---
title: "Nursing Assistant"
description: "Provide or assist with basic care or support under the direction of onsite licensed nursing staff. Perform duties such as monitoring of health status…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/nursing-assistant"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Nursing Assistant

**Category:** Healthcare Support · **SOC code:** 31-1131 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 31-1131.00

Provide or assist with basic care or support under the direction of onsite licensed nursing staff. Perform duties such as monitoring of health status, feeding, bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, or ambulation of patients in a health or nursing facility. May include medication administration and other health-related tasks. Includes nursing care attendants, nursing aides, and nursing attendants.

Also advertised as: Certified Medication Aide (CMA); Certified Nurse Aide (CNA); Certified Nurses Aide (CNA); Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA); Licensed Nursing Assistant (LNA); Nurses' Aide; Nursing Aide; Nursing Assistant.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $42,260 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $20.32/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $33,940 to $51,980, with the middle half between $37,260 and $47,220
- **Total US employment:** 1,448,910
- **Typical entry education:** Certificate
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +2.3% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 204,100 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 52/100 — 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 1,448,910 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $33,940 |
| 25th | $37,260 |
| 50th (median) | $42,260 |
| 75th | $47,220 |
| 90th | $51,980 |
| Mean (average) | $42,700 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| OR | $49,830 | $48,210 | 14,800 |
| WA | $49,180 | $45,957 | 30,270 |
| NY | $48,590 | $45,024 | 87,990 |
| NH | $47,870 | $45,956 | 7,810 |
| DC | $47,700 | $43,403 | 3,490 |
| CA | $47,630 | $43,018 | 110,060 |
| CO | $47,380 | $45,977 | 22,240 |
| VT | $47,130 | $48,112 | 3,030 |
| ME | $47,070 | $48,501 | 8,540 |
| NJ | $46,830 | $43,040 | 32,400 |
| MA | $46,680 | $44,139 | 38,130 |
| MN | $46,680 | $47,333 | 29,120 |
| RI | $46,440 | $45,405 | 10,220 |
| AK | $46,370 | $45,301 | 2,060 |
| IL | $45,960 | $45,979 | 68,640 |

38 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 53 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/nursing-assistant/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/nursing-assistant.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 1,441,500 in the 2024–2034 base year to 1,474,000 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 32,600 jobs, or +2.3%. About as fast as average: 2.3% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 204,100 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:** Postsecondary nondegree award (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium 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 |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma | 38.7% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 24.0% |
| Some College Courses | 12.2% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 9.8% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 6.1% |
| First Professional Degree | 3.8% |

## What the work involves

- Provide physical support to assist patients to perform daily living activities, such as getting out of bed, bathing, dressing, using the toilet, standing, walking, or exercising.
- Document or otherwise report observations of patient behavior, complaints, or physical symptoms to nurses.
- Communicate with patients to ascertain feelings or need for assistance or social and emotional support.
- Undress, wash, and dress patients who are unable to do so for themselves.
- Change bed linens or make beds.
- Feed patients or assist patients to eat or drink.
- Turn or reposition bedridden patients.
- Observe or examine patients to detect symptoms that may require medical attention, such as bruises, open wounds, or blood in urine.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.4 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.

- Service Orientation — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Medicine and Dentistry — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Static Strength — importance 3.3 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), Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 5.70 |
| R — Realistic | 4.58 |
| C — Conventional | 4.24 |
| I — Investigative | 2.72 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.77 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ISFJ | 81.3 |
| ESFJ | 74.2 |
| ESTJ | 65.7 |
| ISTJ | 64.5 |
| ISFP | 59.7 |

Best-fitting types: ISFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Home Health Aide](https://nuecareer.com/careers/home-health-aide) — median $35,800
- [Paramedic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/paramedic) — median $60,600
- [Licensed Practical Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/licensed-practical-nurse) — median $64,400
- [Registered Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/registered-nurse) — median $97,550
- [Acute Care Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/acute-care-nurse) — median $97,550
- [Emergency Medical Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/emergency-medical-technician) — median $44,470
- [Psychiatric Aide](https://nuecareer.com/careers/psychiatric-aide) — median $44,910
- [Surgical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/surgical-assistant) — median $66,800
- [Medical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-assistant) — median $45,690
- [Physical Therapist Aide](https://nuecareer.com/careers/physical-therapist-aide) — median $35,240

### Nursing Assistant compared with

- [CNA vs Medical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cna-vs-medical-assistant) — side by side on BLS wage percentiles, projected growth, openings and entry requirements
- [LPN vs CNA](https://nuecareer.com/careers/lpn-vs-cna) — side by side on BLS wage percentiles, projected growth, openings and entry requirements

## 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/nursing-assistant