Your Nursing Career: A Look at the Facts
From: American Association of Colleges of Nursing
Nursing? Just how rewarding of a career is it?
Take a look at this numbers from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.
Nursing is the nation's largest health care profession with more than 3.1 million registered nurses practicing nationwide. Despite its large size, many more nurses are needed into the foreseeable future to meet the growing demand for nursing care. As you plan or consider a career as a registered nurse, you should know these facts:
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that employment for registered nurses will grow faster than most other occupations through 2018.
Nursing students comprise more than half of all health professions students
Nurses comprise the largest single component of hospital staff, are the primary providers of hospital patient care, and deliver most of the nation's long-term care.
Most health care services involve some form of care by nurses. Although 62.2 percent of all employed RNs work in hospitals, many are employed in a wide range of other settings, including private practices, public health agencies, primary care clinics, home health care, outpatient surgicenters, health maintenance organizations, nursing school-operated nursing centers, insurance and managed care companies, nursing homes, schools, mental health agencies, hospices, the military, and industry. Other nurses work in careers as college and university educators preparing future nurses or as scientists developing advances in many areas of health care and health promotion.