Thinking about becoming a Nurse Practitioner

SandBetweenMyToes, BSN, RN · Jun 27, 2009

David, thanks so much for your candid reply. In your opinion, do PA's and NP's make about the same? (i.e. could I use the same salary surveys as a guide)? I ask because I have seen many job listings where it states the job is to be filled by an NP or PA (as if interchangeable). And if so, would I be able to obtain these surveys for my area?

core0 · Jun 27, 2009

David, thanks so much for your candid reply. In your opinion, do PA's and NP's make about the same? (i.e. could I use the same salary surveys as a guide)? I ask because I have seen many job listings where it states the job is to be filled by an NP or PA (as if interchangeable). And if so, would I be able to obtain these surveys for my area?

If PAs and NPs are doing the same job generally they should be paid the same salary. There is case law on this. In my organization we are paid based on our duties and experience as a PA/NP. We essentially have five levels that go from primary care to specialty care to specialty care surgery that take call.

The issue in negotiation comes when you are joining a small practice. I was the first PA at my first two jobs so there was no compareable salary for the physicians. For the first job (new grad) I presented the salary data and went for 50th percentile plus bonus. For the second their initial offer came in low and I countered with data again and we ended up at 75th percentile plus bonus. With my current job there was not any real negotiation since there were salary bands. However, I used the salary data to get a signing bonus which put me a little over the 50th percentile. With expansion of duties we have moved up and we recently developed a very nice compensation package which if someone works hard will put us in the 90th percentile.

As far as accessing the reports, the general data is available here:

http://www.aapa.org/about-pas/data-and-statistics

There are also specialty reports and state reports so you can generally see what PAs are making in State or Specialty.

The actual reports are here (with an example at the top):

http://www.aapa.org/component/content/article/22--general-/408-salary-profiles

If you know a PA who is a member then you can have them order one for $35. In theory you could join AAPA as an affilate and then order one for $150 (which is what most large health care organizations do). Our hospital spends about $7k every year looking at compensation for PAs.

AAPA also has some good resources here:

http://www.aapa.org/advocacy-and-practice-resources/practice-resources/employment/632-contract-negotiation

which are somewhat applicable for NP practice.

David Carpenter, PA-C

SandBetweenMyToes, BSN, RN · Jun 27, 2009

Thank you so much. This is definitely information I will use when the time comes. You've done a great service for the readers of this forum :)

maepartner · Jul 9, 2009

Yes David that was very helpful, thanks.. is there another place where i can go to see the same thing for NP salaries, rather than PA's? If it helps, Im in the Boston area....and without offending anyone, we ARE very interested in salaries (actually for my daughter's benefit) especially because my son, who recently graduated from NEU, has over 100k in loans (5 yr school) and he works as an accountant(not CPA) and is not making nearly enough to pay off his loans anytime soon. Thanks in advance for any info

core0 · Jul 10, 2009

Yes David that was very helpful, thanks.. is there another place where i can go to see the same thing for NP salaries, rather than PA's? If it helps, Im in the Boston area....and without offending anyone, we ARE very interested in salaries (actually for my daughter's benefit) especially because my son, who recently graduated from NEU, has over 100k in loans (5 yr school) and he works as an accountant(not CPA) and is not making nearly enough to pay off his loans anytime soon. Thanks in advance for any info

As far as I can tell there is no comparable data for NPs. Advance for NPs has some data and Nurse Practitioner Magazine and NP central all have had salary surveys but none with more than 4-500 data points. MGMA probably has this data for your area but its prohibitively expensive to join. The ACNP did a salary survey some time back but never published it as far as I can tell.

David Carpenter, PA-C