a Gr 4 in another.

the other thing you have to take into consideration is not to just compare the base rate but the other entitlements each state offers (ie annual leave, parental leave).

They say Vic nurses have the lowest base rate across the state, but in actual fact they also have the highest professional development entitlements across the country.

Well for me, I will be working 40hrs a week in a private hospital, and getting about $23 an hr which equates to $1840 a fortnight, not sure what the take home would be. but obviously if you do more afternoons/evenings, night duty and weekends, obviously your wage will go up and up.

According to QNU, For the public hospitals award rate, a nursing officer level 1 is $46, 627 a year, $1787.22 a fortnight (take $484 tax) and get 23.5160 an hr. Night shift allowance is 20%, On Call Saturdays, Sundays, Public Holiday and RDOs is $32.50 (not sure if thats per hour or just one lump sum, id assume the latter). On call Mon-Fri is $17.76.

Overtime: Mon-Sat first 3 hrs is time and a half, after 3hrs is double time, Sunday is double, Public holidays is double time and a half.

Afternoon shift: 12.50%.

So yeah as you can see, you really get the money doing the shift work. And if your going into nursing for the money, your silly, coz you dont get as much as you should, as your valued, considering nursing is considered the most trusted profession, and all the stuff you put up with. But they are slowly building up the wages to attract and retain people.

i am a grade 2 level 3 division 1 RN in victoria. i get paid 24 dollars per hours. My friend who work as a theatre tech. in public hospital earn 26 dollar an hours, she told me her rate go up every year and 26 dollar is not their maixium rate. it is not fair, i did 3 years degree in uni, which was not cheap and i paid full fee for that. The theatre tech. only study a year short course to get a job.

i have to make up the different by working lot of overtime, afternoon shift, which is ok for me, as i dont have family here. but it would be hard for someone who have kids to look after.

Hi Everyone

It my first time here and I was very interested to read about the scales and pay. I am a nurse in the UK and am hoping to be in Adelaide by June 08. Could someone point me in the right direction or maybe someone could explain the different levels and what they mean. In the UK everyone is on a 'Band' example. Registered Nurses band 5 and then work up levels within that band, Band 6 junior sister Band 7 ward/unit manager and so on.

I have looked at the nurses boards etc and cant seem to find anything, I am sure it is there somewhere! Any info on pay and levels would be much appreciated.

Super site it has been really interesting reading from the nurses.

the $1303 was worked out I think as your baseline wage after tax.

I just started my new job, and per week, if i do 40hrs only Mon-Fri morning, at $23.59/hr, its $943.60 before tax, tax is $196, so you get $747.60. If you salary sacrifice, then you apparently get another $110 in your pocket a fortnight.

Obviously if you do afternoons, weekends etc, you will get more.

Oh yah, the 23.59 is for a Qld private hospital, the education manager was saying that like public and private are equal, but their adjustments are like not done at the same time, usually 3months apart.