When people imagine what nurses do, they often think of bedside nurses who tend to sick people in hospitals. Although there are many nurses who do this type of work, there are other job opportunities within the field.
For example, private duty nurses go into patients’ homes to provide care, and clinical trial nurses interact with study participants. Public health nurses are responsible for monitoring and guarding the health of an entire community while other nurses are in charge of quality control at health care clinics. Some nurses concentrate on analyzing health care data, specializing in a field called informatics. There are also nurses who become executives of health care organizations, conduct scientific research, work on television shows or serve as faculty at universities.
Nursing is “a very people-centric profession,” says Laura Arthur, director of career lab at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in Maryland. “Are you someone who feels a certain amount of empathy toward others or are (you) patient with others? Nurses generally exhibit a high level of critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It’s definitely a profession where you are ideally thinking on your feet and making quick but thoughtful decisions about others’ care.”
Due to employee burnout, a lack of training and an aging population, many states are experiencing nursing shortages. Below is a guide to the many employment options available to nurses.
[Read: U.S. News Guide to College Majors.]
Different Types of Nursing Jobs
A nursing degree can be used in a variety of ways. This is especially true of graduate degrees in nursing, which often lead to management roles and frequently prepare a person for a lucrative career as an advanced practice registered nurse such as a nurse anesthetist, a nurse midwife or a nurse practitioner.
Nurses “work in every industry,” says Donna Havens, dean and professor at Villanova University’s M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing in Pennsylvania. “They work everywhere where people need their knowledge and their skills and expertise. It’s a wide-open market, and a very interesting thing is that — over the course of one’s career in nursing — you could hold many, many different titles and jobs.”
Nursing school faculty say that the following job titles are feasible for and popular among nursing degree recipients. Although some of these occupations are attainable with an undergraduate education in nursing, many require graduate nursing school.
Academic Dean or Professor
There are many career paths in academia for those interested in nursing, including being a dean or professor at a college or university. Those positions typically require at least a master’s degree. But full-time professors often need higher credentials, such as a Ph.D.
Professors, who teach and conduct research in a specific field or subject area, earned $79,640, on average, in 2021, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yearly compensation is slightly higher for deans — who oversee all academic and administrative operations within their department — and other postsecondary education administrators: $96,910 in 2021. But salaries vary based on the institution.
“Faculty are particularly needed in the nursing profession,” Arthur says. “There’s a critical need to have more nurses in general, but then specifically individuals to teach those nurses. For increasing the amount of nursing students, we obviously need the infrastructure and the professors to be able to teach them.”
Flight Nurse
There are two different career paths for flight nurses: civilian or military, which both typically require at least a bachelor’s degree.
Civilian flight nurses are often part of a hospital or clinic’s transport operations to move patients to better facilities for their care. Meanwhile, military flight nurses are enlisted in the Air Force and provide care to injured military members while they’re being transported. Therefore, candidates must be comfortable with flying.
Nurse Anesthetist
Nurse anesthetists administer general or regional anesthesia to ensure patients feel little to no discomfort during a procedure.
A career as a nurse anesthetist requires an advanced degree and at least one year of critical care experience. Comparably, an anesthesiologist must complete four years of medical school, in addition to several years of experience in a residency program and internship. The return on investment is high for both fields, with nurse anesthetists earning an average annual salary of $195,610 in 2021, BLS reported.
[Read: A Guide to Different Types of College Degrees.]
Nurse Preceptor
At every nursing education level, a preceptor is needed to supervise nursing students during their clinical rotations and provide them with feedback.
Similar to other positions in academia, a master’s degree is preferred, in addition to having some work experience in a clinical setting.
Clinical Research Nurse
Clinical research nurses advocate for the safety of their patients during the research process by ensuring compliance with protocols and securing consent for treatments or collection of personal information.
To be eligible for clinical research nurse positions, candidates should have at least a bachelor’s degree in nursing and experience working in an acute care setting.
Travel Nurse
Travel nurses take temporary nursing positions at understaffed healthcare settings. The length of contracts vary, but travel nurses typically earn a competitive rate. The average hourly salary for travel nurses in 2023 was $54.12, or $2,310 a week, according to Indeed.
To qualify for these positions, candidates must have either an associate or bachelor’s degree from an accredited nursing program.
“It’s a really cool opportunity to see the country while you’re developing your nursing skills, especially for younger people who don’t have a lot of other commitments,” says Tatiana Sadak, associate dean of academic affairs at the University of Washington School of Nursing.
Nursing Education Options
There are several types of nursing degree options, including:
— Licensed Practical Nursing Diploma (LPN)
— Associate in Nursing (ASN)
— Bachelor’s in Nursing (BSN)
— Master’s in Nursing (MSN)
— Doctor in Nursing Practice (DNP)
— Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing (Ph.D.)
— Doctor of Nursing Science (DNS or DNSc)
An LPN certificate or diploma, which takes at least a year to earn, prepares individuals to become a licensed practical nurse. These nurses work with physicians and registered nurses, or RNs, to provide basic care. Meanwhile, earning a two-year associate degree or four-year BSN degree trains students to become RNs, who care for sick and injured patients, as well as educate the public about health best practices.
To become an advanced practice nurse — who have more training than RNs and additional responsibilities — requires at least a master’s degree, which takes about two years to complete. Many advanced practice nurses also go on to pursue a doctoral degree, such as a DNP or Ph.D. A DNP degree often takes between two and four years, while a Ph.D. may involve up to six years of schooling.
According to the BLS, the median annual salary among U.S. advanced practice nurses in May 2021 was $123,780. The bureau predicts that the number of these nurses employed in the U.S. will be 40% higher in 2031 than it was in 2021 — a job growth rate more than 10 times higher than the estimated rate for all professions.
The job growth rate of RNs is slower than for advanced practice nurses, but it is still high. The median salary among U.S. registered nurses as of May 2021 was $77,600, according to the bureau, which predicts that the number of those jobs will be 6% higher in 2031 than in 2021.
[Related:What You Need to Know About Becoming a Nursing Major.]
At the undergraduate level, nurses “are not really locked into a subspecialty, so you can try out different things to choose what’s right for you,” Sadak says. However, those who want to develop expertise within a particular branch of nursing may choose to pursue advanced education in that field.
Many health-care employers prefer to hire a nurse with a bachelor’s degree or a higher-level degree in nursing, Havens says. “Most of them look for nurses that are educated at least at the baccalaureate level in nursing … Research documents exceptionally well that, the better educated the nurse who cares for you, the better the outcomes.”
She notes that nurses with Ph.D. degrees in nursing are specifically trained to conduct research in the field, while those with DNP degrees are experts at figuring out how to apply research findings to improve the quality of care.
“It’s a very rewarding profession,” Sadak says. “It not only gives you flexibility, but also gives you diversity of choice and a very unique opportunity to connect with people in a meaningful way and make a tangible, meaningful difference every day you show up for work, regardless of what setting you work at.”
For more in-depth rankings, searchable data and an expanded directory of programs, sign up for the U.S. News Nursing School Compass.
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What You Can Do With a Nursing Degree originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 04/21/23: This story was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
