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Career Exploration

Registered Nurses

Also called: Charge Nurse, Emergency Department RN (Emergency Department Registered Nurse), Operating Room Registered Nurse (OR RN), Staff Nurse

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.

On the job, you would:
  • 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.
On the job, you'll need:

Math and Science

  • psychology
  • arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, or statistics

Business

  • customer service
  • administrative services

Health

  • medicine and dentistry
  • therapy and counseling

Arts and Humanities

  • English language

Basic Skills

  • listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions
  • talking to others

Problem Solving

  • noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it

Social

  • understanding people's reactions
  • changing what is done based on other people's actions

Verbal

  • communicate by speaking
  • listen and understand what people say

Ideas and Logic

  • notice when problems happen
  • use rules to solve problems

Visual Understanding

  • see hidden patterns
  • quickly compare groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things

Attention

  • do two or more things at the same time

Social

People interested in this work like activities that include helping people, teaching, and talking.

  • Dependability
  • Attention to Detail
  • Cooperation
  • Concern for Others
  • Integrity
  • Stress Tolerance

Medical software

  • eClinicalWorks EHR software
  • Epic Systems

Word processing software

  • Google Docs
  • Microsoft Word

Data base user interface and query software

  • Database software
  • Microsoft Access

Video courtesy of CareerOneStop.

Job Outlook

The job outlook for this position is Bright.

New job opportunities are very likely in the future. This career will grow rapidly in the next few years and will have large numbers of openings.

Median Annual Salary: $81,220

Education

Bachelor's degree or certificate after high school is usually needed.