Five Key Factors that Determine Your NP Job Satisfaction
Every nurse practitioner wants to have a rewarding career. Learn the five factors that will either make or break your job satisfaction.
What’s more important to you: Having a high paying position or enjoying a high level of job satisfaction? If you’re like most nurse practitioners, you’ll probably say “both, of course!” At Melnic, we believe the two go hand in hand. Finding job satisfaction will help you achieve greater financial rewards.
To be truly satisfied in a job, you must have a role that fits your career goals, your qualifications, and your work style. In our experience, there are five factors that contribute to job satisfaction for Advanced Practice providers:
- Salary/Compensation
- Schedule
- Location
- Support/Role
- Team
It’s no surprise that salary and compensation are at the top of the list for job satisfaction! But how can you know if you’re being paid what you deserve? Our latest 2019 Melnic Advanced Practice Salary Guide gives you national salaries for eight different advanced practice roles. It’s a free download when you participate in this year’s anonymous salary survey.
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Does Your Role Support Your NP Job Satisfaction?

If you’re only focused on salary and compensation, you’re short-changing yourself. You’ll also want positive working relationships with your physicians and APP leaders to ensure your role will let you practice to the full extent of your education and training. Job attributes like autonomy and support are hard to quantify, but will ultimately bring you the most long term job satisfaction.
If you were to browse APP job listings, you’d find several positions advertised with similar descriptions, for example, “NP in neurology.” The titles and the department descriptions might seem comparable between listings but in actuality, the roles will vary significantly from hospital to hospital. The only way to recognize the difference is to be very intentional throughout the interview process.
When you interview, take time to ask about management and oversight, processes, HR practices, and other operational business functions that will impact your work environment. To learn more, check out our Four Secrets to Finding Your Ideal Nurse Practitioner Job!
Are You Ready to Start a Job Search?
Melnic is a nationwide search firm focused on Advanced Practice placements for APRNs and PAs. To take advantage of our specialized job matching services review our current job opportunities and join the Melnic network. The best part? There is never a fee for candidates to work with us!
Jill Gilliland is President of Melnic an APRN and PA national recruiting company. Jill is a speaker and publicist on areas such as job strategies, branding and marketing, pediatric critical care needs, and additional topics relevant to pediatric nursing and the recruitment business. She has over 12 years of experience in the recruiting industry coupled with a strong sales, healthcare, and technology background. Jill holds a BS degree in Business from the University of Southern California and an MBA from The University of Virginia, Darden Business School. Connect with Jill Gilliland on LinkedIn.