Salaries for West Virginia’s MSN-Educated Nurses

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Obtaining an MSN can increase the median salary among nurses by more than 70% according to an analysis of salary data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. MSN-educated nurses include nurse practitioners, while RNs rarely possess this degree.

Thus, comparing the median salary among NPs versus the median salary among RNs demonstrates the increase in salary that comes with earning an MSN (2014):

West Virginia Area
% Difference
RN Salary
Parkersburg-Marietta-Vienna
1%
$53940
Wheeling
4%
$49610
Huntington-Ashland
7%
$54320
Charleston
6%
$54850
Southern West Virginia
1%
$53210
North Central West Virginia
5%
$52430

Experience Greatly Affects the Salaries of MSN-Educated Nurses in West Virginia

The West Virginia Department of Commerce provided the salaries of a number of professions that require an MSN as of 2015. The average salary of an experienced MSN-educated nurse varied by up to 273%:

Nurse Area
Experienced
Entry-level
Nurse Anesthetists
$188336
$141333
Nurse Midwives
$104048
$84380
Nurse Practitioners
$100592
$70616
Nurse Educators
$69020
$36543

Expectations for Job Growth Among West Virginia’s Advanced Practice RNs

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, West Virginia contained the highest concentration of nurse anesthetists in the country in 2014. Two of West Virginia’s metropolitan areas had particularly high concentrations of nurse anesthetists. Charleston had the 4th highest in the country, while Huntington-Ashland had the 8th highest concentration of nurse anesthetists of any metropolitan area in the country.

Projections from the West Virginia Department of Commerce indicated that the number of jobs for nurse practitioners and nurse educators should increase dramatically between 2012 and 2022. The Department expects the number of jobs for NPs to increase by 2.69% a year, while the increase for nurse educators should be 2.57% each year during this time frame.

Nurse Practitioner Salaries Throughout West Virginia

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics provided an expanded analysis of the salaries of nurse practitioners in urban and rural West Virginia. NPs in the Parkersburg area earned a higher average salary than nurse practitioners in other parts of West Virginia as of 2014:

Area name
Employment
Annual mean wage
Charleston WV
140
84110
Huntington-Ashland WV-KY-OH
200
94290
Morgantown WV
Estimate not released
82870
Parkersburg-Marietta-Vienna WV-OH
90
97340
Wheeling WV-OH
70
95710
Southern West Virginia nonmetropolitan area
130
87580
North Central West Virginia nonmetropolitan area
100
84800

Salaries of West Virginia’s Nurse Anesthetists

Nurse anesthetists in the Parkersburg area and the nonmetropolitan area of North Central West Virginia earned higher salaries than nurse anesthetists in other parts of the state (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014):

Area name
Employment
Annual mean wage
Charleston WV
200
169080
Huntington-Ashland WV-KY-OH
120
159350
Parkersburg-Marietta-Vienna WV-OH
60
171390
Southern West Virginia nonmetropolitan area
40
169260
North Central West Virginia nonmetropolitan area
40
171200

*These salaries are equal to or greater than $90 an hour or $187,199 a year. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics does not report salary data higher than these values.

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