Answering the broader question, “what is the salary of a nurse?” requires that we look at a number of factors that affect nursing salaries. As in most professions, the salary for nurses can vary greatly depending on a nurse’s location, qualifications, work setting and other factors. A nursing salary in Seattle will probably be different than nursing salaries in Florida. And the salary of a registered nurse with 20 years of experience will definitely be higher than an entry-level nursing salary. By researching PayScale’s salary data, you’ll not only get an idea of the typical salary for nurses, but you’ll also get answers to your nursing salary questions based on your specific criteria.

Salary of a Nurse in Chicago and Los Angeles

What is the salary of a nurse in Chicago or Los Angeles? We can find out by looking at the chart on Registered Nurse Salaries by City. Los Angeles happens to have the highest median registered nurse salary while Chicago is in the middle range for nursing salaries. Looking at the Registered Nurse Salary by State chart, we can see that California is way ahead of the pack, with New York falling in second place for high nursing salaries. Of course, the salary for nurses might be higher in California, but the cost of living in cities like Los Angeles is also fairly high. To get an idea of how cost of living could impact a nurse’s salary, we can use PayScale’s cost of living calculator to find both the Cost of Living and Median Salary for Nurses in Los Angeles and other cities.

A Cost of Living Comparison between Chicago and Los Angeles reveals that the cost of housing in Chicago is about 50 percent lower than in Los Angeles. That’s definitely something to consider when comparing the salary of a registered nurse by location. No matter where a nurse chooses to live and work, experience will have a big impact on salary. For nurses, on-the-job experience can be very important; it’s no surprise that measuring a Registered Nurse Salary by Years Experience shows a steady increase in the salary of a registered nurse over time.

The person who wants to become a professional nurse, in all cases, must acquire some education and later tests. Even the CNA(nursing assistant) today must obtain hands-on and classroom education and also seek certification through testing that involves questions with multiple choices and assessment(hands-on and supervised).

Certifications and education are very significant to regulate the quality of neonatal or geriatric nursing profession and not least important to keep patients safe from nurses who are not skilled enough in the nursing practice. The licensed nurse practitioner (LPN) often become a representation of the first steps on the nursing career ladder. The LPN traditionally requires an one-year studying course from a junior college or vocational school as well as usual testing for certification.

Finally, the nurse or nursing student can go on to earn a master’s or doctoral degree and serve as an APN (advanced practical nurse), CNS (clinical nurse specialist) or as a CRNA (certified registered nurse anesthetist) among other nursing specialties.

These nurses either focus on a specific illness, , disease procedure or health care setting, or they can become skilled in a wide range of health care issues, much like a general practitioner physician. Nurses who obtain a graduate degree or higher often work autonomously, in tangent with a physician, or in administrative positions in various health care environments.

The role of the nurse has changed drastically over the past century, and today nurses can find great satisfaction in the choice of roles of increased responsibilities and in health care settings. On the other hand, it’s true that many nurses are often overworked, because of the nursing shortage which is a problem among an aging nurse population. It usually takes approximately two to six years to get viable nursing skills, said nursing shortage can keep forefront demand for nurses for the next decade or maybe longer. After that, it is prognosticated that nursing salaries will increase as rapidly as the demand for nursing skills.

The profession of nurse has a huge appeal to those people who want to help other – sick and traumatized. But it needs to be stated that the nursing means much more— through nursing specialties, person can hone in on an large and important area of concentration that can help many future generations through precise hands-on research, education and observation. These nursing specialties and also their sub-specialties are, probably, more varied than specialities in any other profession.

So, to easily say that you want to be a nurse is surely a very broad statement. The one and only profession that can come close to the wide-ranging perception of “nurse”  is the surgical- medical nurse who provide cares mostly for adult patients, usually before and after surgical procedures. The surgical nurse has, in a sense, represented the foundation of nursing profession, as this area is the hospital practice where new graduates can receive fundamental experience. But, the medical-surgical nurse recently has become a specialty which focuses on holistic care, and that even though nurses who’ve entered the nursing field starting with this specialty have become professionals on one of almost one hundred other focused nurse specialties.

Most Common Nurse Specialties

Among other specialities, these are most common and widely demanded.

• Cardiac nursing, which includes many sub-specialty areas that relate to patients with heart problems.
• Dialysis nursing – provide extensive care for patients who suffer from renal failure or chronic kidney conditions.
• Emergency nurses care for patients in the critical or emergency phase of an illness or trauma, but they are not limited to working in a hospital’s emergency room.
• Forensic nursing is a relatively new field that combines the health care profession with the judicial system.

Also -

• Hospital Nursing
• IV Therapy Nursing
• Medical-Surgical Nursing
• Military Nursing
• Neonatal Nursing
• Neurosurgical Nursing
• Geriatric Nursing
• OB Nursing
• Oncology Nursing

and many others.

Forensic nursing is a career that has countless rewarding benefits but it is also a profession that is a guaranteed ‘in demand’ opportunity no matter where you may go in life. Efficient forensic nurses are always in demand, since they can help a great deal to detectives in their work. The more expertise a nurse has in the knowing of evidence that should be collected, the more efficient the investigations of the crimes will be. Being a forensic nurse, you do good to other people, by helping those suffered in the crimes and speeding up the process of catching the perpetrators.

What Does Forensic Nursing Involves?

Forensic nursing is a profession that combines health care and judicial evidence. If you want to engage in this profession you should be prepared to fulfill the following practices:

• the investigation and treatment of victims of sexual assault,
• the investigation of elder, child and spousal violence,
• the investigation of unexplained or accidental death, physical attacks and trauma,
• treating violent offenders at psychiatric facilities,
• the investigation of perpetrators of these crimes,
• serving as legal nurse consultants or attorneys,
• testifying in trials of their jurisdictions.

Forensic Nurse

The employers of forensic nursing specialists include acute healthcare facilities, correctional institutions, coroner’s offices, medical examiners offices, county prosecutors, psychiatric facilities and insurance companies.

What Do I Need To Enter Forensic Nursing?

A good news is that masters or PhD nursing degree is not required to do forensic nursing. Nevertheless, you can receive the degree, both online or at some of the campus based nursing schools. Various courses in forensic nursing are available for you to do. Forensic pediatric and geriatric nurses should take special certification courses. As for forensic psychiatric nurses, they are required to have a MS with counseling certification.

Forensic nursing is a complicated and responsible profession that requires that you act quickly and thoroughly collect evidence that can be used in a court. With a continuous increase in crime rates, forensic nursing career is quickly becoming a regular part of the American judicial system. There are about 7,500 nurses who recurrently work as forensic nurses. This profession is recognized by the American Nurses Association.

Other forensic specialties

• Forensic psychologist
• Forensic social work practitioner