Salary of a Psych Nurse

As you consider your career path, you will undoubtedly want to learn more about nursing salaries–and about your own earning potential. If you’re interested in pursuing a career as a psych nurse, you’ll want to know how much psych nurses make.

Salary rates for psychiatric nurses can vary quite a bit. How much you earn as a psychiatric nurse will depend upon your regional location, practice setting, type of patient population, experience, education, training and more. 

According to November 2019 data from the salary website Payscale.com,  Registered Psychiatric Nurses (RPN) earn an average rate of $31.37 per hour and an average bonus of over $1,000, as well as other benefits such as commission and profit sharing. The average annual salary works out to be just under $64,000.

Years of experience affect the average salary rate, too, with nurses with more years of relevant experiences under their belt earning more, according to the November 2019 data. 

Want to earn more as a psych nurse? One option is to go back to school. Glassdoor.com reports that psychiatric nurse practitioners, with their additional years of education, earn an average annual salary of just under $122,000, with an additional average cash compensation of about $5,000.

Another way to boost your psych nurse salary: try travel nursing. Psych nurses can even more by taking psychiatric RN travel jobs. In general, travel nurses bring home a salary above the national average, and that holds true for psych nurses, too. Plus, there are a whole host of other lucrative benefits to consider, too!

Read More About Psych Travel Nursing Salary and Requirements from the links below.

To connect with a Psych travel nursing recruiter, simply complete the form at the bottom of this page.