A comparison of nursing and non-nursing salaries among inactive nurses

This descriptive correlational study was undertaken to determine if nursing salaries influenced nurses' decisions to leave nursing. The difference between the last nursing salary and the salary of the current non-nursing employment was determined with years of non-nursing employment controlled. Data collection was done by mailed questionnaire to randomly selected inactive nurses in Texas.

Analysis utilizing the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test revealed that non-nursing salaries were significantly higher than nursing salaries at the 95% confidence level. A significant association was found between the importance of salary as a reason to leave nursing and the importance of salary in the choice of non-nursing employment.