--- title: "Clinical Nurse Specialist" description: "Direct nursing staff in the provision of patient care in a clinical practice setting, such as a hospital, hospice, clinic, or home. Ensure adherence to…" canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-nurse-specialist" last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z" --- # Clinical Nurse Specialist **Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-1141 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-1141.04 Direct nursing staff in the provision of patient care in a clinical practice setting, such as a hospital, hospice, clinic, or home. Ensure adherence to established clinical policies, protocols, regulations, and standards. Also advertised as: APN (Advanced Practice Nurse); Board Certified Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS-BC); CNS (Clinical Nurse Specialist); Critical Care CNS (Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist); Emergency Clinical Nurse Specialist (Emergency CNS); ICU CNS (Intensive Care Unit Clinical Nurse Specialist); Neuroscience Clinical Nurse Specialist (Neuroscience CNS); Pediatric Clinical Nurse Specialist (Pediatric CNS). ## At a glance - **Median annual wage:** $97,550 (BLS OEWS, May 2025) - **Median hourly wage:** $46.90/hr - **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $68,940 to $137,470, with the middle half between $80,330 and $112,350 - **Total US employment:** 3,379,720 - **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's - **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed" - **Projected growth:** +4.9% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034) - **Annual job openings:** 189,100 openings a year - **AI-resilience score:** 47/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure ## Pay National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 3,379,720 US jobs. | Percentile | Annual wage | | --- | --- | | 10th | $68,940 | | 25th | $80,330 | | 50th (median) | $97,550 | | 75th | $112,350 | | 90th | $137,470 | | Mean (average) | $101,420 | ### Pay by state The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there. | State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | CA | $140,270 | $126,689 | 338,940 | | HI | $136,320 | $123,983 | 12,940 | | OR | $129,010 | $124,815 | 39,730 | | WA | $124,200 | $116,061 | 69,260 | | AK | $109,480 | $106,957 | 7,510 | | NY | $109,440 | $101,408 | 205,810 | | NJ | $106,500 | $97,882 | 92,680 | | MA | $104,550 | $98,859 | 88,200 | | NV | $103,670 | $103,692 | 27,070 | | CT | $102,740 | $99,160 | 40,110 | | DC | $102,540 | $93,302 | 11,440 | | MN | $101,510 | $102,929 | 70,110 | | RI | $100,640 | $98,397 | 10,090 | | CO | $100,260 | $97,291 | 54,490 | | MD | $99,790 | $95,075 | 52,910 | 38 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 53 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-nurse-specialist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/clinical-nurse-specialist. ## Outlook BLS projects employment to move from 3,391,000 in the 2024–2034 base year to 3,557,100 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 166,100 jobs, or +4.9%. Faster than average: 4.9% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 189,100 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034. ## How to get in - **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections). - **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed". - **Related work experience typically required:** None. - **Typical on-the-job training:** None. ### Education people in this job actually hold O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above. | Education level | Share of workers | | --- | --- | | Master's Degree | 85.7% | | Post-Master's Certificate | 4.8% | | First Professional Degree | 4.8% | | Doctoral Degree | 4.8% | ## What the work involves - Provide specialized direct and indirect care to inpatients and outpatients within a designated specialty, such as obstetrics, neurology, oncology, or neonatal care. - Collaborate with other health care professionals and service providers to ensure optimal patient care. - Read current literature, talk with colleagues, or participate in professional organizations or conferences to keep abreast of developments in nursing. - Develop, implement, or evaluate standards of nursing practice in specialty area, such as pediatrics, acute care, and geriatrics. - Maintain departmental policies, procedures, objectives, or infection control standards. - Instruct nursing staff in areas such as the assessment, development, implementation, and evaluation of disability, illness, management, technology, or resources. - Develop and maintain departmental policies, procedures, objectives, or patient care standards, based on evidence-based practice guidelines or expert opinion. - Evaluate the quality and effectiveness of nursing practice or organizational systems. ## Skills and knowledge ### Essential skills - Speaking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Critical Thinking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Active Learning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Monitoring — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Writing — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Learning Strategies — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Transferable skills These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site. - Social Perceptiveness — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Service Orientation — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Judgment and Decision Making — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Coordination — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Persuasion — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Time Management — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Instructing — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Knowledge areas - Medicine and Dentistry — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Education and Training — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Psychology — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - English Language — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Biology — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Therapy and Counseling — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Abilities - Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Oral Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Written Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ## Who it suits O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Social (S), Investigative (I), Conventional (C). | Interest area | Score (1–7) | | --- | --- | | S — Social | 6.23 | | I — Investigative | 4.86 | | C — Conventional | 4.04 | | E — Enterprising | 3.69 | | R — Realistic | 2.34 | | A — Artistic | 1.81 | ### Personality fit These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job. | Type | Fit score (0–100) | | --- | --- | | ESFJ | 66.0 | | ENFJ | 61.7 | | ESFP | 59.8 | | ISFJ | 58.9 | | ESTJ | 55.8 | Best-fitting types: ESFJ, ENFJ. ## Related occupations O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order. - [Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/advanced-practice-psychiatric-nurse) — median $97,550 - [Nurse Practitioner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-practitioner) — median $132,300 - [Acute Care Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/acute-care-nurse) — median $97,550 - [Registered Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/registered-nurse) — median $97,550 - [Critical Care Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/critical-care-nurse) — median $97,550 - [Nurse Midwife](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-midwife) — median $134,040 - [Physician Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/physician-assistant) — median $135,880 - [Hospitalist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hospitalist) — median $265,930 - [Licensed Practical Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/licensed-practical-nurse) — median $64,400 - [Health Informatics Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/health-informatics-specialist) — median $105,850 ## Sources - **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html - **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/ - **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/ - **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/ - **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area --- This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105). O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/clinical-nurse-specialist