NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Despite the growing shortage of family doctors in the United States, medical centers last year offered higher salaries and incentives to specialist nurses than to primary care doctors, according to an annual survey of physicians' salaries.
Primary care doctors were offered an average base salary of $173,000 in 2009 compared to an average base salary of $189,000 offered to certified nurse anesthetists, or CRNAs, according to the latest numbers from Merritt Hawkins & Associates, a physician recruiting and consulting firm.
via Specialist nurses paid higher salaries than family doctors – Mar. 11, 2010.
To be fair, they found the highest paid advanced practice nurses (CRNA’s) and compared them to the average FP salary.
I wonder how many FP’s retrain into a specialty field?
Your analysis is spot on.
Nurse practitioners do not make nearly the salary of CRNAs. I am an NP with > 10 years experience, I work in a subspecialty and make about 115K. My salary reflects the fact that I live in the San Francisco area of CA where the cost of living is higher than many areas of the country. NPs in more rural areas or “fly-over” states don’t make nearly the same salary.
These are the kind of salaries that nurses in the UK can only dream of!
My response
http://thehappyhospitalist.blogspot.com/2010/03/nurses-who-make-more-money-than-doctors.html