Daily Gazette
ALBANY — Jessica McNally discovered her passion for teaching two decades ago while being shadowed by a nursing student during one of her shifts at St. Clare’s Hospital.
She turned that passion into a full-time career in 2008, when the Schenectady-based hospital ceased operations. The transition created what McNally describes as “the perfect scenario” to train the next generation of registered nurses while maintaining her skills working with students in clinical settings.
“It’s the best parts of nursing for me. It’s extremely rewarding,” said McNally, who now serves as the department chair at the Andrea Lewis Siek School of Nursing at Maria College in Albany…
…Nursing faculty earn $18,346 less on average than clinical staff nurses, according to a report published last year in the Nurse Educator journal. The report found that faculty nurses earn $19,863 less than charge nurses and an average of $27,526 below what front-line nurse managers earn.
The study also concluded that faculty at nursing colleges work longer hours on average than their counterparts and typically have decades more experience, which are “attributes that would typically require higher salaries in clinical roles.”