Pay increases not a factor
Salary increases fail to slow faculty exodus

By Glen Fest
May 19, 2003

Salaries for nursing school faculty continued on the upswing for 2002, especially for doctorally prepared instructors, but nursing education officials say the increases are doing little to stem the flow of advanced degree candidates into the clinical world.

Faculty at nursing schools nationwide experienced annual pay increases from 3.4 percent to 9.6 percent in 2002-03, according to an annual study issued last month by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

The pay raises are in line with increases seen in previous years, reflecting a continuing demand for qualified nursing instructors despite the ever-tightening budget squeezes at major universities across the country.

The salary report was released shortly before another AACN report that detailed how faculty shortages in collegiate nursing programs have reached "critical proportions" in several states.

[See "Faculty pool grays, shrinks" Page 21]

"Generally, all the salaries in the private sector are higher" than nursing faculty salaries, said Linda Berlin, DrPH, RN, chief author of the report. "In academia, they only reach parity in the upper levels of rank."

Experiencing the greatest salary jump from 2001-02 were doctorally prepared instructors, who are frequently the subject of bidding wars between colleges eager for research-level faculty, according to officials.

Those instructors, who number more than 5,000 among member institutions of the AACN, had the largest increase in the survey, moving up 9.6 percent from $53,612 a year to average annual pay of $58,770.

University professors without doctoral degrees who earned $72,147 in 2001 had the second-highest gain of 8 percent, with a 2002 salary of $77,923.

The highest pay noted in the AACN salary survey was $184,241 for a doctorally prepared, tenured professor at a public institution.

All salaries are based on a calendar-year basis.

Other survey results:

• Professors, doctoral: up 3.8 percent, from $91,484 to $94,932.
• Associate professors, doctoral: up 3.4 percent, from $74,651 to $77,211.
• Associate professors, master's- or graduate-level: up 3.5 percent, from $60,443 to $62,571.
• Assistant professors, doctoral: up 3.5 percent, from $63,926 to $66,157.
• Assistant professors, master's- or graduate-level: up 3.4 percent, from $55,646 to $57,557.
• Instructors, nondoctoral: up 3.6 percent, from $51,298 to $53,152.

The survey was conducted through questionnaires sent to 555 institutions that the AACN contacted. The data are used by college nursing programs to establish faculty pay levels.

Educators say the data underline a key problem for universities: the inability to compete with private-sector, clinical nurse employers.

"[Nurses] who have a master's degree and serve in a clinical facility, these individuals can receive upward to $15,000 to $30,000 more annually than they can as teaching faculty," said Linda Hodges, Ed.D., RN, dean of the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences College of Nursing.

The AACN report on faculty shortages released last month revealed, based on salary data collected from previous research and Internet resources, gaps of $5,000 to more than $30,000 between faculty positions and clinical roles of similar educational requirements.

The report noted that only senior academic titles are competitive with correlating clinical nurse administration roles.

The widest disparity was in nursing specialty positions that attract many master's-level graduates away from teaching. A master's-level nurse anesthetist commands between $96,802 and $114,362, according to the report, compared to an equally credentialed university professor who makes $55,000.

Hodges said schools have difficulty matching the surging salaries of the private sector because of budget constraints, as well as the politics of granting mid-level instructors in one discipline such an increase.

"It would be very difficult for a president to make a $15,000 adjustment to a [nursing] faculty salary," Hodges said, even though nurse educator salaries trail those of instructors in other disciplines, such as law and business. Hodges said nurse instructors at Arkansas make less than all other instructors except for the school's home economics faculty.

Doctoral faculty has an easier time garnering salary increases, primarily through the recruitment efforts of rival institutions eager for research-level faculty. "They have the ability to bring in major research dollars, and are now commanding salaries of six figures or more," said Hodges, who is also president of the collegiate nursing council of the 16-state Southern Regional Education Board.

"Everybody is looking for that faculty member who can bring in $1.5 million [in grants], so they are much more willing to put together a $150,000 salary package for that person."

Contact Glen Fest at glenf@nurseweek.com