What Can You Do With a Nursing Degree?

Below are 13 occupations that nursing graduates commonly move into, most common first. Registered Nurse leads at $97,550 a year (BLS OEWS, May 2025); across the whole list the middle occupation pays $97,550 and 4 of 13 typically need a graduate degree. A major is a body of study, not a job assignment, so treat every entry as a common destination rather than a promise.

What the degree actually involves: Anatomy, pharmacology, and clinical placements from early on, with real patients.

Nursing is one of the exceptions to the rule that a major does not choose a career: the degree ends in a licence, and most graduates start at the bedside as a registered nurse. What changes afterwards is the specialty, and whether you go back for the graduate qualification that the advanced practice and management routes need.

Common destinations: 13
Median pay range: $80,250–$236,590
Projected to grow: 13 of 13
Need a graduate degree: 4 of 13

How this list was built

The destinations are the occupations nursing graduates commonly move into. They are ordered by how common the destination is, not by what it pays, so the ordinary outcomes sit at the top where they belong rather than being buried under the flattering ones.
Every destination is matched to a real occupation in the 923-occupation NueCareer career bank. A destination that does not resolve to a bank occupation is dropped rather than shown without data.
All pay, growth, openings and education figures come from that bank: BLS OEWS May 2025 for wages, BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034 for projected change, annual openings and the typical education needed for entry, and O*NET 30.3 Database for what the work involves. Nothing is estimated and no figure here is generated by an AI model.
Destinations whose BLS typical entry education is a master’s or a doctoral or professional degree are marked Graduate study on the list. That flag is read from the federal data, not asserted by us.
What this list is not: a ranking of which destination you should pick, a statement of how many graduates reach each one, or a promise that the degree entitles you to any of them. Read the full methodology.

13 careers a nursing degree commonly leads to

Most common destination first. Every card carries the national median annual wage, projected employment change and openings over 2024–2034, and the typical education people already in the job hold.

1. Registered Nurse
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical
Median pay
$97,550
Growth
+4.9%
Openings / yr
189,100
Education
Bachelor's
Assess patient health problems and needs, develop and implement nursing care plans, and maintain medical records.
2. Critical Care Nurse
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical
Median pay
$97,550
Growth
+4.9%
Openings / yr
189,100
Education
Bachelor's
Provide specialized nursing care for patients in critical or coronary care units.
3. Acute Care Nurse
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical
Median pay
$97,550
Growth
+4.9%
Openings / yr
189,100
Education
Bachelor's
Provide advanced nursing care for patients with acute conditions such as heart attacks, respiratory distress syndrome, or shock.
4. Clinical Nurse Specialist
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical
Median pay
$97,550
Growth
+4.9%
Openings / yr
189,100
Education
Bachelor's
Direct nursing staff in the provision of patient care in a clinical practice setting, such as a hospital, hospice, clinic, or home.
5. Nurse Practitioner
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical
Graduate study
Median pay
$132,300
Growth
+40.1%
Openings / yr
29,500
Education
Master's
Diagnose and treat acute, episodic, or chronic illness, independently or as part of a healthcare team.
6. Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurse
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical
Median pay
$97,550
Growth
+4.9%
Openings / yr
189,100
Education
Bachelor's
Assess, diagnose, and treat individuals and families with mental health or substance use disorders or the potential for such disorders.
7. Nurse Anesthetist
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical
Graduate study
Median pay
$236,590
Growth
+8.6%
Openings / yr
2,700
Education
Master's
Administer anesthesia, monitor patient's vital signs, and oversee patient recovery from anesthesia.
8. Nurse Midwife
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical
Graduate study
Median pay
$134,040
Growth
+11.1%
Openings / yr
500
Education
Master's
Diagnose and coordinate all aspects of the birthing process, either independently or as part of a healthcare team.
Profile coming in the next tranche.
9. Medical and Health Services Manager
Management
Median pay
$123,860
Growth
+23.2%
Openings / yr
62,100
Education
Bachelor's
Plan, direct, or coordinate medical and health services in hospitals, clinics, managed care organizations, public health agencies, or similar organizations.
10. Health Informatics Specialist
Computer and Mathematical
Median pay
$105,850
Growth
+8.7%
Openings / yr
34,200
Education
Bachelor's
Apply knowledge of nursing and informatics to assist in the design, development, and ongoing modification of computerized health care systems.
11. Occupational Health and Safety Specialist
Life, Physical, and Social Science
Median pay
$90,150
Growth
+12.5%
Openings / yr
14,900
Education
Bachelor's
Review, evaluate, and analyze work environments and design programs and procedures to control, eliminate, and prevent disease or injury caused by chemical, physical, and biological agents or ergonomic factors.
12. Clinical Data Manager
Computer and Mathematical
Median pay
$120,230
Growth
+33.5%
Openings / yr
23,400
Education
Bachelor's
Apply knowledge of health care and database management to analyze clinical data, and to identify and report trends.
13. Nursing Instructor and Teacher, Postsecondary
Educational Instruction and Library
Graduate study
Median pay
$80,250
Growth
+16.8%
Openings / yr
8,600
Education
Doctorate
Demonstrate and teach patient care in classroom and clinical units to nursing students.
Profile coming in the next tranche.

Does a nursing degree decide your career?

For most people, no. Federal survey data has consistently found that only a minority of US graduates work in a job closely related to their degree field, and that share falls further with each year after graduation. The exceptions are the fields where a licence sits at the end of the degree, and they are exceptions precisely because the route is fixed.

The practical reading of the list above is this: 9 of the 13 destinations are typically entered with a bachelor's degree or less, and 4 typically need a master's or a doctoral or professional degree (BLS Employment Projections, 2024–2034). If the destination you want is in the second group, the extra years are part of the decision from day one, not a detail to sort out later.

Not sure this is the right major in the first place? Take the free college major quiz — fifteen questions that score what you like doing against what each major actually asks of you, and show the same real occupations underneath every match.

Nursing degrees: FAQ

Do you need a master's degree after a nursing degree?

For 9 of the 13 destinations on this page, no: BLS Employment Projections (2024–2034) list a bachelor's degree or less as the typical entry requirement. The other 4 typically need a master's or a doctoral or professional degree, and each is marked on the list below. "Typical" describes what people already in the job hold, not an admissions rule.

What is the highest-paying career a nursing degree leads to?

Of the 13 destinations on this page, Nurse Anesthetist has the highest national median wage at $236,590 a year (BLS OEWS, May 2025), against $50,980 for all US occupations. Typical entry education for it is master's, so it usually means further study after the degree. A median is the midpoint of everyone in the job today, so a first salary normally sits well below it.

Which of these careers hires the most people each year?

Registered Nurse, with about 189,100 projected openings a year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024–2034). Across all 13 destinations on this page the combined figure is roughly 1,121,400 openings a year. Openings include replacing people who leave, not just new jobs, which is why a slow-growing occupation can still hire heavily.

Is a nursing degree worth it?

That depends on the price you pay for it, which this page cannot know. What it can tell you is where the destinations sit: the middle occupation on this list pays $97,550 a year against $50,980 for all US occupations, the range runs $80,250–$236,590, and 13 of the 13 are projected to grow over 2024–2034 (BLS OEWS May 2025, BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034).

How was this list of careers put together?

The destinations were curated as the occupations nursing graduates commonly move into, ordered by how common rather than by pay, then matched against the 923-occupation NueCareer career bank. Every figure shown comes from that bank: wages from BLS OEWS May 2025, projected change and annual openings and typical entry education from BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034, and occupation descriptions from O*NET 30.3 Database. Nothing is estimated, and no figure on this page is generated by an AI model.