Salary Survey Results

2007 Salary Survey Results: A Decade of Growth

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On-Call Status
A valuable perk in any employment package is not having on-call responsibilities. Some respondents admitted to taking a less-than-desirable salary because the position did not involve any on-call or weekend time.

A quarter of our respondents said they take call, but less than half that group (only 38%) actually gets paid for it.

In our 2005 survey, we saw higher salaries for NPs who take call - showing that NPs were getting paid for it somewhere. This year's results showed fairly comparative salaries for both groups: $81,207 for those with no call responsibilities and just $734 more for NPs who do take call ($81,941).

"I'm not sure if employers take it for granted or if they just feel as though it's part of your responsibility as a provider in the practice," said Lareshia Slade, a pediatric NP in Fayetteville, N.C. "Call duty is just included in my salary package, but it hasn't affected my satisfaction with my job."

Although salary comparisons aren't encouraging, many respondents said that on-call time was compensated with extra time off instead of money.

"Taking call is not a really big deal to me. In dermatology we don't get many calls, and most calls are medication refills," said Holly Nichols, an NP in Wichita, Kan. "And I do get every Tuesday afternoon off for the weekends I cover call, so I would say it evens out in the wash."

One respondent got creative about on-call compensation when contract renegotiation came around ? she received additional continuing education funds in lieu of being directly compensated.

The 'Average' NP
In the 2007 survey, we asked for the first time about workplace issues not directly related to compensation. As shown Table 11, the average survey respondent has a master's degree and holds a single NP certification, typically in family practice. She's 46 years old, has worked as an NP between 6 and 10 years and is employed full time as a family nurse practitioner in a family practice or hospital setting. She reports to a physician, doesn't take call, and writes more than 20 prescriptions each week. She believes there are sufficient job opportunities for nurse practitioners and is very satisfied with her job.

Survey Methods
ADVANCE for Nurse Practitioners published the questionnaire for its sixth national salary survey in the July, August, September and October 2007 issues of the journal and online. A record 6,162 nurse practitioners completed to the survey.

To ensure the accuracy and validity of our data, ADVANCE did not tabulate any surveys filled out by respondents who were not nurse practitioners, such as clinical nurse specialists or nurse midwives who were not also certified as nurse practitioners. To further ensure that average salaries were calculated accurately, we averaged the salaries of full-time and part-time nurse practitioners separately.

Ronald Wasserstein, executive director of the American Statistical Association, confirmed the validity of our survey methods.

Jill Rollet is the managing editor. Reach her at jrollet@merion.com. Sarah Lebo is the associate editor.

2007 Salary Survey Results: A Decade of Growth

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Mike, after about ten years of engineering training resulting in a PhD, I do in fact make about what a NP or PA makes. But you should not be wanting NP/PA salaries to fall. You should want them to rise, but for our profession to have an even greater rise than theirs does. BOTH professions are severely underpaid.

Lauren, Tina, I'm sorry, but the bottom line is that the training of a PhD engineer is every bit as difficult as the training of an MD and just as long. I took my basic science ten years ago and scored 13 on the physical science portion of a practice MCAT with NO review of the physical sciences because the MCAT physical science questions are child's play in comparison with what is asked of engineers. Engineers not only have to understand science, they have to be able to do so both qualitatively and quantitatively using mathematical tools that make most MDs, NPs and PAs weak in the knees. In fact, to most engineering students, MCAT physical science exam is a joke.

Engineering PhDs just graduate with far less debt. I don't need the MD's large salary to service debt and malpractice insurance, though. As for responsibility for life and death- engineers bear even more responsibility over life and death than do you. That is why licensure standards for engineering are so tough. You don't see it or understand why, though, because you trust an engineer with your life every day when you walk inside a building, step on an airplane, or even drink water from the sink that has been treated by a plant run by engineers. Your health and safety is constantly in the hands of engineers, and because we are so good at what we do professionally because our training is so rigorous, you never even have to think about how much you do trust us with your life.

These comments are not made to belittle the work you do as a NP, only to tell you that you completely misunderstand the difficulty and intensity of the work required to prepare a PhD engineer. If salaries are truly based on the difficulty of the skills required by the profession to learn, engineering PhDs should be on the same level as an MD, and these people should be the highest paid groups of people in the country.

As for comments about family time being used for study to get an NP, do you even realize how long many engineering PhDs delay the start of a family? I'm 28 and have never had a girlfriend! Don't complain to me about your education taking up family time- YOU HAVE ONE!

Mark	November 15, 2009

To Mike the engineer,
I do hope you stubble upon this page again. I can't help but feel sorry for you. You or family members have obviously never been ill or had care delivered by a NP. I challenge you to spend one day in a local hospital and watch what RNs do at the bedside. NPs do not provide bedside care but this is because we have advanced training and we are diagnosing and treating patients. However, to make to this point, we have to be RNs first with a bachelors degree and then go on to get a masters to become a NP. So when you talk about years of education, you don't have that much on us. Also, an engineer does not balance life and death in his or her hands. You have to take into consideration the kind of work we do. You walk into our offices, practices, and hospitals and expect us to tell you exactly what is wrong with you and fix it in the smallest amount of time possible. Not only do we try to meet all of your health needs, we also provide education to you and your family, spend time with your family as they deal with the stress of your illness, and as a NP, provide all of this care at a reduced rate than a physician. Lastly, if you are not satisfied with your salary, which from what I hear in the area that I live, engineers tend to do very well, do something else. Don't use your dissatisfaction of your salary to try and bring down health care workers who do some of the greatest, most compassionate care in the country.

Lauren , RN, BSN, FNP/MSN student	September 27, 2009
TN

As a new NP of approx 6 months i have enjoyed my new role However i still work as a staff nurse as my salary as a staff nurse is at least 20-30 thousand more than as an NP. There is something very wrong with a system that pays more money to less educated nurses with less responsibity. New grads are manking more than NP's. this is a system with multiple problems where new grads are paid more than 30 yr nurses with advanced degrees. There should be an ability to advance salaries as experience and responsibity increases. NO NP should make less money than new nurses. We the community of NP's need to show group support and educated the public on what we do and why we are worth more than a new grad out of nursing school. We need to demand pay equal to our experties, education and experience.

marla schlesinger, NP, Subacute	September 16, 2009
tarzana, CA

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2007 Salary Survey Results: A Decade of Growth

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