Medical Surgical Nurse Salary Guide

One of the best ways to increase your staff med-surg salary is to earn professional certifications. Whether you earn your CMSRN or MEDSURG-BC credential, you must have a valid, unencumbered RN license. For the CMSRN, you must have practiced two years in a medical-surgical setting and accrued 2,000 hours of practice within the past three years. Earning the MEDSURG-BC requires two years of full-time practice as a registered nurse, with at least 2,000 practice hours and 30 continuing education hours in med-surg nursing
within the past three years. Both certifications require you to pay a fee and pass an exam.

Another possible way to boost your med-surg nursing pay is to go back to school and earn an advanced degree. This is especially true if you entered the field with an ADN when a BSN is becoming the standard preference at many facilities. RN-to-BSN bridge programs offer a quicker way to earn your degree while still working. If you already have your BSN, consider earning your Master of Science in Nursing to make you more desirable for roles with greater responsibility. Managerial positions within med-surg usually provide a significant pay increase.

No matter your career goals, if you’re looking for your next nursing job, Vivian can help. Our job board typically has more than 100,000 staff, travel, per diem or local contract jobs for nurses and allied health workers at any given time, with new jobs added regularly. By creating a Vivian Universal Profile, you can access transparent salary data and unbiased employer reviews to make your job search easier than ever before.