Nursing PhD salary?

[nursing_student93]

How much money do nursing PhDs make? Also, is an NP certification something that is usually earned along the way to a PhD, or is it not like that? Thanks for any insight. :)

[llg, PhD, RN]

Ouch, I didn't think they'd have to start out as assistants for as low as 50-high 60k sometimes.

Yeah ... when you are "switching arenas" from practice to academia ... and you don't have previous academic teaching experience ... you don't start at the top. You might not start at the very bottom, but it usually involves a noticable decrease in compensation. If you are a major researcher and can "bring in" a significant portion of your salary through a research grant, that helps you start at a higher level. But not many nurses in pratice settings achieve a high enough level of research for it to help them start at the highest levels of academia.