The medical industry in the United States continues to boom, and this good fortune directly benefits those who are currently in, or currently pursuing, nursing jobs. The profession as a whole is expected to experience sustained growth and increased demand through the end of the decade. Each unique career has its own set of growth expectations, however, so it’s important to break down each area’s job expectations over the next several years.

Registered Nurses

One of the largest nursing jobs in the country, registered nurses can expect growth across the board through the end of the decade. The profession is expected to add just under 600,000 new jobs through the end of the present decade, representing a significant amount of growth. It’s important to remember, however, that such a broad position will see different levels of growth depending where the RN candidate wishes to practice.

While private physicians’ offices are expected to increase their number of RN nursing jobs by 48 percent year over year through the decade, hospitals are expected to see more modest growth. They’ll have just 17 percent job growth over the next ten years. For those interested in home health services, assisted living facilities, and nursing homes, job growth can be expected to grow between 23 and 33 percent through the end of the decade.

Entry-level registered nurses should expect a starting salary of about $54,000 per year, while the average salary of all RNs nationwide is $65,400. For those who expect to stay in the profession and turn it into a career, the salary for registered nurses tops out nationally at around $80,000 annually.

Nurse Practitioners

The federal government estimates the nurse practitioner field will experience respectable growth of 22 percent per year through the end of the decade. While the demand is strong for nurse practitioners in all areas and specialties, the strongest demand for this position is in caring for America’s aging population; a second are of high demand is in preventive care services, which have recently been emphasized by the country’s health care reform legislation.

Nurse practitioners who are new to the field will demand a salary of $77,000 per year when starting their new positions. The average salary for nurse practitioners falls just short of six figures, at $90,000 per year. The highest-paid professionals in this field pull in a yearly salary of $103,000 in the United States — though nurse practitioners in the hottest areas of specialty may see their salaries exceed those levels.

Clinical Nursing Specialists

Because those with a CNS degree and certification can perform advanced nursing functions as well as consult with hospital staff and serve a more administrative capacity, their numbers are expected to swell over the course of the present decade. The government estimates that demand for clinical nursing specialists will increase by 30 percent through 2018 on the back of health care reform legislation that hospitals will need to implement and streamline. These are exactly the types of things that CNS candidates are educated to do, applying their specialties to the reduction of inefficiencies, medical errors, and lost productivity.

The average salary for certified nursing specialists is roughy $88,000 in the United States; seasoned professionals who have been in their career for longer amounts of time can expect to pull in six-figure salaries between $103,000 per year and $110,000 per year. And entry-level candidates will make a respectable starting salary of $73,000 on average — far higher than the median American wage, and with growth prospects that are strong for the foreseeable future.

Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist

The United States currently counts just over 30,000 CRNAs on the job today, and expects their numbers to grow by 6,000 this year alone. Demand for the profession is expected to remain strong through the decade, with a growth rate of 30 percent year over year until at least 2018. Because these are positions requiring advanced education, it is also estimated that a significant number of CRNA professionals will seek higher education, transitioning into anesthesiology as their careers mature. This is what keeps demand high, and salaries even higher.

And speaking of salaries, the CRNA position is among the highest-paid nursing jobs with an average national salary of $156,000 per year in the United States. Entry-level CRNA candidates will generally demand a yearly salary of $140,000; the longest-serving certified registered nurse anesthetists pull in an annual figure of $176,000.

That makes the CRNA position far and away the most lucrative in the nursing field. And, because many hospitals will pay for a CRNA’s further education (if, for example, they wanted to become a doctor), these positions are an great fit for those who would like to further their education without furthering their student loans.

Bonuses

As with many medical positions, most nursing jobs start with a contract for one or two years of employment with the same employer. These contracts typically offer exclusive sign-on bonuses that can reach into the thousands of dollars, depending on which position they’re written for. Those amounts have not been factored into these annual salaries due to their variance nationwide, but they provide an extra boost to prospective nursing professionals.