The results from the Clinical Advisor 2022 Salary Survey are in. The good news is that many nurse practitioners (NPs) and PAs earned a higher salary this year compared with last year (48.6% and 38.9%, respectively), and nearly half of NPs and PAs reported that their income increased during the COVID-19 pandemic (49.5% and 40.4%, respectively). The average salary for NPs in 2022 was $117,054 compared with $112,979 last year. The average salary for PAs increased by $8,000, from $116,373 in 2021 to $124,182 in 2022.
The bad news is that 2.5 years into the COVID-19 pandemic, a large proportion of NPs and PAs reported experiencing burnout (66.2% and 62.6%, respectively). Work-related stress is a major contributor to burnout, with 41.4% of NPs reporting moderate stress, 35.6% high stress, and 15.1% extremely high stress. The picture is similar for PAs, with 41.7% experiencing moderate stress, 36.3% high stress, and 12.0% extremely high stress.
Although internal medicine/family medicine/primary care remains the top occupation for NPs and PAs, the number of clinicians working in this field continues to decline as clinicians subspecialize. Last year, approximately 23.7% of NPs and 11.9% of PAs reported working in internal medicine/family medicine/primary care and that percentage dropped to 15.4% of NPs and just 7.3% of PAs. For NPs, the next most common area of practice was adult care (8.8%); for PAs, orthopedic surgery came in second (5.8%).
Again this year, the majority of NP and PA respondents reported working in the South (37.9% and 32.6%, respectively). Similar to the findings from the 2021 survey, both NPs and PAs in the West reported making the highest average salaries ($130,410 and $128,137). Most NPs reported working in urban areas (41.7%), followed closely by suburban areas (35.7%). For PAs, most respondents reported working in suburban areas (44.7%) with urban areas following closely behind (41.8%).
Both groups of APPs reported receiving retirement benefits from their employer (79.2% of NPs and 58.4% of PAs). Approximately 70.5% of NPs and 54.9% of PAs reported receiving health insurance and paid time off from their employer. Continuing education courses were paid by 66.2% of NP employers and 51.4% of PA employers.
A larger percentage of NP respondents reported feeling “satisfied” with their job compared with PAs (46.4% vs 30.1%). A similar percentage of NPs and PAs reported feeling “satisfied” with their job compensation (29.3% of NPs and 24.3% of PAs). However, the respondents who reported feeling “very satisfied” earned the highest average salary ($124,640 for NPs and $137,614 for PAs).
