Ph.D. in Nursing Salary: How Much Does a Nurse With a Ph.D. Make?
If you're interested in making substantial changes to improve nursing, researching problems in your field, teaching nursing students, working in government sectors related to nursing, and leading healthcare organizations, you should consider pursuing a Ph.D. in Nursing. A Ph.D. is a Doctorate of Philosophy in Nursing, and it's the highest education level a nurse can achieve. It's also a degree that focuses on research that advances the nursing practice.
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Pursuing a Ph.D. in nursing has many benefits:
Ph.D. nurses are respected experts by their co-workers and other medical professionals.
They shape the new generations of nurses and develop new practices in nursing.
Furthermore, they help create new healthcare policies and improve the healthcare process overall.
Nurses with a Ph.D. can take on administrative roles in healthcare facilities and increase the health-providing quality.
Besides naming these benefits, in this article, we'll explore the career paths you can follow with a Ph.D. in nursing, how much a nurse with a Ph.D. makes, and how you can boost your Ph.D. in Nursing salary.
Career Paths for Ph.D. Nurse Graduates
Getting a Ph.D. in nursing opens many doors for different career paths. You'll no longer be tied to only healthcare facilities; you'll be able to branch out and aid in other ways, like creating strategies for better care, fighting for new policies, and ensuring that new generations of nurses are well prepared for the work environment.
Following, we'll mention the most popular career paths for Ph.D. nurses and what they entail.
Research
Due to the research-oriented nature of getting a Ph.D., an important career path is continuing research in the medical field. Becoming a nurse researcher allows you to investigate different subjects and collaborate with other researchers and medical professionals.
As a researcher, you can work at hospitals, research laboratories, universities, colleges, etc. A nurse's researcher duties include:
Writing project proposals and applying for grants to receive funding,
Training laboratory staff,
Identifying problems and hypotheses to research,
Ensuring their data is valid, and
Analyzing data and publishing their findings.
Teaching
Due to the shortage of nurse educators, taking a teaching position after getting a Ph.D. in nursing is a great decision. Nurse educators ensure that the next generations of nurses and medical professionals are well-prepared professionally and academically. They can also publish research papers and attend conferences and events.
Some of the duties the job of a nurse educator entails are:
Planning and preparing the curriculum and study materials in line with the course
Delivering lectures
Supervising students' work
Grading and mentoring students
Work in healthcare organizations
Working in healthcare organizations like hospitals, laboratories, and clinics helps you ensure a higher healthcare quality for patients, whether you take leadership or more research roles within the healthcare organization. There, you can notice if there are gaps, a lack of strategy, inequity, and inefficient procedures, during the health-providing process, and what necessary steps must be taken to fix them.
Work for the government
Having a Ph.D. in nursing opens many doors in various sectors of the government, like hospitals, correctional facilities, the VA hospital, etc. You can work as a nurse anesthetist, director of nursing, nurse administrator, or become a public health nurse.
Becoming a nurse anesthetist means you'll administer a patient's anesthesia during surgery. It's a sought out occupation and has a promising outlook this decade.
Another path is becoming a director of nursing or a nurse administrator, which means you'll have leadership roles in the healthcare facility and ensure better care.
Lastly, as a public health nurse with a Ph.D., you have more leadership and research roles to improve the health of the community by conducting research, finding and solving problems, disease prevention, etc.
How Much Does a Nurse With a Ph.D. Make?
The average salary for nurses with a Ph.D. depends on factors like the level of experience, the type of occupation, or the location. However, all nurses with a Ph.D. should expect a higher salary. One of the most popular choices after getting a Ph.D. is teaching or working in college-level nursing education. Below you'll find the doctorate in nursing education salary for three different related occupations.
Average salary
According to Payscale, the average base salary for a medical professional with a Ph.D. in Nursing is $93,000 per year or $60.67 per hour.
The average salary for different occupations of Ph.D. in Nursing is:
Nursing professors - $75,470
Medical scientists - $95,310
Nurse anesthetists - $123,780
Nurse researchers - $95,000
Nursing educators - $111,870
Salary based on experience
A determinant factor that affects salary is the level of experience. As it is with other occupations, nurses with a Ph.D. will earn a higher salary with experience. The average salary depending on the level of experience is:
Entry level (1 yr) - $71,720
Early career (1-4 yrs) - $82,040
Mid-career (5-9 yrs) - $96,550
Late career (10-19 yrs) - $112,600
Experienced (20+ yrs) - $135,010
10 best-paying states for nurses with a Ph.D.
The top 10 best paying states are:
California - $126,200
New Jersey - $113,160
Washington - $109,350
New York - $109,310
Massachusetts - $108,980
Nevada - $ 103,650
Minnesota - $102,800
Wyoming - $102,720
Hawaii - $102,690
Oregon - $102,540
5 lowest-paying states for nurses with a Ph.D.
The five lowest-paying states are:
Tennessee - $85,910
Alabama - $86,270
Florida - $87,370
South Carolina - $87,480
Kentucky - $88,580
How Can You Boost Your Ph.D. in Nursing Salary?
Though Ph.D. nurses have an upper-middle and upper-class income, they can still boost their salaries in a few ways:
Relocating - because the cost of living is different in each state, relocating to a state with a lower cost of living or a state with a higher salary can help.
Going to conferences and events related to this field enables you to meet with colleagues and other academics and discuss new ideas, and present your findings and give talks about important topics.
Consulting - as a consultant, you can work with healthcare facilities or other medical professionals to solve different problems in the medical field.
Ph.D. in Nursing Job Outlook
Due to the high demand for nurses with a Ph.D. in different leadership and research roles, the job outlook for them is expected only to grow. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a job outlook of 17% (much faster than average) for medical scientists and 45% (much faster than average) for nurse anesthetists. There's also job outlook growth for nursing professors at 18% and for medical and health services managers at 32% this decade. This makes for another benefit of getting a Ph.D. in Nursing.
Conclusion
We'll always need exceptional medical professionals who push the system to improve. Getting a Ph.D. in Nursing is an important step to achieving that. This degree is perfect if you're passionate about making changes in the healthcare industry and educating others.
If you're passionate about advancing your expertise in nursing, making diagnoses, and giving treatments, a Doctorate of Nursing Practice would be perfect for you. Whatever path you choose is entirely up to how you want to contribute to the healthcare industry and improve the system.