Adjunct Prof.:How are they paid?

[gerinurse10]

I am curious on how adjunct professors in nursing programs are paid? Is it hourly or a set rate for a 3 credit course? How many hours a week are put into teaching an adjunct course? Do you get paid to go to meetings etc.? I had an instructor say that his college is paying $40.00 an hour. Is this possible? Thanks!

[RNPATL, DNP, RN]

Everytime I ask these salary questions I feel like I am setting myself up. I kind of knew that teaching isn't the most profitable profession. So why do people do it? I get torn because right now I am working in a management position and I make good money. I am in school now for my MSN. Am I doing all this work to come out with a lower paying job and I might have to work more hours? Oh what to do?? Will I even find a full time job?

I am in the same position as you are in. I am finishing my BSN and moving on to the MSN this year. I want to teach and have been offered an adjunct faculty position locally. The rate I was quoted was $30.00 per hour flat rate for clinical hours worked. This translates into a total of about 16 hours per week. However, there is no pay for the add-ons ... going to the hospital the night before, planning the clinical experience as well as grading the care plans, nursing case studies and attending mandatory faculty meetings.

For me, I want to get my foot in the door for a full time position, but positions are plentiful here and I do not think I will have a problem landing a full time position even with the BSN. However, the full time positions pay little. The benefits are fine and the time off package is decent.

I plan to remain clinical at my hospital because I think it is imperative that clinical professors have current and up-to-date skills so they can teach their students. However, I am not interested in working harder and continuing in school for my Masters degree so I can make less money .... this is a really problem with teaching and needs to be addressed. Perhaps things will change as the nursing shortage and the shortage of qualified faculty continues to escalate. Who really knows the answer.

[AZEMS]

As an adjunct in Phoenix I'm paid $35 per hour assuming a cummulative of working on clinical site 12 hour shift twice a week for 8 weeks. My check comes to an equal amount at this preset rate. With a BSN we mentor, supervise and oversee clinical performance and grade care plans. Its hands-on and a wonderful job. Only drawback is no benefits.

[llg, PhD, RN]

Great thread. I like how so many of the issues are coming out.

Another issue is this: The biggest factor in determining nursing faculty salaries is not the state of salaries in clinical nursing salaries in general -- but rather the state of college faculty salaries in general. That means that the financial health of the colleges, the state legislature's funding of higher education, the GLUT of available faculty members in other disciplines, etc. all play a big part.

Few political candidates are going to win elections by saying that they are going to raise taxes so that they can give more money to the universities so that people who already have graduate degrees can earn more money by teaching at the local university. The average voter doesn't have a graduate degree and doesn't value it enough to pay tax dollars to support increases for university faculty salaries.

Many disciplines have a glut of qualified faculty, so there is little pressure on that end to raise salaries. Also, the other disciplines generally require PhD's for all but a few lower-level positions -- even adjunct positions. Those Master's prepared "instructors" or "lecturers" are at the bottom rung of the academic hieracrchy and will usually be paid and treated as such. In the other disciplines, those positions are often filled by people working on PhD's who only want those jobs for a couple of years until they finish school -- or they are filled by the "trailing spouse" of a full time doctorally prepared, tenure track faculty member who is grateful to have found ANY job geographically close to where their spouse has finally landed a tenure track position after a couple of years on the job market searching and competing for one.

So .... what that all adds up to ... is that the salary structure of nursing faculty is NOT based on the nursing profession, but on professions such as history, and English, and biology, and psychology, etc. ... disciplines in which there is a plentiful supply of people in the 20's going to grad school who are content to take the lower level faculty jobs at the current pay rates. That drives the faculty payment structure and "sets the going price" for faculty without PhD's.

However, as we all know, the situation is not the same in nursing. The person seeking that lower-level faculty job is not a 25 year old at the beginning of her career -- but rather someone over 30 with considerable experience behind them and the ability to earn a decent paycheck in the clinical arena.

.... but knowing that doesn't solve the problem.

llg