DNPs Earn More. Sort Of.
We all know by now that the doctor of nursing practice degree is set to become the degree for entry to NP practice by 2015. (
You can read more about the issue here.) One suspicion that keeps arising in the debate is that employers won't pay more for the degree.
So I turned to the ongoing 2009 National Salary and Workplace Survey of NPs to see what nurse practitioners with DNPs are earning. Here's what I can tell based on 1,675 responses so far. The vast majority of these (91%) are from NPs who indicate that a master's is their highest degree; 4% indicate that they have a doctorate degree.
Here's the breakdown of the types of doctorates these respondents have:
- DNP 45%
- PhD 36%
- DNSc 10%
- EdD 6%
- Another nursing doctorate 3%
And here's what they earn on average (median in parentheses):
- Master's degree $89,287 ($85,000)
- DNP $97,898 ($97,250)
- PhD $97,304 ($93,500)
- DNSc $90,000 ($89,000)
- EdD $116,667 ($125,000)
- Another nursing doctorate $95,000 ($95,000)
So, it looks like a DNP could earn you $10,000 more per year than a master's degree and at least a few $1,000 more than a PhD or other nursing degrees. I don't know what's up with the EdD.
But here's a consideration: Those NPs with master's degrees as their highest degree have practice for 8 years on average (6 years mean), and those with a DNP have practiced 11 years on average (11 years mean). So perhaps it's the extra 3 years' experience that garners the extra $10,000. But then, DNPs have fewer years practicing on average than NPs with other doctorate degrees.
Practice setting seems not to account for salary differences between master's and DNP nurse practitioners -- both groups tend to be equally represented in the most popular employment settings.
It seems to me that a DNP could actually earn you a higher salary. What do you think? Am I missing anything here?
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