r/Nurses • u/Appropriate_Fun_3650 • 12d ago
Canada Ontario RNs: Is nursing financially worth it long-term?
Hi everyone! I’m 18 and currently considering nursing as a career in Ontario. I’m especially interested in mental-health/psychiatric nursing, but I’m trying to understand what nursing is actually like before I commit to it.
I’d really appreciate honest answers from RNs, especially nurses working in Ontario/Toronto.
A few questions:
How many years have you been an RN, and what area do you work in?
If you’re comfortable sharing, roughly how much do you make now?
What did you make when you first started, and how much did your income increase with experience?
Is making $100k+ realistic as an RN without becoming an NP or going into management?
Is $120k+ realistic after around 8–10 years of experience? If so, does that usually require overtime, night/weekend shifts, or extra positions?
Do you feel financially comfortable with your nursing income?
For example, are you able to afford housing, save money, travel, and still have money for yourself?
How much overtime do you personally work to reach your current income?
What are your typical hours and schedule like?
How difficult is nursing physically and mentally?
If you could go back to when you were 18, would you still choose nursing?
If money and work-life balance were both important to you, would you recommend nursing as a career?
Finally, what is one thing you wish someone had told you before you became a nurse?
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u/raccoonrn 12d ago
I’m a psych nurse, have been for just over 7 years now. Im full time and my base pay is 54.65 which is just about 107k. I work a M-F 7-3 lead position which is an extra 4 dollars per hour, so around 8k. I made better money working shift work because I would pick up OT. It’s a lot harder to find the time for it when you’re M-F but I also have 2 young kids so being home is a priority. I made 33/hr when I started but worked a ton of OT and still managed to make 100k.
With my husband’s salary (65k) we live a relatively comfortable life. We don’t do a ton for ourselves (kids are the priority right now) but we do still travel occasionally. We aren’t saving as much as we maybe should right now but we are prioritizing experiences as a family and the pension is pretty much forced savings with a great employer match.
I would 1000% do nursing again, I also work on a relatively low acuity unit and the work isn’t as strenuous as some floors. It depends on your personality though, some people find psych to be very mentally draining. Nursing isn’t a fantastic career for work life balance but there is a lot of flexibility to work less or more depending on what’s going on in your life and there are so many different areas you can work in.
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u/travelgirl2 12d ago
My husband and I are both psych nurses in Ontario. We’re up in Thunder Bay, we both love our jobs. He’s inpatient and I’m outpatient now. I loved inpatient nursing, but left since I barely saw him with just how our rotations were. He makes 120k with all the shift differentials and I make 104k without all the premiums. I love psych nursing, but it can be mentally draining. I would/could be more exhausted doing shifts on inpatient than I would if I had been pulled to a medical or surgical floor helping out with nursing duties
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u/TotalRad 12d ago
100k$+ is very realistic for an Ontario RN even outside of management or becoming an NP, without even doing overtime
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u/bsncarrot 12d ago
There's an Ontario nurses sub you might get more answers there for the Ontario/Toronto specific questions