---
title: "Registered Nurse"
description: "Assess patient health problems and needs, develop and implement nursing care plans, and maintain medical records. Administer nursing care to ill…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/registered-nurse"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Registered Nurse

**Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-1141 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-1141.00

Assess patient health problems and needs, develop and implement nursing care plans, and maintain medical records. Administer nursing care to ill, injured, convalescent, or disabled patients. May advise patients on health maintenance and disease prevention or provide case management. Licensing or registration required.

Also advertised as: Certified Operating Room Nurse (CNOR); Charge Nurse; Emergency Department RN (Emergency Department Registered Nurse); Oncology RN (Oncology Registered Nurse); Operating Room Registered Nurse (OR RN); Psychiatric RN (Psychiatric Registered Nurse); Relief Charge Nurse; School Nurse.

## 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:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +4.9% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 189,100 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 53/100 — 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/registered-nurse/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/registered-nurse.

## 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:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 55.9% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 22.5% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 19.4% |
| Master's Degree | 1.4% |
| High School Diploma | 0.8% |

## What the work involves

- Record patients' medical information and vital signs.
- Administer medications to patients and monitor patients for reactions or side effects.
- Maintain accurate, detailed reports and records.
- Monitor all aspects of patient care, including diet and physical activity.
- Prepare patients for and assist with examinations or treatments.
- Monitor, record, and report symptoms or changes in patients' conditions.
- Consult and coordinate with healthcare team members to assess, plan, implement, or evaluate patient care plans.
- Instruct individuals, families, or other groups on topics such as health education, disease prevention, or childbirth and develop health improvement programs.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.3 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 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — 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 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Psychology — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Medicine and Dentistry — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive 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), Conventional (C), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 5.57 |
| C — Conventional | 4.75 |
| I — Investigative | 4.71 |
| R — Realistic | 3.46 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.38 |
| A — Artistic | 1.34 |

### 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 | 73.7 |
| ESFJ | 65.0 |
| ISTJ | 63.2 |
| ESTJ | 61.3 |
| ISFP | 54.5 |

Best-fitting types: ISFJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Acute Care Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/acute-care-nurse) — median $97,550
- [Nurse Practitioner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-practitioner) — median $132,300
- [Critical Care Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/critical-care-nurse) — median $97,550
- [Clinical Nurse Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-nurse-specialist) — median $97,550
- [Licensed Practical Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/licensed-practical-nurse) — median $64,400
- [Nurse Midwife](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-midwife) — median $134,040
- [Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/advanced-practice-psychiatric-nurse) — median $97,550
- [Nurse Anesthetist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-anesthetist) — median $236,590
- [Physician Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/physician-assistant) — median $135,880
- [Nursing Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nursing-assistant) — median $42,260

### Registered Nurse compared with

- [LPN vs RN](https://nuecareer.com/careers/lpn-vs-rn) — side by side on BLS wage percentiles, projected growth, openings and entry requirements
- [NP vs RN](https://nuecareer.com/careers/np-vs-rn) — side by side on BLS wage percentiles, projected growth, openings and entry requirements
- [Registered Nurse vs Medical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/registered-nurse-vs-medical-assistant) — side by side on BLS wage percentiles, projected growth, openings and entry requirements
- [Paramedic vs RN](https://nuecareer.com/careers/paramedic-vs-rn) — 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/registered-nurse