SALARIES
FOR NURSING FACULTY CONTINUE TO POST INCREASES,
AACN SURVEY SHOWS
But News
Tempered By Mostly Modest Gains and Concerns Over
Increasingly Aging Faculty
WASHINGTON, D.C.,
May 12, 2000 -- Doctorally prepared professors at nursing
schools at the nation's universities and four-year colleges
earned an average of $68,779 in the current 1999-2000 academic
year, up 3.8 percent above a year ago, according to the
latest annual salary survey by the American Association
of Colleges of Nursing (AACN).
Virtually all ranks
of full-time nursing faculty saw salary gains this academic
year, ranging from an increase of 4.8 percent (to $44,359)
for doctorally prepared instructors to a gain of 2.1 percent
(to $41,870) for nondoctorally prepared assistant professors.
However, among all nursing faculty, professors who do not
hold doctorates realized the only loss in earnings, down
by 1.1 percent below a year ago to $62,294.
"At this time when
more and more regions are struggling to overcome mounting
shortages of registered nurses, many nursing schools are
working to overcome their own faculty shortages that at
times have prevented needed expansion of enrollments in
their programs," says AACN President Carolyn A. Williams,
PhD, RN, FAAN. "While we welcome even the relatively modest
salary increases realized by most faculty over the last
several years, still higher gains will be needed to keep
teaching and research attractive career options for potential
nurse educators who increasingly are being lured by the
higher compensation in many clinical and private-sector
research settings."
"In particular, for many of the nation's
nursing campuses, the need is not only for more faculty, but
for more faculty who are younger," Dr. Williams explains.
According to the AACN survey, the average age of full-time
nursing faculty this academic year is 50.1 years, a slight
increase of 0.4 years over fall 1998. Professors, and associate
and assistant professors, who are doctorally prepared are
an average age of 55.7, 52.8, and 49.5 years, respectively,
the AACN survey found.
"Increasingly, nursing
schools are pressed not only to steer more RNs to teaching
careers to prepare the expanded numbers and mix of nurses
needed, but also to increase the ranks of younger educators
who will have enough years as productive teachers and research
scientists," Dr. Williams says.
The survey, conducted
in fall 1999, is AACN's 22nd annual report of salaries for
full-time nursing faculty and is based on responses from
535 (79.7 percent) of the nation's nursing schools with
baccalaureate and graduate programs. The report provides
the most comprehensive and up-to-date salary data available
both for full-time instructional and administrative faculty
members who are nurses, as well as for full-time faculty
who are certified nurse practitioners. Non-nurse faculty
are not included.
Higher Earnings,
Larger Increases for Faculty Who Hold Doctorates
For all full-time
nursing faculty, salaries this academic year range from
a low of $15,741 for an instructor without a doctoral degree
in a public institution to a high of $152,825 for a doctorally
prepared professor in a private secular institution.
Regardless of rank,
full-time nursing faculty who hold doctoral degrees are
realizing higher earnings, and received larger annual increases,
than nondoctorally prepared counterparts, the AACN survey
found. Increases for doctorally prepared nursing faculty
ranged from a high of 4.8 percent for instructors (to $44,359)
to a low of 3.1 percent for assistant professors (to $48,738).
In comparison, salary gains for nondoctorally prepared faculty
ranged from 3.9 percent for instructors (to $39,487) to
2.1 percent for assistant professors (to $41,870).
Highest Earnings
Found at Private Institutions
Although doctorally
prepared nursing faculty earned their highest average salaries
at private secular schools, their largest annual increases
varied by type of institution. For example, doctorally prepared
professors saw their biggest average increases at religious
institutions (up 4.6 percent, to $60,741) compared to public
schools (up 3.9 percent, to $69,900) and private secular
institutions (up 3.5 percent, to $73,849). Similarly, associate
professors with doctoral degrees saw an average salary gain
of 3.7 percent (to $52,907) at religious institutions, compared
to increases of 3.5 percent (to $57,371) at public institutions
and 1.5 percent (to $57,609) at private secular schools.
Doctorally prepared instructors, however, realized an average
salary gain of 11.6 percent (to $48,258) at private secular
schools, compared to increases of 4.6 percent (to $44,449)
at religious schools and 1.7 percent (to $42,712) at public
institutions.
Average earnings
for full-time instructional faculty with doctoral
degrees ranged this academic year from $41,304 for an instructor
in a public institution to $69,462 for a professor in a
private secular school. Salaries for faculty without doctorates
ranged from $38,324 for an instructor in a religious institution
to $68,392 for a professor in a private secular school.
Of all full-time
faculty at responding schools, 15.2 percent devote at least
half their time in administrative roles. Among these administrative
faculty, average salaries for associate deans ranged
from a high of $78,232 for a doctorally prepared professor
to a low of $54,948 for a doctorally prepared assistant
professor this academic year. For assistant deans, average
salaries ranged from $66,331 for a doctorally prepared professor
to $55,048 for a doctorally prepared assistant professor,
the AACN survey reports.
Among instructional
faculty who are nurse practitioners, average earnings this
academic year ranged from a high of $66,787 for doctorally
prepared professors to a low of $43,034 for nondoctorally
prepared instructors. Salaries for administrative nurse
practitioner faculty ranged from $72,231 for doctorally
prepared professors to $47,205 for nondoctorally prepared
instructors.
Copies of the AACN
report, 1999-2000 Salaries of Instructional and Administrative
Nursing Faculty in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in
Nursing, are available for $45.00 (plus $3.00 postage),
prepaid orders only, from AACN, Dept. 178, Washington, DC
20055-0178; (202) 463-6930, or click here for an order
form.
Average Salaries and Percentage Change for All Full-Time
Nurse Faculty 1998-99 to 1999-2000
Source:
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. 1999-2000
Salaries of Instructional and Administrative Nursing Faculty
in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing.
The American Association of Colleges of
Nursing is the national voice for university and four-year-college
education programs in nursing. Representing more than 580
member schools of nursing at public and private institutions
nationwide, AACN's educational, research, governmental advocacy,
data collection, publications, and other programs work to
establish quality standards for bachelor's- and graduate-degree
nursing education, assist deans and directors to implement
those standards, influence the nursing profession to improve
health care, and promote public support of baccalaureate
and graduate nursing education, research, and practice.
###
CONTACT: Robert Rosseter
(202) 463-6930, x231
rrosseter@aacn.nche.edu
