2009 Perfusion Salary & Benefits Survey Results
This is our fifth effort to provide the perfusion community with information regarding our jobs, benefits, and remuneration. I want to again sincerely thank Bryan V. Lich, CCP of Perfusion.com for posting the survey and capturing the survey data electronically. I also want to thank everyone who took the time to participate in this year’s survey. Your involvement is what makes this survey and the information it provides worthwhile.
One of the comments submitted this year was as follows:
“Why did we wait so long to do another survey? Shouldn’t we do this every other year or at least every third year?”
This is a reasonable question. In the past we performed the survey about every two years, however this time there was a four year lapse. The reason for the delay was three fold:
- This survey process really does take a fare amount of my personal time to compute all of the data to put it into a form that you can hopefully gather useful information from. Not only for your personal benefit, but also so that you might learn what other Perfusionists are frustrated/struggling with. To limit the distribution of the raw data, I do all of this work myself. Some have recommended that I use the information to make money for myself, but I have never done that nor have we ever charged those people who have participated in the survey for access to the results. I’m not looking for thanks here, but the time element does play into my lack of “enthusiasm” for wanting to perform another survey.
- Not everyone is thrilled to hear of another Salary/Benefits Survey. Understandably, those Perfusionists that run their own business aren’t ecstatic to see the numbers I generate, particularly if they indicate that their employees are being paid below the “average”. So to them, I am the bad guy, and I get comments expressing how the survey is inaccurate or hurts the Perfusion profession as a whole. So the negative comments I receive also plays on my lack of “enthusiasm” for another survey.
- Finally, while I believe most Perfusionists find the information included here useful, or at least interesting, it is a bit of a stretch to have it fall under the heading of educational. Our CME meetings focus on how we can perform our jobs better for our patients: new techniques, better and/or safer equipment, etc., and I am truly grateful for those Perfusionists that invest their talent and time in researching what things we can do that would contribute towards a best practice application. Recognizing that their efforts are clearly altruistic, it is clear that the information presented here is used to benefit ourselves. So I don’t receive many requests (like one in ten years; thanks Paul) to have the results of this survey presented at our meetings. So again, being viewed as the black sheep of the research community plays on my lack of “enthusiasm”.
So why did I decide to perform the survey again?
Well, when I think of the altruistic members of the Perfusion community that have contributed the most on a consistent basis to our profession, there is a small group of names that seem to come up over an over again; one of those names is Robert Groom. About a year ago, I attended a fireside chat in which Bob was the host. I stayed after the session to ask him a question on the topic, and after he answered it, he looked at my nametag and asked if I was the one who did the Perfusion benefits survey. I told him I was and shared with him some of my frustrations. His advice to me was to ignore the negative comments as he often has to, and then he encouraged me to perform the survey again because there was a lot of “good information” that comes out of it.
Wow, to be honest I thought he would be one of the last people to have that opinion.
So I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Professor Groom for his transparency and subsequent words of encouragement. It really meant a lot to me, and provided me the impetus to again face another survey. I would also encourage those of you who find this information beneficial to take the time to extend your thanks to him as well as it is largely because of him taking the time to talk with me that you are reading this 2009 survey today.
This year we received 916 valid survey results; more than ever before. Everything on the survey, with the exception of gross income, has been averaged together on a national level. Job responsibilities, workload and benefits should not be regional, as they are not affected by local “costs of living”. I have not tried to draw any conclusions, but have merely presented the results of the survey. You will also find printed here the results from every previous survey for the purpose of comparison and trending. PLEASE BE SURE TO READ THE COMMENTS SECTION at the end, as this is a synopsis of what Perfusionists across the country are thinking and feeling about their careers.
National Survey Results:
Surveys were collected via the internet during the months of April and May, 2009. We asked perfusionist to report the data from the last year, so this data represent 2008 salary and benefit information. There were a total of 981 surveys received. Of those surveys, those that were identified as part time, per diem, unemployed or international Perfusionists and duplicates were eliminated. That left a sample size of 916 for most of the information. However, not all questions were answered on each survey, so that would alter the sample size in certain situations.
CAUTION: You are not authorized to share the benefits survey data with anyone. The results are for YOUR OWN personal viewing only. Failure to comply will result in AN unconditional termination of your Perfusion.com MEMBERSHIP.
Important Note: The survey results submitted were NOT audited or verified for accuracy other than by employing statistical analysis. The data reported was provided directly from Perfusionists. As a result, the information contained in these results is only as accurate as the data submitted.
2009 Salary & Benefits Survey (Password to open file: perfusion2009)
