DONs in other types of facilities may be responsible for nursing only or for nursing in combination with assisted living or subacute care. Because assisted living facilities generally have far fewer nurses on staff than nursing facilities, we gathered assisted living salary information only for DONs, LPNs, and resident assistants. For nursing facilities, we tracked DONs, assistant DONs, RN supervisors, charge nurses, LPNs, and nursing assistants. For most positions, we calculated only the average salaries of people who work in each of the three types of facilities surveyed, but we learned a lot more than that about the DONs we surveyed. As usual, our survey makes it clear that education is a worthwhile investment for a nurse manager.
Experience counts as well.
Another key factor affecting DON salaries is the number of people they supervise. Methodology Contemporary Long Term Care's 1998 nursing staff salary survey was faxed in two batches to a representative sample of 2,192 directors of nursing at nursing and assisted living facilities. The sample was drawn from Contemporary's readership database. One hundred and sixty DONs responded, yielding a response rate of 7.3 percent. Philadelphia-based Hamlyn Senior Marketing conducted the survey and tabulated the results.