Registered Nurses
Assess patient health problems and needs, develop and implement nursing care plans, and maintain medical records. Administer nursing care to ill, injured, convalescent, or disabled patients. May advise patients on health maintenance and disease prevention or provide case management. Licensing or registration required.
- Median pay
- $97,550
- Doing it now
- 3,465,400
- By 2035
- Up 5.6%
- Usually needs
- Bachelor's degree
a year
across the country
180,800 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Maintain accurate, detailed reports and records.
- Monitor, record, and report symptoms or changes in patients' conditions.
- Record patients' medical information and vital signs.
- Modify patient treatment plans as indicated by patients' responses and conditions.
- Consult and coordinate with healthcare team members to assess, plan, implement, or evaluate patient care plans.
- Monitor all aspects of patient care, including diet and physical activity.
- Direct or supervise less-skilled nursing or healthcare personnel or supervise a particular unit.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical NursingSee 1,236 colleges that teach it
Who it suits
O*NET scores every occupation on six interest dimensions. This one leans hardest on these three.
Helping and teaching
Analytical and curious
Organised and precise
Careers like this one
Where this comes from: the description and the task list are O*NET, which the Department of Labor maintains. Pay, workforce size, outlook and the education normally needed are the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections programme, 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections. Half of them earn more than $97,550 a year, which means half earn less, and what you would earn depends on where you work and how long you have been doing it. The fields of study come from the National Center for Education Statistics crosswalk.