Registered Nurse

Career Area: Health Care including Nursing

Occupation Group: Registered / Practical Nursing

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 Registered Nurse earns the following wages (national and state):

State

The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $68,364

National

The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $74,042

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

Provides medical care and treatment, educates patients about their conditions, and provides emotional support to patients and families. Works in hospitals, schools, clinics or community health centers. Works under the supervision of a physician or other specialist, and serves as the primary point of care for patients in a hospital setting. May specialize in emergency room work, or treatment for a particular condition, or specialize in working with infants, the elderly or other patient groups. May work as an advanced practice specialists and prescribe medications in addition to offering specialty care.

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:

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 Registered Nurse is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:

• Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
• 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.
• 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.
• Computer Literacy: The ability to use computers and related technology efficiently for work tasks.

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.
• 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.
• Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR): Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure that combines chest compressions often with artificial ventilation in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing in a person who is in cardiac arrest.
• Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS): Advanced cardiac life support or advanced cardiovascular life support (ACLS) refers to a set of clinical interventions for the urgent treatment of cardiac arrest, stroke and other life-threatening medical emergencies, as well as the knowledge and skills to deploy those interventions.
• Life Support: Life support refers to the treatments and techniques performed in an emergency in order to support life after the failure of one or more vital organs.

Distinguishing Skills

Any Registered Nurse that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:

• 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.
• Discharge Planning:
• Home Care: Home care (also referred to as domiciliary care, social care, or in-home care) is supportive care provided in the home.
• Wound Care/ Treatment: Wound care refers to specific types of treatment for pressure sores , skin ulcers and other wounds that break the skin. Pressure ulcers, also called bed sores and referred to medically as decubitus ulcers, are wounds that commonly develop at pressure points on the body when the weight of an immobilized individual rests continuously on a hard surface such as a mattress or wheel chair. Uninterrupted pressure is the cause of pressure sores and relieving pressure is the mainstay of wound care. Other wounds that may benefit from specialized wound care techniques are diabetic foot ulcers, traumatic ulcers caused by injury, arterial and vein ulcers caused by lack of circulation, and burns.
• Telemetry: Telemetry is an automated communications process by which measurements and other data are collected at remote or inaccessible points and transmitted to receiving equipment for monitoring.

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.

Common Job Titles

It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:

• Registered Nurse
• Hands-On Care
• Nurse
• Mds Coordinator
• Outpatient Registered Nurse