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Registered Nurses

It's a bright outlook for

This career will grow rapidly in the next few years.

Learn more about what they do.

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.

Related: Acute Care Nurses Clinical Nurse Specialists Critical Care Nurses Licensed Practical & Licensed Vocational Nurses Nurse Practitioners

Industries: Health & Counseling

Summary
Details

Monitor, record, and report symptoms or changes in patients' conditions.
Monitor all aspects of patient care, including diet and physical activity.
Assess the needs of individuals, families, or communities, including assessment of individuals' home or work environments, to identify potential health or safety problems.
Work with individuals, groups, or families to plan or implement programs designed to improve the overall health of communities.
Instruct individuals, families, or other groups on topics such as health education, disease prevention, or childbirth and develop health improvement programs.
Prescribe or recommend drugs, medical devices, or other forms of treatment, such as physical therapy, inhalation therapy, or related therapeutic procedures.
Direct or coordinate infection control programs, advising or consulting with specified personnel about necessary precautions.
Perform physical examinations, make tentative diagnoses, and treat patients en route to hospitals or at disaster site triage centers.
Instruct individuals, families, or other groups on topics such as health education, disease prevention, or childbirth and develop health improvement programs.
Direct or supervise less-skilled nursing or healthcare personnel or supervise a particular unit.
Conduct specified laboratory tests.
Observe nurses and visit patients to ensure proper nursing care.
Order, interpret, and evaluate diagnostic tests to identify and assess patient's condition.
Administer local, inhalation, intravenous, or other anesthetics.
Consult with institutions or associations regarding issues or concerns relevant to the practice and profession of nursing.
Order, interpret, and evaluate diagnostic tests to identify and assess patient's condition.
Prepare rooms, sterile instruments, equipment, or supplies and ensure that stock of supplies is maintained.
Provide health care, first aid, immunizations, or assistance in convalescence or rehabilitation in locations such as schools, hospitals, or industry.
Prepare patients for and assist with examinations or treatments.
Refer students or patients to specialized health resources or community agencies furnishing assistance.
Prepare rooms, sterile instruments, equipment, or supplies and ensure that stock of supplies is maintained.
Monitor, record, and report symptoms or changes in patients' conditions.
Maintain accurate, detailed reports and records.
Administer medications to patients and monitor patients for reactions or side effects.
Direct or coordinate infection control programs, advising or consulting with specified personnel about necessary precautions.
Provide or arrange for training or instruction of auxiliary personnel or students.
Consult and coordinate with healthcare team members to assess, plan, implement, or evaluate patient care plans.
Perform physical examinations, make tentative diagnoses, and treat patients en route to hospitals or at disaster site triage centers.
Observe nurses and visit patients to ensure proper nursing care.
Monitor, record, and report symptoms or changes in patients' conditions.
Prescribe or recommend drugs, medical devices, or other forms of treatment, such as physical therapy, inhalation therapy, or related therapeutic procedures.
Perform physical examinations, make tentative diagnoses, and treat patients en route to hospitals or at disaster site triage centers.
Monitor all aspects of patient care, including diet and physical activity.
Administer medications to patients and monitor patients for reactions or side effects.
Modify patient treatment plans as indicated by patients' responses and conditions.
Record patients' medical information and vital signs.
Provide health care, first aid, immunizations, or assistance in convalescence or rehabilitation in locations such as schools, hospitals, or industry.
Prepare patients for and assist with examinations or treatments.
Perform administrative or managerial functions, such as taking responsibility for a unit's staff, budget, planning, or long-range goals.
Engage in research activities related to nursing.
Inform physician of patient's condition during anesthesia.

Equipment Maintenance
- Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
Troubleshooting
- Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
Reading Comprehension
- Reading work-related information.
Coordination
- Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
Writing
- Writing things for co-workers or customers.
Complex Problem Solving
- Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
Speaking
- Talking to others.
Social Perceptiveness
- Understanding people's reactions.
Operations Analysis
- Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
Critical Thinking
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
Management of Material Resources
- Managing equipment and materials.
Systems Analysis
- Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
Systems Evaluation
- Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
Time Management
- Managing your time and the time of other people.
Management of Financial Resources
- Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
Management of Personnel Resources
- Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
Active Learning
- Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
Instructing
- Teaching people how to do something.
Monitoring
- Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
Equipment Selection
- Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
Programming
- Writing computer programs.
Science
- Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
Negotiation
- Bringing people together to solve differences.
Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
Mathematics
- Using math to solve problems.
Quality Control Analysis
- Testing how well a product or service works.
Judgment and Decision Making
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
Technology Design
- Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
Active Listening
- Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
Learning Strategies
- Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
Service Orientation
- Looking for ways to help people.
Operation and Control
- Using equipment or systems.
Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
Persuasion
- Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.

Selective Attention
- Paying attention to something without being distracted.
Control Precision
- Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
Category Flexibility
- Grouping things in different ways.
Deductive Reasoning
- Using rules to solve problems.
Mathematical Reasoning
- Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
Static Strength
- Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
Dynamic Flexibility
- Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Inductive Reasoning
- Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
Speech Clarity
- Speaking clearly.
Gross Body Coordination
- Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
Peripheral Vision
- Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
Near Vision
- Seeing details up close.
Rate Control
- Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
Night Vision
- Seeing at night or under low light.
Oral Expression
- Communicating by speaking.
Problem Sensitivity
- Noticing when problems happen.
Number Facility
- Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
Arm-Hand Steadiness
- Keeping your arm or hand steady.
Information Ordering
- Ordering or arranging things.
Flexibility of Closure
- Seeing hidden patterns.
Speech Recognition
- Recognizing spoken words.
Hearing Sensitivity
- Telling the difference between sounds.
Extent Flexibility
- Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Response Orientation
- Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
Trunk Strength
- Using your lower back and stomach.
Stamina
- Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
Written Comprehension
- Reading and understanding what is written.
Fluency of Ideas
- Coming up with lots of ideas.
Perceptual Speed
- Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
Manual Dexterity
- Holding or moving items with your hands.
Finger Dexterity
- Putting together small parts with your fingers.
Auditory Attention
- Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
Glare Sensitivity
- Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
Speed of Limb Movement
- Quickly moving your arms and legs.
Far Vision
- Seeing details that are far away.
Oral Comprehension
- Listening and understanding what people say.
Speed of Closure
- Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
Written Expression
- Communicating by writing.
Originality
- Creating new and original ideas.
Spatial Orientation
- Knowing where things are around you.
Gross Body Equilibrium
- Keeping your balance or staying upright.
Explosive Strength
- Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
Visual Color Discrimination
- Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
Dynamic Strength
- Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
Memorization
- Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
Sound Localization
- Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
Depth Perception
- Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
Reaction Time
- Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
Wrist-Finger Speed
- Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
Visualization
- Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
Time Sharing
- Doing two or more things at the same time.
Multilimb Coordination
- Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.

Public Safety and Security
- Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
Education and Training
- Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
Transportation
- Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
History and Archeology
- Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
Administrative
- Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
Psychology
- Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Personnel and Human Resources
- Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
Medicine and Dentistry
- Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
Philosophy and Theology
- Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
Communications and Media
- Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
Geography
- Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
Building and Construction
- Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
Administration and Management
- Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Foreign Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
Fine Arts
- Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
Customer and Personal Service
- Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Sociology and Anthropology
- Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
Engineering and Technology
- Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
Sales and Marketing
- Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
Mechanical
- Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
Physics
- Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
Therapy and Counseling
- Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
Telecommunications
- Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
Production and Processing
- Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
Chemistry
- Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
English Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
Food Production
- Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
Law and Government
- Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
Computers and Electronics
- Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Economics and Accounting
- Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
Biology
- Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
Design
- Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
Mathematics
- Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.

Education

Bachelor's degree

Work Experience

No work experience

Training

No on-the-job training

Education and Training Opportunities

Washington Annual Salary

112180/yr

Washington Hourly Wage

53.93/hr

Currently Employed

69,180

Yearly Projected Openings

5150

Social: People interested in this work like activities that include helping people, teaching, and talking. They do well at jobs that need:

Sincerity
Adaptability
Perseverance
Empathy
Stress Tolerance
Self-Control

Acute care fetal or maternal monitoring units
Anesthesia nerve block kit or tray
Apnea monitors
Arm traction supplies
Arterial blood gas monitors
Arterial line catheters
Audiometers
Autotransfusion units
Benchtop centrifuges
Binocular light compound microscopes
Blood collection needles
Blood warming or transfusion systems
Canes
Cardiac output CO monitoring units
Cardiac pacemaker generators or cardiac resynchronization therapy pacemakers CRT-P
Cervical collars or neck braces
Clinical hydraulic lifts
Clinical incubators or infant warmers
Clinical trapeze bars
Colonoscopes
Colposcopes or vaginoscopes
Continuous passive motion CPM devices
Crutches
Diagnostic or interventional vascular catheters for general use
Electrocardiography EKG transmitters or telemetry devices
Electrocardiography EKG units
Electronic blood pressure units
Electronic encyclopedias
Electrosurgical or electrocautery equipment
Endoscopic hemostatic balloons or needles or tubes or accessories
Endoscopic or surgical light sources
Endotracheal tubes
Enema kits
Enteral feeding administration sets
Enteral feeding infusion pump tubing sets
Esophagogastroduodenoscopes or gastroduodenoscopes or gastroscopes
Extremity restraints
Eye charts or vision cards
Flow sensors or regulators or components
Gait belts for rehabilitation or therapy
Gastric decompression tubes
Glucose monitors or meters
Hand held dopplers
Hand or finger traction supplies
Head or neck traction supplies
Heating or drying equipment or accessories
Hemodialysis dialyzer reprocessing systems
Holter or wearable EKG monitoring systems or accessories
Hypodermic needle
Infusion pump kits
Intermittent positive pressure breathing IPPB machines
Intraaortic balloon pumps
Intracranial pressure ICP monitoring units
Intravenous infusion pump analyzers or sensors
Intravenous or arterial extension tubing
Intravenous or arterial tubing adapter or connector
Intravenous syringe infusion pumps
Intravenous tubing with catheter administration kits
Intubation laryngoscopes
Intubation stylets
Lancets
Lap mayo trays or mayo stands for surgical use
Laser printers
Leg traction supplies
Lower extremity prosthetic devices
Manual resuscitators
Medical acoustic stethoscopes
Medical gas cylinders or related devices
Medical head hoods
Medical nasal cannulas
Medical or surgical suction or vacuum appliances
Medical or surgical suction sets or kits
Medical oxygen masks or parts
Medical syringes without needle
Medical tuning forks
Medication or pill dispensers
Mobile medical services automated external defibrillators AED or hard paddles
Mobile medical services head immobilizers
Mobile medical services spine boards
Mobile medical services torso immobilizers
Mobile resuscitator or aspirator kits
Multiparameter vital sign units
Nasogastric tubes
Nebulizers
Non invasive bi level machines
Non invasive continuous positive air pressure machines
Notebook computers
Ophthalmoscopes or otoscopes or scope sets
Orthopedic splint systems
Orthopedic traction hardware or weights
Oxygen therapy delivery system products
Patient bed or table scales for general use
Patient care beds for general use
Patient controlled analgesia infusion pumps
Patient lifts
Patient motion sensors or alarms
Pelvis or back traction supplies
Perfusion oxygen or hematocrit saturation monitors
Peripherally inserted central catheters PICC
Personal computers
Phacoemulsification or extrusion or vitrectomy equipment for ophthalmic surgery
Pulse oximeter units
Radio frequency transmitters or receivers
Reflex hammers or mallets
Respiratory aspirator products
Respiratory humidifiers or vaporizers
Respiratory manometer kits
Restraint straps or buckles or supplies
Restraint vests and jackets
Sexual assault determination kits
Sigmoidoscopes
Skin staple removers or kits
Spill kits
Spirometers
Sputum collection apparatus or containers
Steam autoclaves or sterilizers
Surgical clamps or clips or forceps
Surgical drains or drain sets
Surgical drapes
Surgical needle holders
Surgical retractors
Surgical scalpels or knives or blades or trephines
Surgical suction machine or vacuum extractor or ultrasonic surgical aspirator
Suture needles
Suture removal kits or trays or packs or sets
Tablet computers
Therapeutic heating or cooling blankets or drapes
Therapeutic heating or cooling pads or compresses or packs
Tourniquets
Tracheostomy accessories
Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation units
Tuberculin syringes
Ultraviolet UV lamps
Umbilical catheters
Upper extremity prosthetic devices
Urinalysis analyzers
Urinalysis test strips
Urinary catheterization kits
Urological procedure trays or packs or kits
Vacuum blood collection tubes or containers
Vaginal exam speculas
Vascular or compression apparel or support
Vascular sequential compression devices or tubing
Ventilator accessories
Ventricular assist devices
Vision testing stereoscopes
Walkers or rollators