I always harp on knowing your why. I talk to so many people who are suffering from indecision about going back to school, choosing a nurse practitioner career path, changing their current job, or acquiring their first job. I always advise listing out the pros and cons and weighing the balance and at the top of this list should be your why. Literally write out your mission statement as if you are a business. It helps gain clarity that you will need later. I’d be lying if I said a huge piece of most people’s why statement was irrespective of money. In order to decide if a career path is for you, you have to assess the ROI. It’s hard to do that when the salary reports seem to have a wide range for nurse practitioners. In this blog post I will discuss my research and anecdotal findings on NP salary in regards to 2 categories: role/population foci (field of study) and specialty.

I think part of the reason there is confusion out there is the lack of standardization in the “classes” of lists that are formed. You’ll find plenty of curated lists but within them are multiple different types of APRNs. For example one list may include CRNA vs FNP which is defintiely not apples to apples. Or you may find Dermatology and FNP which are the same thing, sort of? One is a certification and one is a sub specialty. Maybe its just me but this makes it hard for my brain to process and, I feel, leaves a lot on the table that is not discussed. Which makes it hard to compare career tracts. So below I offer two charts. The first is anecdotal and a broad sweeping classification of APRN certification/field of study types. The numbers/ranking are generated from my experience combined with a market analysis. It is a broad generalization. The second list is fifteen APRN jobs by specialty or subspecialty (tried to avoid the generic FNP or ACNP classification) developed from market research locally and nationally. It’s important to help drill down that wide variability that comes when you google things like “FNP salary". That search does not delineate the aesthetic NP from the primary care NP.

There are a few tenets that need to be transparent about the lists I’ve generated. These are broad generalizations and will have many factors which create variability including:

• Region specific needs. Working in Alaska will pay more than an urban oasis.

• Specialty specific needs. In general, the more specialized the harder it is to find people to fill those roles when they want experienced providers and therefore the higher the salary.

• Supply and demand. The highly desirable jobs tend to be the most saturated and therefore the most competitive and least paying.

• Private practice vs organization owned. I find private practice tends to pay higher, however I hear varying reports on this. Ultimately if the practice is owned by a physician or NP they can dictate the salary. And depending on what type of business they want to run it can be designed to retain staff and pay well or designed to earn them the most money possible and pay terribly.

• Many of these especially the sub-specialties are neck and neck so the ranking is subtle. You’ll see a lot of cross over in the real world.

• The salary research I’ve done does not clearly delineate if these numbers are new grad vs experience pay. Based on what my region looks like I believe these to be starting salaries. So, as you gain years of experience you will command a higher salary.

• I generated the national average from multiple different sites like salary.com, indeed, glassdoor, np hub. I generated Ga. specific numbers from talent.com and local job searches using engines like liquid compass.com.

• These base salaries don’t seem to incorporate extras like call pay, overtime, PTO, bonuses. It’s a starting number.

List 1: Top Earning APRN Salaries By Field Of Study (most to least)

1. CRNA

2. Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner

3. Neonatal Nurse Practitioner

4. Emergency Nurse Practitioner

5. Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (both peds and adult)

6. Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner

7. Midwife

8. Family Nurse Practitioner

9. Adult-Gero Primary Care Nurse Practitioner

10. Pediatric Nurse Practitioner

Top Earning APRN Salaries By Sub Specialty (most to least)

1. Practice Owner Provider (any APRN type)

   • Upwards of seven figures if successful

   • Wide variability in number of hours worked to achieve this.

2. CRNA

   • National avg: 225K, but I’ve seen/heard much higher than this.

   • Ga specific: 201k, zip recruiter; 152K by talent.com.

   • Very high earning potential if you include shift differentials, overtime pay.

3. PMHNP

   • National avg: 143K.

   • Ga specific: 156K by talent.com.

   • There is a HUGE need for PMHNP, especially post-pandemic. If you have a heart for this work - go for it.

4. CTS/CVICU

   • Natl avg: 142K by talent.com

   • Ga specific: 130K by talent.com, 120K by salary.com

   • I got several offers from 2 different locums companies offering starting 125/hr for CTS positions in FL and MA.

5. NNP

   • Natl avg: 133K by salary.com

   • Ga specific: 118-139 by salary.com, 113K by comparably.com

6. ENP

   • Natl avg: 127K with a range of 116-141K.

   • Ga specific: 123K by talent.com, 130K by zip recruiter

   • Kind of surprised me, but pleasantly. The nice option here is much greater options for outside the norm work hours. Many places stagger work shifts to include swing options: 11-11, 3-3 are typical.

   • Most emergency nurse providers are FNP, but some are ACNP. There are some schools which offer an ENP specific tract. Not sure how the certification changes the salary.

7. Cardiology

   • Natl avg: 126K

   • Ga specific: 120K by salary.com

   • I want to illustrate what I believe indicates a rapid growth in this subspecialty. Avg Ga salary on glassdoor in 2019 was 116K, in 2022 it was 139K.

   • The variability here is because of the huge amount of sub-sub specialties. Cardiology is BIG business and sees many clients so most urban practices have multiple narrowed focus clinics. You can see such population foci as: heart failure, interventional cardiology (cath lab/ecmo), CCU, advanced heart failure (transplant/ecmo, etc), electrical physiology (may be procedural or in or outpt based).

   • Another variability factor is the in or outpatient options. In my experience if you are ACNP you can command greater salary as you can either work in clinic or round in the hospital.

8. Hospitalist/Other Inpt Specialties

   • Hospitalist/Other Inpt. Specialties

     • Natl avg: 120K by NP hub, 155K by glassdoor. Big swings

     • Shift differential is pretty high for this specialty bc of doc friends don’t prefer to work nights. I think that is contributing to the variability.

     • Also a big need in most places but especially in rural or critical access hospitals so will get offered more.

     • Another contribution to the range is specialty. Some inpatient specialties pay really poorly, some really well. Depends on if its private practice vs organization owned and standardized.

9. Critical Care

   • Natl avg: 115-150 via glassdoor, NP hub.

   • Ga specific: 119K by talent.com

   • Also will have bonuses, differentials, yrs experience not factored in.

10. Primary Care

    • National avg: 124K.

    • Ga specific: 118K by salary.com, 113 by talent.com.

    • Bear in mind how much time you have to put into this role. I hear people talk about the endless in-basket and after hours charting commitment being quite high. This is how comparing hours to hours you could earn more as a nurse. That is also why, despite the number being higher I ranked lower.

11. Surgical NP

    • Natl avg: 114K comparably.com

    • Ga specific: 125K on talent.com, 112K on salary.com

    • Not sure if this is inpt, outpt, or OR. I would think having your RNFA and the option to operate is good.

    • Also a wide range in hours for work. For example I know neuro-surgical NPs who operate and spend a huge amount of time on OR days for the same salary. I also know vascular surgery NPs who balance clinic/inpt no OR time with great work life balance to pay scale.

12. Midwife

    • Natl avg: 108K.

    • Ga specific: 114K via salary.com, 97K by indeed

    • This is a small niche and if you work in a rural or under-served population the need seems much higher. I saw a job posting for a midwife in West Va for 163K. Not sure hours/commitment, etc. California 137K.

13. Aesthetics

    • National avg: 106K by nurse.org; range 91-123K same site

    • Ga specific: 90-105K by zip recruiter, some sites offer as little as 80K

    • This is assuming you don’t work for yourself.

14. Pediatrics

    • Ok this one is literally all over the map and I have no idea how much they actually make.

    • Natl avg: 84-105K; 113K by nursa.com; 142 by glassdoor

    • Ga specific: 105-118 by salary.com

15. Outpatient specialties

    • So many variable it is hard to define. The sub sub specialties you’ll just have to do your own regional survey.

    • A derm position avg according to zippia is 98K, a endocrinology position in Ga avg is 89K as examples