Nurse Manager
Career Area: Health Care including Nursing
Occupation Group: Nursing Management and Training
Salary
Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.
An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.
A typical Nurse Manager earns the following wages (national and state):
State
The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $78,832
National
The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $86,484
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
Manages nurses working in a clinical unit at a hospital or health care facility. Provides clinical experience as a registered nurse and supervises nurses that provide direct patient care. Creates and manages staff schedules and ensures that hospital policies and procedures are followed. Manages budget and recordkeeping for the unit.
Employment Trends
The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.
Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:
| Location | Growth | |
|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 1887 | +10.8% |
| Nationwide | 60717 | +12.1% |
Skills
A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:
Baseline Skills
The following are baseline skills every Nurse Manager is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:
- Teamwork / Collaboration: Experience working in collaborative efforts with a team to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way.
- Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
- Planning: Working experience with the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve desired goals.
- Problem Solving: Problem solving consists of using generic or ad hoc methods, in an orderly manner, for finding solutions to problems.
- Organizational Skills: Experience with a systematic process of structuring, integrating, co-ordinating task goals, and activities to resources in order to attain objectives.
Specialized Skills
These skills are specific to working in this career:
- Patient Care: The services rendered by members of the health profession and non-professionals under their supervision for the benefit of the patient.
- Nurse Management: Nursing management consists of the performance of the leadership functions of governance and decision-making within organizations employing nurses.
- Staff Management: Working experience with the management of subordinates in an organization.
- Budgeting: Experience planning how the financial resources of a business or department are to be allocated during the next business period.
- Treatment Planning: A detailed plan with information about a patient s disease, the goal of treatment, the treatment options for the disease and possible side effects, and the expected length of treatment.
Distinguishing Skills
Any Nurse Manager that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:
- Staff Development: Professional development is learning to earn or maintain professional credentials such as academic degrees to formal coursework, conferences and informal learning opportunities situated in practice.
- Primary Care: Primary care is the day-to-day healthcare given by a health care provider.
- Infection Control: Infection control is the discipline concerned with preventing nosocomial or healthcare-associated infection, a practical (rather than academic) sub-discipline of epidemiology.
- Patient/Family Education and Instruction: Working knowledge of Patient/Family Education and Instruction, which is the process by which health professionals and others impart information to patients and their caregivers that will alter their health behaviors or improve their health status.
- Critical Care: Intensive care medicine or critical care medicine is a branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and management of life-threatening conditions that may require sophisticated organ support and invasive monitoring.
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills:
- Catheterization Laboratory (CATH LAB): A catheterization laboratory or cath lab is an examination room in a hospital or clinic with diagnostic imaging equipment used to visualize the arteries of the heart and the chambers of the heart and treat any stenosis or abnormality found.
Experience
This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Experience Required | % |
| 0 to 2 years | 41% |
| 3 to 5 years | 57% |
| 6 to 8 years | 1% |
Many of the programs offered through NC State are designed for working professionals who need additional credentials to enhance existing work experience.
Students who do not have the expected level of experience may wish to look into internship and employment opportunities.
Common Job Titles
It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:
- Nurse Manager
- Registered Nurse Unit Manager
- Registered Nurse Care Manager
- Unit Manager Registered Nurse
- Registered Nurse Manager
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