In the academic arena, faculty salaries increased about 8%


between 2011 and 2015, according to data from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. In 2015 the mean full-time salary of an assistant professor in the U.S. was $70,000; an associate professor was $83,000 and a professor was $108,000, according to the AACN.


The Medscape report also showed how pay increases were


correlated to educational levels. Nurses who completed an RN diploma or associate’s degree program earned an average of $73,000 per year, while BSN nurses earned $79,000. Nurses who had earned a master’s degree averaged $87,000 per year, and those with a doctoral degree earned about $96,000 per year.


How to be a savvy applicant


Although salary is important when applying for a new job, Ran- dazzo encourages nurses to find the right time to ask about the numbers. “Don’t ask before the interview,” she said. “Ask during an interview, or when you are offered the position.”


At her hospital, recruiters facilitate open communication


about this topic by meeting with applicants to discuss salary and benefits before the interview with the hiring manager. “While applicants want to know about salary, I find that they are oſten even more interested in opportunities for growth and development, such as tuition reimbursement, mentorship opportunities, nurse residency programs and the culture of the work environment,” she said.


Workforce of the future


As analysts like McMenamin look ahead, one of the salient demands in the future will most likely be for highly experi- enced nurses, he said. According to the BLS, nearly 700,000 nurses are expected to retire between 2014 and 2024. While there has been a surge of new graduates entering the work- force, there will not be enough highly experienced nurses in their 40s and 50s to step into the roles of retiring nurses, he said.


“Jobs are not lifetime


jobs anymore. There is a lot of movement and you do not need to leave the company to


do this,” McCarthy said. “There may be bidding wars for these nurses, and the


wages for more senior nurses could increase while very ex- perienced nurses remain in short supply,” McMenamin said.


One specialty that is projected to significantly increase SALARY DEMAND


EMPLOYMENT RATE


According to the Medscape report, 69% of advanced practice


nurses and 49% of RNs received an education allowance or tuition reimbursement in 2015. Nearly 40% of APRNs and 55% of RNs received certification fee reimbursement that year. Mary Bylone, MSM, RN, CNML, past board member of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, believes learning about the work environment is just as important as gathering salary information. She suggests nurses ask to shadow someone on the unit to get a sense of the work atmosphere. “Money is a piece of it, but it does not keep us in a position,” she said.


For nurses who are moving to a new state, McCarthy sug-


gests calling recruiters to gather information. “If a new grad- uate called from out of state and we didn’t have any positions available, I would share which organizations in the area are hiring new graduates,” she said.


is advanced practice nursing, according to the BLS. Em- ployment in this specialty will increase 30% from 2014 to 2024 as these nurses provide primary and preventive care to meet the demands of caring for newly insured and aging baby boomers.


Randazzo and McCarthy also see many nurses transition


to new jobs within nursing, and they expect that trend to continue. Randazzo, for example, started as a staff nurse at Jefferson Health 34 years ago, then later moved into roles as a nurse manager, pool coordinator and now a recruiter. “Jobs are not lifetime jobs anymore,” McCarthy said. “There is a lot of movement, and you do not have to leave the company to do this. I see a significant amount of internal movement. There are many different fields within nursing, and you can spend an entire career in nursing and barely touch a fraction of what is available.” •


Heather Stringer is a freelance writer. 2017 • Visit us at NURSE.com 15


To learn more about grow roles in healthcare, read the CE module, “Becoming a home health nurse” (Nurse.com/CE60210) and “Making the transition to workers comp case management” (Nurse.com/CE340-60).


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