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How Much Do Nursing Managers Make?

An entry-level Nursing Manager can expect to make an average total compensation (including tips, bonus, and extra pay for overtime hours) of $83,936 based on 74 salaries submitted anonymously to Glassdoor by nursing managers across America.

How Much Do Nursing Managers Make

This number is derived from salary statistics collected over the span of one year. The median base salary for a Nursing Manager is $75,500 per year. The typical employer matches 13% of employee contributions into a 401(k).

As a manager, you’ll likely receive health insurance benefits, dental plans, vision coverage, life insurance, paid holidays, sick days, and flexible spending accounts. Retirement options include traditional defined benefit programs such as pensions, retirement savings plans, and Social Security.

Experienced Managers

Nursing is a reputable career choice and one that is vital for good health all over the world. If you are a qualified nurse and wondering how much money you’d make as a manager read on to find out. The more experience a Nurse Manager accumulates, the more value he adds to his organization.

Thus, it’s easy to see why the pay of a Nurse Manager with less than one year of experience is substantially lower than the pay of a Nurse Management with one to four years experience.

As noted above, Nurse Managers are typically paid on a salary basis, and therefore, many medical centers and hospitals offer automatic raises to those salaries every one to two years. This can lead to significant increases over time. Thus, we find that the salary of a Nurse Manager with five to nine years experience is 22 percent higher than the salary for a colleague with one to four years’ experience.

As noted earlier, Nurse Managers are salaried employees and many medical centers and healthcare organizations build in automatic hikes to that salary every one or two years, which leads us to our next finding. A Nurse Manager with 20 years or more of experience earns 45 percent more than the typical salary.

This can be seen as a form of retention strategy since Nurse Managers with 20 years or longer tend to stick around until retirement.

Lowest Paid Nursing Manager Roles

Data indicates that the lowest paid Nursing Managers make around $69K per year. This is based on analysis of over 2 million job listings across multiple industries.

We looked at the top 10% highest paying companies where nurses are employed. These companies employ over 50 people, and we excluded those under 500 employees because it is difficult to identify whether the employee makes $69K / year or $70K / year.

Nursing Manager Roles

Nursing Manager Roles

Nursing Managers oversee the nursing staff in a hospital or clinic. This includes ensuring that the nurses working under him or her meet certain qualifications and providing excellent nursing care to patients. Nurses report directly to Nursing Managers. Nursing Managers are usually employed full time.

Their duties include making sure that the nursing staff complies with established policies, procedures, regulations, and guidelines. They also ensure that their employees follow up on patient complaints and handle emergency situations appropriately.

Nursing Managers are required to be knowledgeable about state and federal laws pertaining to health care. In addition, they are expected to know how to respond to emergencies such as fires and floods. Hospitals are open 24 hours, seven days a week. Nurse Managers in hospitals and other hospital practice settings work 40 hours per week, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Nurse Managers in physician practices and other physician practice settings generally follow similar schedules. However, Nurse Managers in physician practices and others may occasionally work on weekends or evenings if the practice keeps those hours.

How to Increase Salary

Nursing Managers play a key role within healthcare organizations. They manage the nursing workforce, ensuring it meets the needs of patients while adhering to established policies and procedures. This includes overseeing nurses’ work schedules, job assignments and performance reviews.

Increasing your pay as a Nursing Management is possible in different ways, including changing employers, gaining additional education or managing experience. For example, consider a career move to a different organization that is willing to offer a higher salary based on your current skill set.

Or, gain advanced degrees like a Master’s degree or PhD, which could increase your earning power and help you advance up the ladder.

Finally, if you’re already working in a management position and oversee others, this experience can lead to increased pay. Nurse Administrators are typically found in larger health systems like those run by hospital chains, long term care providers, and managed care organizations.

In smaller settings, nurse administrators often oversee a variety of clinical functions within one facility, such as overseeing the nursing department, quality improvement, infection control, medical records, human resources, finance, and purchasing.

In larger settings, the nurse administrator works closely with the chief executive officer, chief operating officer, and/or chief financial officer to ensure that the organization achieves its goals, while maintaining profitability.

Some Nurse Administrators manage multiple units within a single organization, working across several departments to coordinate policies and procedures, establish best practices, and improve performance. Others focus exclusively on nursing administration duties, providing support to the nursing team and ensuring compliance with federal regulations and state laws.

The responsibilities of a nurse administrator vary widely depending upon the size of the organization, the type of setting, and the specific needs of each unit.

A Nurse Administrator might spend most of her day managing the nursing staff and helping to develop a plan for improving patient care. She may also oversee budgeting, purchasing, and hiring decisions. In some cases, she may even play a role in establishing policy and procedure.

Prospects for Nursing Managers

As the current nursing workforce ages, the anticipated shortage of registered nurses will continue to grow over the next decade. This will create opportunities for newly hired nurse managers. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of RNs is expected to increase by about 10% during the next five years.

However, it’s important to note that while the numbers of RNs may be increasing, the total number of registered nurses is decreasing. Researchers have found that Nurse Managers play a critical role in influencing the quality of work and maintaining a stable work environment, which ultimately leads to increased nurse retention.

A strong leader with good communication skills is necessary to improve the quality of work and maintain a positive working atmosphere.

In Summary

Nursing Managers make anywhere from $50K-$100K per year depending on where they live. The median annual wage for Nurse Administrators was $85,000 in May 2012