The Average Salary of Nursery Nurses
Although neonatal care, the care of infants in their first 28 days of life, has been in existence since 1960, it is still a new nursing specialty relative to adult care, midwifery and other areas of nursing. Like nursing careers in general, a number of factors influence a neonatal nurse's salary.
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Role
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Neonatal nurses work in either Level I, II or III nurseries. Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow reports that since Level I, or healthy baby nurseries are largely nonexistent these days because of short hospital stays and babies sharing rooms with their mothers, many neonatal nurses work in Level II and III nurseries where newborns require special or intensive care.
Factors
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According to Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow, a neonatal nurse salary depends heavily upon geographic location. In the United States, neonatal nurses working on either coast earn more than those practicing in the Midwest or Southern areas of the country. PayScale.com also lists education and experience as influential salary compensation factors.
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Salaries
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Data collected by PayScale.com indicates that the median income for a registered nurse working in a neonatal intensive care unit is $50,000 in 2010. Salaries increase with experience, specifically $20,000 over 20 years of experience. Nurses with advanced degrees, called neonatal nurse practitioners, earn a median income of $80,000, according to PayScale.com.
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References
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- Photo Credit newborn baby image by Diane Stamatelatos from Fotolia.com
