Become a L&D nurse in Santa Cruz County, CA. According to this article, labor and delivery nurses at Dominican Hospital make $83,000 – $110,000 per year. Of course the median house price in Santa Cruz County is $750,000 so if you actually wanted to be a homeowner there, you might have to consider some serious moonlighting. It also causes problems because under federal guidelines, Santa Cruz is considered a rural area and so doctors are paid significantly less for Medicare patients. In fact, according to the article, “Primary care doctors with 11 years of higher education might earn a starting annual salary of $90,000 to $150,000,” meaning that there are some Santa Cruz nurses out there who could be making more than the Santa Cruz docs.
That’s awkward.
On another note about getting paid, here is an hourly pay calculator, I found. As an agency nurse I get offered a variety of contracts at a variety of pay rates, so this helps me figure out which ones are worth taking.