As the future of nursing evolves to providing ever more complex medical care, nurses with master’s degrees, such as those in advanced practice, are increasingly in demand. MSN-educated are highly compensated for their advanced skills with salaries that ranged from 1.5 to 2 times higher than those of staff nurses according to the Kansas Department of Labor salary survey from 2014.
The number of APRNs has been increasing dramatically in Kansas according to the Kansas State Board of Nursing, which indicated that the number of these professionals grew by 28.6% between 2009 and 2013.
Kansas offers a number of opportunities for students to obtain an education to become an APRN. In the 2012-13 academic year, 211 students enrolled in such programs in Kansas.
In addition to being clinicians, a number of MSN-educated nurses obtain positions as educators to train the next generation of nurses. Over 49% of the nursing program faculty in Kansas had MSNs in 2013.
Analysis of APRN and Staff Nurse Salaries in Kansas
Advanced practice nurses in Kansas earned substantially more than staff nurses according to the state’s Department of Labor. It provides salary comparisons for these professionals below (2014):
Additional evidence that having an MSN significantly increases salaries is found in the 2012 salary survey performed by the Advance Healthcare Network for Nurses. Their results showed that MSN-educated staff nurses in Kansas and other parts of the Midwest earned an average of $17,858 a year more than those who had a BSN as their highest degree:
- MSN – $77,090
- BSN – $59,232
Nurse Practitioner Salaries Throughout Kansas
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a detailed analysis of the salaries of nurse practitioners in key regions of Kansas (2013). Those in Lawrence earned substantially higher wages than those in the rest of the state:
Salaries for Nurse Anesthetists in Kansas
Salary information from the US Bureau of Labor showed that nurse anesthetists in the Kansas City area had significantly higher salaries than those in other parts of Kansas (2013):
*These figures represent hourly wages that are at least $90.00 per hour or annual salaries that are at least $187,199. These are the maximum salaries reported for Kansas by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.