Nursing - Why You Should Consider A Career In Nursing (The Hard Facts)

Facts and Statistics About Nursing Careers

Individuals looking to begin on a journey towards a new nursing career will find many supporting statistics and facts to help encourage them along the way. There are many positive trends in the field currently, including a huge supply of jobs, a short time to obtaining a BSN, large salaries, diverse workforces, and much more. Make sure you're on the right path and take a look at these stats about a nursing career.

• An accelerated BSN program will enable you to finish a full degree in nursing in as little as 10 or 12 months. In less than a year, you will be prepared to enter the job market for an exciting new nursing career.


• Employers prefer candidates with a BSN, and more people entering the workforce are carrying it. About 50% of RNs today have a bachelor's degree or higher, up from just 25% in 1980. Organizations are calling for further increases to 65% or more carrying this level of education.


• About 62% of RNs work in hospitals, making it by and large the most common area of employment for a nursing career. But that percentage is way down, and shows that nearly 40% of nurses work elsewhere, including outpatient care facilities, nursing homes, the homes of clients, physicians offices and more.


• Diving into those statistics more, 14.2% of RNs work in community health settings, 10.5% are employed in outpatient care centers, and 5.3% work in long-term care facilities, amongst other options mentioned above.


• The average age for active RNs right now is 47, up 7 years from 1980, when it was 40 years old. The rising age creates a need for new jobs and new nursing career entrants.


• By 2018, there will need to be 580,000 new or replacement RNs to keep up with demand according to the BLS, Bureau of Labor Statistics. This growing need is due to a number of factors, such as the increasing roles of nurses and aging nurse workforce mentioned above.


• Another projection by a different organization states that by 2020 there will be 800,000 unfilled nursing positions. This creates a near infinite supply of jobs and nursing career options for those with an accredited BSN joining the workforce.


• Salary levels are on the rise for RNs right now, who on average brought home nearly $61,000 in salary in 2007. RNs with a BSN or a higher level diploma can make even more than that, and with years of experience under your belt, salaries can approach or exceed the $100k level.


• Those pursuing a nursing career outnumber physicians four to one already, with a larger increase in that ratio expected due to the factors listed above. Nurses are also the largest providers of care within a hospital setting.


• Of all students studying in a healthcare field, half of all of them are studying to begin a nursing career, and potentially achieve a BSN.


• According to the BLS, through the year 2018, the nursing field will be amongst the quickest growing sectors in any industry, and with the stats mentioned already, that leads to hundreds of thousands of new jobs being created.