Nurse Salary

Nurses are an important part of the health family of the Republic of Ireland. Being a nurse is an increasingly attractive career.

You would treat patients with all types of medical conditions. If you are unable to treat them, you would then call on a doctor to help.

In Ireland, there has been a shortage of nurses and other health professionals in recent years. This means the position is increasingly well-regarded and well-paid.

What Does a Nurse Do

Nurses must be able to treat a wide variety of conditions. These can affect any part of the body. This can include some psychiatric issues as well as working with all types of disease and injury. Other medical issues a nurse might deal with are ongoing medical conditions. Any medical condition can fall within the remit of a nurse. It all depends on who turns up at the hospital.

There are five different types of nurses in Ireland. These are:

• General Nursing.
• Intellectual Disability Nursing.
• Psychiatric Nursing.
• Children’s and General Nursing (Integrated).

You would also work with the wider healthcare family, including many other highly specialised professionals.

Who Employs Nurses

Nurses in the Republic of Ireland mainly work in hospitals. They are all public employees of the Health and Safety Executive.

How Do Nurses Get Paid

Nurses get paid through the public sector. As a nurse in Ireland, you will receive a salary every month.

Job Salary for a Nurse in Ireland

Nurse salaries can vary quite significantly. This usually depends on a nurse’s experience and seniority.

There are also a variety of sources for how much a nurse is paid. One source says the average nurse’s salary is €38,000 per year. Another source pegs it between €37,000 and €45,000. This is based on data such as years of service and typical career progression.

There is also data on nurses who have been promoted. Senior Staff Nurses start at €52,235. At the same time, various other specialists and senior Nurses start at rates anywhere between €39,000 and €60,000. Finally, the most senior positions, like Directors of Nursing, start at around €80,000 a year.

In addition to this, nurses practising in Dublin will usually earn at least 10% more than in other parts of Ireland. This is because of the much higher cost of living in Dublin.

General Salary Levels in Ireland

Some other figures are useful. These will allow you to compare the nurse salary in Ireland with other professions. And they will show how a nurse’s salary in Ireland is relatively well-paid.

According to the Central Statistics Office, the national average salary in Ireland is €45,324. That’s a salary after tax of €34,815 a year. It is also equivalent to €2,901 a month. Or you can look at it as €670 a week.

A good salary in Ireland is said to start at €45,000 across the country. This rises to €50,000 in Dublin. Overall, this translates to €2,887 every month after tax. It is also equivalent to €3,102 monthly before tax.

Further, the current Minimum Wage in Ireland is €11.30. This must be paid to people aged 20 and over. This means the minimum untaxed income for a 40-hour week is €452. Per month this works out to just under €2000. It is also equivalent to around €23,500 per year.

How Often Is a Nurse Normally Paid

As a nurse, you can normally expect to be paid a salary every month. You and the other nurses in the hospital will be paid at the same time.

Who Negotiates a Job Salary for a Nurse

The basic salary levels of nurses are set through negotiations. These happen between the government of Ireland and the union representing nurses. Pay for nurses is organised within pay scales that are updated annually.

What Sort of Contracts Do Nurses Have

Nurses will have permanent contracts with their employers. This will mean these contracts set out all the relevant terms of employment. Additionally, they will be standard contracts.

Earning Potential

After completion of the necessary training, nurses’ pay can increase significantly. Further, this is likely to continue throughout your career.

How to Become a Nurse

The road to becoming a nurse in Ireland is a long and thorough one. These factors reflect the unique responsibilities and duties of the role.

Understanding the educational and training requirements to become a nurse is important if you want to become one. To do this you will need to have a nursing degree first.

You will also need to be able to demonstrate a good level of English to be employed as a nurse.

Qualifications/Courses – Nurse

To become a Nurse, you will first need to get a degree in nursing. You earn this from a university which offers a course in nursing.

There are six nursing schools in Ireland. These are Dublin City University, the University of Galway, the University of Limerick, University College Dublin, University College Galway, and Trinity College Dublin. Each one of them offers a degree in nursing.

Additionally, you will also need to sit a professional membership entrance exam. This will be for the Nursing & Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI).

They all offer courses lasting for around four years. In these courses, you will usually study both general adult nursing and children’s nursing. This means you will be qualified in both branches of nursing. This means these courses are perfect for career options in nursing.

Registering as a Nurse

All nurses need to be registered with the Nursing & Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI). This registration is needed in order to work as a nurse. The NMBI deals with nursing standards. It also deals with nursing training and education. Indeed, the NMBI needs to approve all nursing or midwifery programmes in Ireland. The An Bord Altranais (ABA) is the old name of the NMBI.

General Skills Required

• Excellent problem-solving and diagnostic skills are essential. In addition, nurses must be able to deal with a wide variety of medical issues.
• Medicine is always developing. This means you must be prepared to keep learning about new issues in medicine. This applies throughout your working life.
• You must have strong emotional resilience. Nurses also need a calm temperament. Further, you must be able to work well under pressure is required.
• You will also need to be able to put patients at their ease. It means being able to gain their confidence.
• Additionally, nurses need to be very good listeners. You will need to do this to respond to patient concerns.
• Nurses must be able to work sensitively and constructively with patient fears.
• Excellent communication skills are needed. This is because you will be working with a wide variety of different people from different walks of life. There will usually be a wide variety of ages too. Remember that this will include the families of patients as well as the patient themselves.
• You must be a good team player. This means having the ability to work constructively with others.
• Additionally, there are a few other office-based skills needed. Such as good computer literacy in order to record information relating to patients. Additionally, confidentiality relating to patient records is needed by nurses.
• A clean Garda vetting check is also required. This is because you will be working with children or vulnerable adults. This system of Garda vetting is conducted by the Garda Siochána National Vetting Bureau. It works by sending a vetting disclosure to the organisation that requested one.

Mechanical Skills Required

You will need to be able to operate some medical apparatus found in a hospital. This will be needed to support the health of a patient.

Challenges of Being a Nurse

• Any aspect of health care is challenging for all the professionals involved. But being a nurse can be especially challenging. This is because of the range of illnesses of patients.
• Emotional resilience is absolutely essential for you as a nurse. Indeed, all areas of medicine are high-stress environments.
• You will also need to maintain a professional outlook. That means treating the public with respect. Indeed, no matter how difficult a patient is being, professionalism is essential to you as a nurse.
• Remember too that exposure to unpleasant sights and smells is part of your nursing job.
• No two days are the same when you are a nurse. Indeed, you must always be prepared for the unexpected. This can be exciting but also challenging at times.

Type of Person Suited for this Work

• An extremely innovative and thoughtful person makes a good nurse.
• A person with a genuine interest in healthcare makes a good nurse.
• You will also need to be someone with a calm outlook. This includes the ability to deal with stress.
• You also need to be a team player. This can mean taking direction from more senior team members.
• Additionally, you may need to be someone willing to learn as your career progresses.
• You also need to be a responsible person. You must be dedicated to the care of a patient for the duration of their treatment.

General Expected Working Hours

You can expect to work at least a forty-hour week.

Location of Work

As a nurse, you would be located in a hospital. You would treat patients with all types of medical conditions. Where you are unable to treat them, you would then refer them for further diagnosis with a doctor. This would sometimes be to a specialist.

Future Prospects

It is possible to build a successful and well-paid career as a nurse. There is a strong chance for a skilled nurse to build a career. You might become a nurse specialist in a certain type of nursing. Sometimes you will need to do additional training to achieve this. A common example of a specialism is cancer nursing. This sort of nurse is called a clinical nurse specialist.

You could also be promoted to a sister. You could also become a ward sister. Beyond that, you could become a matron.

Outside traditional career routes, you could also enter education and become a lecturer. Following this path, you can then progress and become a senior lecturer.

Alternatively, you could work for the School of Nursing and progress up the ranks.

Finally, there are options for very experienced nurses to go into health management. By doing this you might end up as a Director of Nursing.