the ratio of male:female is a lot closer in the ICU/ED than in other departments. From my conversations with collegues it's that a lot of us guys prefer to work in these settings because of its fast pace, critical-nature and stuff like that. It is awesome to be triaging traumas and taking care of critically-ill patients rather than handing Grandma Beula some donepezil and rubbing her feet with aquaphor.

For example today we have about 9 nurses working in this specific ICU and 5 of us are male.

That being said, I've always felt that the wage for RN's is a lot lower than it should be. The fact that the RN degree is just an Associate's Degree makes me wonder if $30/hr isn't that bad, but it's moving toward the BSN (Bachelor) being entry-level in a lot of the major hospitals in the area and they don't pay any more money to have a BSN degree.

There are a lot of perks though - we frequently are short-staffed so we receive incentives for coming in on those days. For example the past few weeks IMC has been completely stuffed and they're offering to pay us overtime plus $200 flat just to come in and work an extra shift. I can make about $720 in one shift that way. Even just picking up one additional shift each week, which still only has you working 4 days a week with 3 days off will give you about an extra $1800 a month.

There are TONS of jobs available - I think the statistics in Utah may be a bit skewed simply because many young women go to nursing school and then get married and knocked up and start having 5+ children and don't really use their degrees. Many will go back to work after kids are a bit older or some will work part-time or only one shift a month in order to keep their license active.

This is why many nurses (myself included) pursue advanced degrees because the pay isn't that great. Sure, if you're female and have a husband with a job then you can get along just fine - but in my case having a house in this ridiculously-expensive market and living on $55,000/year makes it tough. I'm working on my APRN (Family Nurse Practitioner) and will be done soon!