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Nurses may have a good job outlook through 2018…but maybe your budget is a little tight on your nurse’s salary alone. Or perhaps you’re looking for a fun way to relax on the weekends—and make a little extra cash on the side. We asked our Facebook fans what kind of side jobs they have (or have had) to make some extra dough; check out their answers for some inspirations and, occasionally, warnings!

Medical
I give flu shots during flu season!
—Mary Buchman

Teaching childbirth classes.
—Kelly Eisenhardt Vittoria

Gave nightly injections to someone going through infertility treatments for both of her pregnancies.
—Stacey Trapp

I work per diem as a nurse at a correctional facility. I start training tomorrow.
—Martine Levy

Doula!
—Shari Camarata

I keep a side job, always have. I like to do home care through an agency. It’s flexible—I schedule patients around my work and life!
—Mandi Fay

Retail
I worked at a local gas station in the morning making breakfast foods and doughnuts! It was quite a change from nursing, but I totally enjoyed it. I still had a lot of interactions with people in the morning on their way to work…that made it fun!
—Dena Kerschner

Walmart—hated it!!!
—Sandra Rojas Chamberlain

The Disney Store.
—Denise Adams

Business
I’ve been a tax preparer at Jackson Hewitt every year for the past three tax seasons.
—Vicki Bockheim McDaniel

I help my husband with our photography business.
—Mary K. Miller

Party planner.
—Aminah Roberts

Have my own business…stripping and waxing floors. It’s mindless and therefore enjoyable.
—Corinna Laub Barger

Food Industry
Vegetarian/vegan catering and holistic pet food rep.
—Michelle Lippe

Helping a vendor sell produce and plants on the local farmers’ market.
—Sandra Collins

I work at a gourmet cupcake shop on weekends. I make some extra money, get to do something that I enjoy and get out my creative energy (and it doesn’t involve any life-or-death decision making on my part!).
—Andrea Barnes

Cook at major pizza chain through nursing school.
—Rene W. Neville

Fitness
Certified personal trainer.
—Jeannine Quinn-Metz

Scuba instructor.
—Megan Ballard

Other
Taught English subjects (grammar, creative writing, American accent training, speech and pronunciation classes, and English as a Second Language) to foreign university, kids and adults. I loved doing it!
—Marygrace Garde

Shoveled horse manure. Top that one.
—Les Seay

Aesthetician and nail tech.
—Laura Lee Miracle

I make and sell baby quilts and memory quilts.
—Cynthia Friend Thomas

I was a CNA for years before going on to get my LPN, but I’ve also worked second jobs as an auto mechanic (helped me through nursing school—I’d find a car part that matched functions with human organs and simplify the human organ down to the same thing as the car part) and sold auto parts at a national chain.
—John Mansky

What kind of side jobs do you have (or have you had) to make some extra dough?

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Sometimes you need or want a bit more money than you’re earning from your regular salary.

It could be that you’re planning a special vacation, your child needs braces or you have to do some home renovations. Maybe you simply want to save a little more for your retirement.

Here are eight more things you can do to make your bank account more happy.

1. Extra Shifts
Let your supervisor or unit clerk know that you’re willing to take on extra shifts. Some hospitals have web-based systems that you can log onto and sign up for extra shifts. Some organizations that administer several hospitals have web-based systems that allow nurses to sign up for extra shifts at any hospital within that organization.

Next: Per Diem Shifts →

Have fun and find $2,241

Got game or maybe a concert in mind?
Online reseller StubHub.com often (but not always) has better deals than Ticketmaster.com and TicketsNow.com. We scored $1,093 (including fees and shipping) by comparison shopping for a pair of tickets to three NBA basketball games, two sold-out music concerts and one Broadway hit musical.

Swap baby-sitting services with another family.
If you paint the town one night a month, you’ll save $480 a year by not shelling out $10 an hour for a sitter.

Borrow DVDs…for free from your library.
With the average movie ticket costing more than $7, a family of four can stash $168 by having an at-home movie night every other month.

Travel on the fly and save at least $500.
An impromptu vacation package for two from New York City to Amsterdam, found just a week before departure last January at LastMinute.com, cost about $2,000. The same trip planned months in advance (hotel and flight painstakingly researched and booked separately) was $2,500.

Eat well, gain $2,794

Shop at wholesale clubs.
We compared prices on 37 staples at Costco, Safeway and Whole Foods. Even after adding Costco’s $50 annual membership, the wholesale club saved $1,790 on basics for a family of four. The Costco bill was $1,708, versus $2,417 at Safeway and $3,498 at Whole Foods.

Change your morning coffee fix.
Purchase a 20-ounce latte from Dunkin’ Donuts instead of Starbucks and save $131 a year.

Feast at fast-casual—but not full-service—restaurants like Chipotle or La Madeleine and cut up to $463 in gratuity and inflated prices just by standing in line to order when you eat out twice a month.

Belly up to the bar menu when you decide to dine out.
We compared two entrées from the regular menu against three items (one for each of you, plus one to share) from the bar menu at popular restaurants like The Cheesecake Factory, McCormick & Schmick’s and Morton’s the Steakhouse—and saved a tasty $410.

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Designer clothes

You may be surprised to see “designer clothes” and “budget” in the same sentence. But sites like vickissecret.com and christabellescloset.com sell used designer and consignment clothes for up to 80 percent off. (Consider a Gucci “GG” logo pochette bag for $175.) Celebclosetraiders.com offers items with a fancy pedigree, like a dress Paris Hilton wore on MTV’s Total Request Live. Also, we’ve seen great bargains for all types of clothing, in all price ranges, at ebay.com.

Apple products

Some people warn against buying used computers, but I have two refurbished Macs and have never had a problem. The Apple Store sells refurbished products, such as iPods, iMacs, MacBooks and MacBook Pros, which carry a full one-year Apple factory warranty. (You’ll find these listed under “Special Deals” on the Store page.) This means that, with minor aesthetic or mechanical repairs, the product is as good as when Steve Jobs first demo’d it. It just costs less. The Apple Store offers free shipping and, for a price, an AppleCare Protection Plan that’s good for up to three years. Authorized online resellers of refurbished Apple products, like smalldog.com and powermax.com, also offer a one-year warranty. Check out ebay.com for deals on Apple products as well as PC computers. Buy from sellers with strong positive feedback on the site.

Books

I can’t tell you how many books are on my shelves that I bought new, read once and never looked at again. (Of course, there are also some I never read.) Be sure to check out the usual suspects— usedbook stores, garage and tag sales, and thrift stores. And don’t forget libraries. In addition to volumes with pages that you can actually turn, libraries also offer access to online and audio versions. Just beware of due dates so you don’t incur late fees! In addition to amazon. com, there are lots of online sites (including half.com, secondspin.com, abebooks.com and bookfinder.com) that carry cheap used books. And then there are online bartering sites like bookins.com, bookmooch.com, titletrader.com, swaptree.com, fetchbook.info and switchplanet.com, where you can trade books.

Baby and maternity clothes

No one should pay $75 for a handmade sweater for a newborn, right? Or $50 for designer jeans for a two-year-old? Instead of spending big bucks on baby clothes your children will quickly outgrow, or maternity clothes you’ll be happy never to wear again, why not investigate your local resale and consignment shops? We suggest checking out sites like gently-used.com or babyloot.com, and encourage doting family members to do the same.

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Image: Stockbyte | Thinkstock + Scrubs

We’ve pulled the most up-to-date hourly and yearly salary reports for the top nurse jobs and are wondering…are they accurate for your job title, your location and your years of experience?

For a more in-depth look at the top-paying nursing jobs, click into our top 10 highest paying nurse specialties article.

For a peek into the most sought after workplaces, see our 6 hospitals with the best nursing benefits.


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“Oh Crystal Ball of Nursing Knowledge, tell me what a future in nursing holds if I decide to stick it out in this school, endure clinicals, study for rigorous tests and basically put my rear end into hock with the government! Oh tell me truly, will I be rich—and famous!—if I stay in school and promise to be a good girl or boy?”

If only it were that easy. If only you could look into a crystal ball/see a tarot card reader/flip to the Nursing Job Forecast Station/read tea leaves and find out exactly what you have in store when you graduate from nursing school. No one knows for sure what the future holds in nursing. Sure, just about anyone will tell you that nursing is a stable job. I mean, where there is injury, hurt and disease, nurses will have a job. However, it isn’t always as cut and dried as that. Nursing is surprisingly recession-resistant, but it isn’t exactly recession-proof. Some new grads may find things a little more difficult than they anticipated.

Next: The Good News →

What bosses look for varies from place to place, but there are some universals that they don’t want to see.

1. No divas need apply. Most times, new nurses will be put on the quietest shifts with a preceptor, which might mean working weird hours or working nights at first. Yeah, that sucks, but it’s really a good idea. It gives you a chance, as a newbie, to get the flow of the unit and your time management under control without too much pressure. It also gives you the opportunity to manage crises with fewer resources, so that you’re more confident in your abilities. Not being willing to work nights, weekends or off-shifts will decrease your chances of getting a job and learning new skills.

2. Bosses don’t want people without outside interests. It’s normal for nursing to eat up your life when you’re new, but that state of affairs shouldn’t continue for too long. Nurses who can’t get away from nursing are the ones who burn out first. If an interviewer asks you about your hobbies, make sure you can name at least one, even if you have to make it up. Just don’t mention your chemistry set at home or your fascination with small rodents.

3. Human resources tends to look askance at cockiness. Confidence is good, yes, but be sure you’re not giving off the vibe that you have nothing to learn. We all have something to learn, every dadratted day. Be humble, or at least humble-ish. Don’t get defensive when somebody points out a mistake—you’ll get worn out in no time and won’t make any friends. Get used to the idea that not a day will go by when you don’t have at least one howling screw-up to answer for, and you’ll be that much more relaxed.

4. Having bad personal hygiene spells trouble. I wish I didn’t have to say this, but for heaven’s sake, be clean. Personal hygiene tends to slide during the last few weeks of school, but slap up before an interview and for your job. Smell clean without being perfumey, don’t put today’s makeup on over last night’s, trim your facial hair if you have any and for Frog’s sake be sure your nails are clean. While you’re at it, make sure your scrubs fit: VPLs on either sex, or shirts that strain to contain your chest, are distracting at best and at risk for tearing at worst.

Get out there. Be cheerful, kind and intelligent. Ace those interviews, get yourself a job and may you have many mostly happy years ahead of you!

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What did the winning applicant have that you didn’t have? What did that person do that you didn’t do? If it seems that you’re getting passed over for every nursing position you apply for, it’s time to get an edge.

Whether you have loads of nursing experience or you’re a new grad and this is the first position you’re applying for, the truth is that you have to market yourself because the competition is tough for those coveted nursing jobs. Here are four ways to get an edge.

1. Networking
This is all about making and maintaining connections, and you can do this in so many different ways, like the following:

a) Create a business card and hand it out to people who are in administration positions or might have lines on nursing jobs. Collect their business cards and send them occasional messages (e.g., at Christmas or whenever you make a job transition) to let them know what you’re doing. The day may come when you’re the perfect fit for a position they know about.

b) If you’re planning on applying for a posted position, call the unit manager or the HR person to whom you’ll be sending your application. Introduce yourself, express enthusiasm about the position and give a quick pitch about yourself. Tell the individual that you’ll be sending in your application, and when it lands in front of that person, he or she will be able to put a voice to a name and think, “Oh yes, this was the person who….”

c) If you’re a new grad looking for a job or you’re between jobs, do some volunteer work at the hospital or clinic where you’d like to work. If you eventually apply for a job opening there, you’ll have an “in” because you’ll know many of the hospital staff and you’ll know the culture of the place.

d) After you’ve been interviewed for a position, send a thank you letter to the interviewing team. Even if you don’t get the job, these people may be there for a while and will likely remember you should you apply for another position in the future.

Next: Targeting the position you’re applying for →

image: money.usnews.com

At the end of last month, U.S. News & World Report released its annual “Best Jobs” list for 2012, and the news is good for nurses. Very good.

Registered Nurse comes in at the number one spot on the list this year, and the magazine points out a number of factors for this top position. Among them is the fact that the occupation has grown even in the tough economy, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that Registered Nurse will be one of the fastest growing occupations in the country between now and 2020, adding over 700,000 jobs to the already 2.7 million strong RN workforce.

Other perks include the strong median annual salary ($64,690) and the opportunities for specialization within the career.

Now, the real question is: Is it true? Is nursing, with all the long shifts, heavy lifting and the daily risk of being squirted with bodily fluids, really such a great job? Only nurses would know the answer. So, we asked Facebook fans for their opinions. This is what you said:

• “I love the variety of positions and different shifts. I love travel nursing the best of all!”–David Irthum
• “You may not get the position you want, but you will find a job! I love being an RN!”–Lucinda Perniciaro
• “We deserve it–now more than ever!”–Bonita Pink
• “I’ll be an RN in a few months, getting capped & pinned on May 24th!” —Mandie Lurz
• “I love being an RN!!”–Debbie Streske
•  ”I love being an RN too and never had trouble finding a job.” —Maggie Ornberg
• “Hello? C’mon young people—be a nurse!” —Cynthia Caudle
• “I love being an LPN and proud to have all the RNs around me as either mentors or even their teacher!” —Sherri L Brotzman-Meyer Morse
• “Darn, I wish I hadn’t retired 10 years ago! 35 years was a long time to nurse, but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world!” –Carol Bock Tumidiski

Congratulations, nurses! We here at Scrubs believe that nurses are the best ever—no matter the season!

What’s made nursing a great job for you this year?

Source:
U.S. News & World Report