Becoming a nurse during Covid, a former producer doubled her hours but found purpose

This is part of NBC News’ Checkbook Chronicles, a series of profiles highlighting the financial realities of everyday Americans.

Unlike most people who changed jobs during the Great Quit, Shannon Penney is working twice as much, for about the same salary she was making years ago. She wouldn’t change that.

Penney, 37, became disenchanted nearly a decade ago with her freelance work in the advertising industry, but it took the pandemic for her to make a change. The decision came to her in the emergency room, sick with Covid-19 in the early days of a pandemic that would affect her future profession in ways from which she is still recovering.

“It put a marker in my head: This is really important,” said Penney, who recently completed her first full year as a registered nurse at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan.

Primary source of income: Working full time as a registered nurse at New York Presbyterian Hospital, earning $120,000 annually. That’s roughly equivalent to what she earned as a producer, earning $1,200 a day but rarely putting in consistent weeks of work. She now has an employer-sponsored retirement account for the first time, but her work hours are much longer.

“I knew it would be a lot more sacrificial,” she said. “But at the same time, I really felt like I owed something to a society that gave me all these privileges that I didn’t ask for or necessarily deserve.”

Living situation: A 550-square-foot Manhattan apartment she purchased in 2016 and shares with her dachshund, Baguda. The co-op building charges a $1,400 maintenance fee.

Economic perspectives: Penney never had to worry much about money. Her parents—a retired nurse and investment banker—built and eventually sold their family’s “McMansion” in Westchester, New York, and later footed the bill for her nursing degree. She is also debt-free after her father paid off her $10,000 credit card balance in May.

Penney is quick to note that she is “a very privileged white person” with minimal debt. “Sometimes it’s embarrassing to say it out loud, but that’s all I know how to do: just acknowledge it,” she said. “Do what you can with it to help other people. Pay in advance.”

After 12 years producing commercials for major brands — dealing with budget cuts that forced her to cut back on contractors to witness uncomfortable dynamics on set — Penney decided in March 2020 that she had had enough and enrolled in her nursing program. soon after.

She has more than $65,000 in retirement savings, much of it split almost evenly between a brokerage account and a Roth IRA, with the rest in her still-emerging 403(b) account. With stock indexes breaking recordsMany savers with market-linked investments have seen their nest egg grow this year.

Penney also saved more than $36,000 in her personal savings. On the other hand, the average bank account balance for adults ages 35 to 44 was $7,500 in 2021, according to the Federal Reserve. Only 43% of millennials say they could cover a $1,000 emergency expense, Bankrate found.

But while Penney’s economic situation is different from most of her peers and has largely enabled her career change, that decision isn’t all that unique. More than 1 in 5 young professionals say their work lacks purpose or meaning, Deloitte research foundand many have recently taken advantage of a tight job market to change that.

Budget Pain Points: Penney said her mental health care costs have increased since she switched to nursing. Although her psychiatrist is connected with her insurance, her therapist of several years is not, resulting in a monthly bill of up to $1,000.

Ironically, “it took me [becoming] a nurse to not have that covered,” she said.

Despite her robust finances, Penney said, she’s been spending more lately. “I still live within my means,” she said, adding that she follows a monthly budget and doesn’t flaunt luxuries like expensive clothes. “Some of the most privileged people in this country are not in a comfortable situation.”

Work life: “I work shifts, which means I leave the house at 6:30 a.m. and don’t get home until 8:30 p.m.,” Penney said. After spending at least $2,000 a month on dog daycare, she recently hired a dog walker, which cut the expense by more than half.

The nursing field is regaining its footing after years of pandemic-induced turmoil. Exhausted nurses have left the profession in recent years, but wages and staffing levels are improving and labor groups continue to exert pressure to bolster workers’ livelihoods.

There were 6% more full-time registered nurses in the workforce last year than in 2019, a JAMA Health Study found, and 1.2 million are expected to join by 2035, returning to pre-pandemic projections. The average U.S. nurse earned about $94,500 annually last year, federal data shows, up from about $80,000 four years ago. barely beating inflation since then.

Hospitals have stepped up their retention efforts — from offering referral bonuses to streamlining critical care training — as thousands of nurses picketed for better pay and staffing ratios. NewYork-Presbyterian faced its own revolt last year, shortly before Penney joined, and ended increase in salaries and staff commitments.

A closer look at an unbalanced economy: Penney works at a hospital where wealthier patients can pay $1,500 a night for private rooms with concierge-like features like a dedicated chef, 24-hour attention and unlimited family visits.

In some ways, the aspects of the economy that bothered Penney in her previous career turned out to be inevitable — a realization she described as “absolute whiplash.”

“Going from the celebrity dazzlement of the production, now you’re on this floor where there are very important people,” she said, “and you instantly see how unfair health care is.”