State Breakdown of the 2010 National Salary Surveys of NPs & PAs

When it comes to NP & PA pay, west is best.

By Michelle Perron Pronsati and Michael Gerchufsky

Last updated on: June 24, 2011 | Posted on: March 1, 2011

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ADVANCE for NPs & PAs conducted a national survey of both NPs and PAs to asses their salary. National results showed an incremental rise in full-time salary, but a drop in part-time wages. As part of our coverage of the findings of the 2010 National Salary Survey of Nurse Practitioners and the 2010 National Salary Survey of Physician Assistants, ADVANCE for NPs & PAs has compiled a special report that presents regional salary data as reported by the respondents of the survey.

NPs and PAs who work in western portions of the country took home the highest median salaries in 2010. Highlights from this report include some interesting findings:

For nurse practitioners, the top wages were paid in Texas, Montana, Alaska, California and Maryland.
For physician assistants, the highest reported salaries were in Wyoming, Alaska, Delaware, Rhode Island and Texas.

The tables accompanying this article detail the salaries reported in each state. We've included the number of respondents per state, along with the minimum and maximum salary reported. We will collect data for the 2011 survey this summer. Make sure your state is adequately represented by encouraging participation by coworkers and fellow state association members.

Download the tables to see state-by-state salary results for both nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

Salary Information

Survey Background

Our surveys were conducted using online questionnaires created with Zarca Interactive's survey software. We collected data from Aug. 23 through Nov. 30, 2010. Nearly 3,000 NPs (2,956) participated in the survey designed for nurse practitioners, and nearly 1,300 PAs (1,276) answered the version created for physician assistants. Because 2010 was the first year that ADVANCE surveyed both professions, you'll note some differences in our reporting due to our longer history of gathering data about NP salaries.

Let me tell you how it really is from a perspective of a Medical Doctor who works with PA's and NP's (ACNP-BC) as well as Medical Students. PA training is different than that of a NP in that they are trained how to do algorithm medicine, which is functional. NP’s are trained in nursing first then go back for an extensive Master’s program that requires well over 1500 hours didactic and clinical. The master’s program is more rigorous than most other masters programs such as education, physical therapy and pharmacy the latter usual graduate with a doctorate.
In the real world, a PA is usually attached at the hip of the doctor doing tasks assigned to him or her, given that the PA is a dependent practitioner and works off my malpractice license. NP is an independent practitioner that has their own malpractice not associated with mine. I have 2 PAs and 2 NPs and respect them both equally. My 10 year plus experienced PA’s do my office work with me and see the less sick. My 2 ACNP’s see all my patients in the hospital who are very sick and need someone to think about the medicine and be able to apply it to the patient’s disease process not just work with a diagnosis established by an algorithm and think that is going to work. My ACNP’s treat the ICU and CCU patients, start my Central Lines, place our Quinton catheters for HD and intubate our patients. We tried to get the PA’s to do the job of the ACNP’s for coverage issues for the practice, I mean I thought they were “the same”.
Disaster struck with the PA’s. Although the PAs have 13 years more experience than the 2 ACNP’s the very short trial showed me that they don’t know a 3rd of the medicine needed to practice at the level of the 2 ACNP’s 3 years out of school. The NP’s just get the practice of medicine much better than the PA’s but do a great job at tasking.
Finally, we must be doing it all wrong at our practice, we pay our PA’s 125,000/year and our ACNP’s 160,000/year according to the blog it appears it should be the other way around. In our part of the world the NP’s at least hospital based ACNP’s all make more that the PA’s. There is a Hospitalist group that pays their ACNP at least 200,000/year. The information on the blog must be wrong.
And a final note, the 2 ACNP’s and I are frequently asked to take over very difficult critical care cases assigned by the hospital. The 2 ACNP’s do all the work and present the findings to me in conference. Collaboration is the key my friends, My mid-levels are great because they know when they need help and ask, my counterpart MD’s that practice in our hospital don’t know enough to know they are wrong and to make matters worse they won’t ask for help when they need it. As a matter of fact, if my 2 ACNP’s became independent from me, I would feel very comfortable with them caring for patients in the hospital on their own. I can tell you many of the MD would feel the same know that they have seen them work. Last thing, mid-levels make your numbers look great…LOS, CMI (documenting is key), infection rates, CORE measures etc. I am always number one on the hospitals list of physician performance and rarely am in the hospital.
Hope this will help clear up the real life of the PA, NP and MD thing. Oh BTW, for me I am board certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care medicine. Harvard Medical School and Mass Gen Residency and Fellowship.

Shaun Deluca, MD	March 26, 2012
Los Angeles, CA

There is a fallacy here. Many here beleive that education ends in school and learning only takes place there. I have worked with many MDs. A handful were exceptional, a handful were bad (wondered where they graduated from medical school) and most of them were good doctors who practiced good medicine. The same can be said for NPs and PAs. There is no reason why a NP or PA cannot learn as much as a MD if he or she really applies himself or herself. So to put limits on how much one can learn is plain stupid. There is also a fallacy to believe that experience equals competency.

In my experience as a PA I have had MDs (yes I said MDs), NPs and PAs train with me in my specialty. I felt very privileged that my Chief and other physicians that I worked with respected and acknowkowledged my capabilities, and I in turn respected their's and learned a lot from them. I have had MDs call me for consultations in my specialty, and I have consulted with them. So, lets all stop this self-aggrandisement and megalomania and recognize that we all have a role to play in this continuum of health care.

I think we should do a reality check here. We all have our limits, that why we all (including MDs) seek consultations. Knowing one's limit is a strength and not a weakness. We should change our negative attitudes about each other and work collaboratively.

Allan B, DHSc, MS, MPAS, PA-C, WLU	December 13, 2011
WV

BC refers to Board Certification. As a Womens Health Nurse Practitioner my credentialing agency designates my certication as WHNP,BC.

Karen Caponi , Health Services Director	December 13, 2011
MA

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