Salariesupswing on the
Wages and job opportunities are growing for nurses
By Heather Stringer I
n nursing, salaries increased on average about 1.3% per year from 2008 to the middle of 2014, and since then the rate has gone up 2.6% per year, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The increase in the last two years coincides with a rise
in the demand for hospital services, said Peter McMenam- in, PhD, a senior policy adviser for the American Nurses Association. As baby boomers are aging and more people have access to healthcare due to federal insurance reform, the need for healthcare services will continue to increase through 2024, according to the BLS. These are some of the reasons the BLS is projecting the nursing employment rate will grow 16% from 2014 to 2024 — much faster than the average for all occupations.
“There are more opportunities than ever for nurses right
now,” said Mary Jane Randazzo, MSN, RN, a nurse recruiter at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia. “Hospitals are creating roles for nurses in areas such as transplant coordination, urgent care, ambulatory care, clin- ical documentation and care coordination.”
The BLS also predicts the financial pressures on hospitals
to discharge patients quickly will result in more admissions to long-term care facilities, outpatient care centers and home healthcare. “I’m seeing significant growth in home health, case management, hospice, palliative care and health plan assessment nursing positions,” said Mary S. McCarthy, RN, assistant vice president of human resources at MJHS in New York.
14 Visit us at
NURSE.com • 2017 By the numbers
According to a recent report from Medscape, the average gross salary of an RN in 2015 was $79,000, compared with $95,000 for a clinical nurse specialist and $102,000 for a nurse practi- tioner. The specific averages vary depending on geographic region, and the report showed that RNs in California earned the highest annual salary with an average of $105,000, followed by the Northeast at $87,000. RNs who live in the Southeast and North Central region earn the lowest annual salaries at $74,000 and $69,000 respectively. Although the salaries are higher in California and the Northeast, the cost of living in these regions is the highest in the country, according to 2016 data from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center. The two states with higher paying nursing jobs combined with a lower cost of living are Michigan and Idaho, according to data from Drexel University in Philadelphia.
According to the BLS, nursing jobs within outpatient care
centers command the highest median annual wages, followed by general medical and surgical hospitals, then home health- care services, offices of physicians and skilled nursing facilities. Certified registered nurse anesthetists, nurse researchers, mental health nurse practitioners and certified nurse midwives are the four specialties with the highest salaries, according to
NurseJournal.org.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40
