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More than 14% of the respondents to a nursing workforce survey in Wyoming had an MSN according to a report entitled Nurses Returning to School that was published by the state’s Department of Workforce Services in 2014.
Salary data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2014 reveals the large increase in salary that ensues after obtaining a master’s degree. Nurse practitioners must have an MSN to get licensed, while RNs rarely possess an MSN. Thus, comparing the median salary among NPs with the median salary among RNs demonstrates the financial benefits that having an MSN provides:
Salaries and Job Growth Projections for Wyoming’s APRNs
The Wyoming Department of Workforce Services provided the salaries of MSN-educated nurses with varying levels of experience as of 2015. Nurses in the 90th percentile typically have a high level of experience, while nurses in the 10th percentile generally have just entered the workforce:
Nurse midwives in Wyoming earned an average salary of $88,060 as of 2013 according to the American College of Nurse-Midwives.
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing reported that 580 advanced practice registered nurses were licensed to practice in Wyoming in 2014. Seventy percent of these APRNs were nurse practitioners. An additional 23.4% were licensed nurse anesthetists. The remaining APRNs were clinical nurse specialists and nurse midwives.
Nurse practitioners in Wyoming have full practice authority. This status greatly improves their ability to provide primary care in rural areas of Wyoming that have a shortage of primary care physicians.
The number of jobs for nurse educators is increasing at a high level according to projections by the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services. The Department predicts 38.2% job growth for nurse educators in Wyoming between 2012 and 2022. The number of nurse practitioners should increase by 29.8% during this ten-year period.
Advanced practice registered nurses comprise a large segment of nurses with MSNs. The number of APRNs increased by 81 between 2009 and 2013 according to the 2015 Environmental Scan of the Journal of Nursing Regulation.
An Analysis of Nurse Practitioner Salaries in Wyoming
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a detailed analysis of the salaries of nurse practitioners in Casper, Cheyenne, and the nonmetropolitan area of Southeastern Wyoming. As of 2014, nurse practitioners in Cheyenne earned a higher average salary than NPs in these other parts of Wyoming: