Career profile · SOC 29-1141

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.

Median salary
$93,600
per year
Growth outlook
Average
BLS 10-yr
Education
Bachelor's degree
AI exposure
3.4/10
automation risk

Salary distribution (US)

Real salary data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The p10–p90 spread tells you more than the median alone.

Bottom 10%
$61,250
25th %ile
$70,310
Median
$93,600
75th %ile
$106,530
Top 10%
$132,680

Top skills

Active Listening Social Perceptiveness Service Orientation Speaking Critical Thinking Coordination Reading Comprehension Monitoring Judgment and Decision Making Complex Problem Solving

Knowledge you'll build

  • Medicine and Dentistry
  • Customer and Personal Service
  • English Language
  • Psychology
  • Biology
  • Education and Training
  • Administration and Management
  • Chemistry

A day in the life

You begin your shift by receiving a handoff report from the outgoing nurse, reviewing patient charts, and prioritizing which patients need immediate attention based on acuity levels. Your hours are spent administering medications, monitoring vitals, updating electronic health records, and coordinating with physicians, pharmacists, and specialists to adjust care plans in real time. You are constantly on your feet, moving between patient rooms, comforting anxious families, educating patients on their conditions, and responding to call lights and emergencies that can change the pace of your entire shift in an instant. The job is profoundly rewarding when you see a patient recover and go home, but emotionally and physically demanding when you lose a patient or work back-to-back twelve-hour shifts.

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