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DiversityNursing Blog

American Nurses Association Celebrates National Nurses Week; 1.1 Million More RNs Needed

Posted by Alycia Sullivan

Wed, May 07, 2014 @ 11:19 AM

Source: Digital Journal

National Nurses Week traditionally is a time to recognize the crucial contributions registered nurses (RN) make to individuals' health and the U.S. health care system; this year, it's also a time to sound a note of urgency about the future, as projections signal the need to fill about 1.1 million RN jobs by 2022.

The 2014 National Nurses Week theme is "Nurses: Leading the Way," emphasizing nurses' roles in improving the quality of health care; participating as key members of collaborative, performance-based health care teams; and continually advocating to ensure patients remain the focal point of health care. National Nurses Week takes place May 6-12, ending on the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.

"All nurses are leaders, whether they are in direct patient care, administrative roles, or meeting consumers' needs in new roles such as care coordinators or wellness coaches," said ANA President Karen A. Daley, PhD, RN, FAAN. "This week, we acknowledge nurses' vast contributions, as well as the need to develop the nursing workforce to meet our growing needs and improve the health of the nation."

As nurses assume more leadership roles in a system that is transforming its focus to emphasize primary care, prevention, wellness, chronic disease management, and coordination of care, a confluence of factors is driving the need for a huge increase in the number of RNs. About 11 million individuals have gained better access to health care through private health insurance marketplaces and the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act; Baby Boomers are projected to swell Medicare rolls by 50 percent by 2025; and 53 percent of nurses are over age 50 and nearing retirement, according to a National Council of State Boards of Nursing survey.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 1.1 million jobs for nurses between 2012 and 2022 – more than 500,000 each for newly created jobs and replacements for retiring nurses. Registered nurse is ranked second in projected new job growth among all occupations from 2012 to 2022, with 527,000 new jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. To achieve that level of growth, ANA recommends four actions: 

  • Increase funding for federal Nursing Workforce Development Programs (known as Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act, which marks its 50th anniversary this year). Funding generally has stayed level in recent years for these programs that assist in educating, training, and placing new nurses in areas of need.
  • Recruit more nursing professors and increase incentives. Nursing faculty salaries generally are lower than what many faculty members could earn in clinical practice (an average of $68,640 compared to more than $91,000 for nurse practitioners). Many nursing professors also are nearing retirement age – nearly 3 of 4 are over age 50 – and will need to be replaced.
  • Ensure an adequate number of clinical training sites so nursing students can fulfill educational requirements.
  • Encourage hospitals and other employers to hire new nursing graduates now to benefit from mentoring from experienced RNs, and to mitigate the impact of the projected exodus of seasoned RNs in the coming years.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/05/prweb11820230.htm

Topics: jobs, National Nurses Week, growth, leadership

Rise of the Nurse Practitioner

Posted by Alycia Sullivan

Fri, Mar 21, 2014 @ 12:33 PM

TheRiseoftheNursePractitioner 2 27 resized 600

TheRiseoftheNursePractitioner 2 27 resized 600Source: Maryville University 

Topics: growth, education, nursing, online, nurse practitioner

Norwich University Future of Nursing

Posted by Alycia Sullivan

Fri, Feb 14, 2014 @ 12:39 PM

The nursing profession is facing multiple challenges in the years ahead. From the Affordable Care Act and its focus on the introduction of electronic medical records, to the aging US population, many people question what healthcare will look like in the future.

What remains certain, however, is the future of nursing is bright. Nurses are a vital part of the health care system and a valuable resource for our society.

What can nurses and nursing industry expect in the years ahead?

At this point in time:

- One third of nurses are over 50 years old.
- 1/3 of the current workforce will reach retirement within the next decade or so.
- Nurses work more hours now than they did in 2000.

How the Health Care Reform Will Affect Nurses

Nurses will be prepared to take on more responsibility than they currently have.

This will be helpful, since:

- Within 15 years, the country will be short 150,000 doctors.
- Primary Care Physicians (PCP) will be in the greatest demand, with an estimated 45,000 needed by 2020.
- Millions of new patients are expected to flood the healthcare system as new insurance takes hold.
- More nurses will work in rural areas where the nurse may be the only health care provider available.

Ever-Changing Technology

As we move into the future, nursing will change thanks to new technology, such as:
- The Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) will reduce medication errors by about 55%.
- Medication will be scanned before the patient takes it, to ensure correct dosage and type.
- Transcriptions can be replaced by CPOE.
- Electronic medical records will link hospitals, physician’s practices and home healthcare agencies.

To learn more about the future of nursing, checkout the infographic below created by Norwich University’s Online Master of Science in Nursing program.

The nursing profession is facing multiple challenges in the years ahead. From the Affordable Care Act and its focus on the introduction of electronic medical records, to the aging US population, many people question what healthcare will look like in the future.

What remains certain, however, is the future of nursing is bright. Nurses are a vital part of the health care system and a valuable resource for our society.

What can nurses and nursing industry expect in the years ahead?

At this point in time:

- One third of nurses are over 50 years old.
- 1/3 of the current workforce will reach retirement within the next decade or so.
- Nurses work more hours now than they did in 2000.

How the Health Care Reform Will Affect Nurses

Nurses will be prepared to take on more responsibility than they currently have.

This will be helpful, since:

- Within 15 years, the country will be short 150,000 doctors.
- Primary Care Physicians (PCP) will be in the greatest demand, with an estimated 45,000 needed by 2020.
- Millions of new patients are expected to flood the healthcare system as new insurance takes hold.
- More nurses will work in rural areas where the nurse may be the only health care provider available.

Ever-Changing Technology

As we move into the future, nursing will change thanks to new technology, such as:
- The Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) will reduce medication errors by about 55%.
- Medication will be scanned before the patient takes it, to ensure correct dosage and type.
- Transcriptions can be replaced by CPOE.
- Electronic medical records will link hospitals, physician’s practices and home healthcare agencies.

To learn more about the future of nursing, checkout the infographic below created by Norwich University’s Online Master of Science in Nursing program.

The nursing profession is facing multiple challenges in the years ahead. From the Affordable Care Act and its focus on the introduction of electronic medical records, to the aging US population, many people question what healthcare will look like in the future.

What remains certain, however, is the future of nursing is bright. Nurses are a vital part of the health care system and a valuable resource for our society.

What can nurses and nursing industry expect in the years ahead?

At this point in time:

- One third of nurses are over 50 years old.
- 1/3 of the current workforce will reach retirement within the next decade or so.
- Nurses work more hours now than they did in 2000.

How the Health Care Reform Will Affect Nurses

Nurses will be prepared to take on more responsibility than they currently have.

This will be helpful, since:

- Within 15 years, the country will be short 150,000 doctors.
- Primary Care Physicians (PCP) will be in the greatest demand, with an estimated 45,000 needed by 2020.
- Millions of new patients are expected to flood the healthcare system as new insurance takes hold.
- More nurses will work in rural areas where the nurse may be the only health care provider available.

Ever-Changing Technology

As we move into the future, nursing will change thanks to new technology, such as:
- The Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) will reduce medication errors by about 55%.
- Medication will be scanned before the patient takes it, to ensure correct dosage and type.
- Transcriptions can be replaced by CPOE.
- Electronic medical records will link hospitals, physician’s practices and home healthcare agencies.

To learn more about the future of nursing, checkout the infographic below created by Norwich University’s Online Master of Science in Nursing program.

norwichuniversity resized 600Source: Norwich University Online

Topics: growth, technology, nurses, online, Future of Nursing, Norwich University

A Truly Astonishing Graph of the Growth of Health-Care Jobs in America

Posted by Alycia Sullivan

Fri, Jul 12, 2013 @ 12:37 PM

By  

Employment Growth in Healthcare Industries

Here's what that graph (via Brookings) says. In the last ten years, job growth in America's non-health-care economy has been dreadful. Just 2.1 percent total -- or barely 0.2 percent per year. (Yes, that's point-two percent annual growth.) In that time, the U.S. health care sector has grown more than ten-times faster than the rest of the economy, adding 2.6 million jobs.

There are a couple stories that branch off from this graph. One is the unchecked growth in health care prices over the last few decades, which has made the medical industry the one truly recession-proof job engine of the economy. Two is the concentration of job growth in local service industries shielded from the global supply chain. And three (related) is the sad decline in construction and manufacturing jobs. 

Let's pull back the lens to 1990 and take a picture. Take a look at the growth of health care employment (in red) and the decline in construction and manufacturing employment (in blue).

Screen Shot 2013-07-01 at 3.25.57 PM.png

According to the BLS, the two fastest-growing jobs in the next decade -- by far -- will both be in health care: personal care aides and home health aides.

I'd prefer not to muddy a clear statistical observation here with a provocative claim that health care's relentless, unstoppable employment growth is a goodthing or a bad thing, exclusively, because it's certainly both -- an emergency source of recession-era employment and a symptom of health care inflation. I knew health care had been the most important driver of national employment over the last few years, but I had never seen the case made so starkly.

Source: The Atlantic

Topics: job opportunities, growth, employment, healthcare

Health care job growth doubled in February

Posted by Alycia Sullivan

Fri, Mar 15, 2013 @ 05:51 PM

By: The Advisory Board Company

The health care industry added 32,000 jobs in February, accounting for 13.6% of the 236,000 nonfarm jobs created last month, according to preliminary data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

In comparison, revised BLS data show that the health industry added just 13,000 jobs in January, partly because the agency now estimates that hospitals lost about 3,100 jobs in January.

Latest report shows hiring across industry

Within the health sector, physician offices and outpatient health centers experienced the biggest gains in February, adding about 14,000 jobs for the month, according to BLS. Meanwhile, ambulatory health care services added 13,700 jobs in February, down from 26,700 in January. 

The agency also found:

  • Hospitals created 8,900 jobs in February;
  • Home health care added 6,100 jobs, up from 5,700 new jobs in January; and
  • Nursing homes added 9,000 new workers.

Overall, the national unemployment rate last month dropped to a four-year low of 7.7% (Selvam, Modern Healthcare, 3/8 [subscription required]; Baker, "Healthwatch," The Hill, 3/8).

Topics: jobs, growth, hiring, nurses, health care

How to Succeed in the Current Job Market

Posted by Alycia Sullivan

Tue, Feb 05, 2013 @ 01:55 PM

By Jennifer Larson

If you’re looking for a nursing job in 2013, you could be in luck--especially if you have pursued your education and have some experience in the field. While the recovering job market is looking strong for the most part, it holds even more potential in future years. The important thing for nurses is to understand how to position themselves for success, both now and in the coming months.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent report on registered nurses predicted a 26 percent growth rate in employment for registered nurses during the 2010-2020 period. That’s considered “faster than average” when compared to all other populations.

A number of factors are expected to contribute to growth in particular areas. For instance, the aging of the baby boomer population and increasing pressure on hospitals to discharge patients as soon as possible is expected to spur job growth in outpatient care centers, as well as in home health and long-term care facilities.

For the coming year, however, it’s unlikely that the overall employment situation will be significantly different from last year.

“I haven’t seen a lot of change,” said Geraldine “Polly” Bednash, PhD, RN, FAAN, chief executive officer and executive director of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), which surveys nursing schools to gauge the experiences of new graduates in finding employment.

Do your homework

If you plan to look for a new nursing job in 2013, it’s important to prepare yourself. Check out the job market in the area where you wish to live, or, if you’re open to different locations, find out where nurses with your specialty have the most opportunities. Know which employers are hiring, and what types of positions are in most demand.

For example, in the field of school nursing, some areas of the country are eagerly looking for qualified candidates to fill vacant positions in schools, while other regions can barely afford the nursing staff they already have, due to funding issues.

“It’s all over the map, depending on the state,” said Linda Davis-Alldritt, RN, president of the National Association of School Nurses. “Some states are seeing not so much a shortage of school nurses but a shortage of funded positions. The further west you go, that’s the situation, especially in California.”

Be flexible

Although the overall job market for nurses is predicted to be good, nurses in certain pockets of the country--particularly the ones with the least amount of experience--may have trouble landing their dream job right away. But that’s been true for the last few years in high-demand areas like the Bay Area in California and a few other places, and experts typically recommend that job seekers show flexibility in those situations.

If you’re willing to move or work the night shift or try other types of nursing jobs, you’ll be in a better position to get hired; this flexibility can also help new graduates acquire the basic experience that so many employers are seeking.

Take advantage of advanced education

What is most likely to help you land a new job in the current health care environment? More education and training. That might mean attaining a certification in your specialty area, or it could mean returning to school for another degree.

A baccalaureate degree could be especially useful. The Institute of Medicine’s landmark Future of Nursing report, released in 2010, called for increasing the percentage of the nursing workforce with a BSN to 80 percent by 2020, and a growing number of hospitals are prioritizing candidates with the degree.

According to information gathered from nursing schools in August 2012 by the AACN, 88 percent of new graduates with a BSN degree received job offers within four to six months of graduation.

“We’re always very pleased to see the baccalaureate graduates are getting hired,” said Bednash, adding that employers “understand they can make a choice, and they are going straight to the best-educated clinicians and hiring them.”

Graduates with master’s degrees fared even better; within four to six months after graduation, 92 percent of them were fielding job offers, according to the AACN’s survey.

“The hottest commodity on the market today is a graduate-prepared nurse practitioner,” said Bednash.

Expect more jobs on the horizon, thanks to ACA

When the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in June 2012, many noted that the law will likely expand the possibilities for nurses in the future.

As the law continues to undergo implementation, more than 30 million additional people could be added to the insurance rolls. Those people will need primary care--and primary care providers. Advanced practice nurses will be called upon to fill those spots in many places, especially in light of the ongoing shortage of primary physicians. In fact, the January 2013 issue of Health Affairs even noted that the use of “non-physicians” could help improve access to care for many people and avert a physician shortage in the future.

“They ought to be thinking carefully about going on to get a graduate degree,” Bednash said of nurses who are interested in the new possibilities opening up.

The Affordable Care Act also encourages the patient-centered medical home model, which utilizes care coordinators.

“And that’s a nursing role,” said Bednash.

Copyright © 2013. AMN Healthcare, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Topics: 2013, growth, education, nurse, succeed, job market

Nurse Workforce Growth from 1988 to 2012

Posted by Alycia Sullivan

Fri, Jan 18, 2013 @ 01:46 PM

Experts weigh in on how the nursing workforce has changed in last 25 years. Download, read the full PDF article -> http://bit.ly/VvUIdy

timeline

Topics: growth, 2012, 1988, progress, charts, statistics, Workforce, nurse

Hospital Employment Grew by 8,300 Last Month

Posted by Alycia Sullivan

Fri, Dec 14, 2012 @ 01:09 PM

Molly Gamble | December 10, 2012

Employment at hospitals across the country grew by 0.17 percent last month, which reflects 8,300 more people than in October and 82,200 more compared to a year ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The gain in the hospital industry is a stray from employment nationwide, as the overall unemployment rate stood at 7.7 percent in November.

Topics: growth, hospital employment, exponential

Nursing Boom Gives Lake Students a Lift

Posted by Alycia Sullivan

Fri, Nov 30, 2012 @ 03:36 PM

THERESA CAMPBELL | Staff Writer

theresacampbell@dailycommercial.com

lakeDr. Margaret Wacker, director of nursing at Lake-Sumter State College, is not surprised 75,587 qualified, top applicants were turned away across the country in 2011 because many colleges are plagued with budget challenges and lack sufficient faculty to teach nursing students.

This comes at a critical time when the demand for registered nurses far outweighs the supply. In some larger Florida markets, like the Tampa Bay area, it's not uncommon to see health care facilities offering signing bonuses of $1,500 or more just to get applicants through the front door.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the need for nurses will intensify in 2020 with 1.2 million nursing job openings, but will there be enough nurses to fill the slots? The question more pressing to Wacker is who will teach the aspiring nurses?

"Most people do not know the average age of a nursing faculty member is 56 in the United States and, if we can't handle a lot of qualified applicants now, within the next five or six years, with retirement, it's going to be much worse," Wacker said. "Absolutely, I'm concerned about it."

LSSC has 14 full-time and 12 adjunct part-time clinical instructors, along with three staff members, one researcher and a technical assistant.

"Our faculty, with the exception of one, they're over 50, all of them," said Wacker, who noted she is "way over retirement age" and has no idea when she will step down.

"What's going to happen in six years? There is going to be nobody to teach," she said.

Wacker said low salaries are keeping experienced BSN level nurses from becoming teachers.

"If a staff nurse is making twice what a faculty member makes, there is no incentive for them to then spend a lot of money to get a master's degree," Wacker said. "Any one of us (faculty) could be making two to three times our salary if we were in a clinical setting."

Wacker said surveys from LSSC nursing students show they are averaging $44,000 when they graduate with an associate degree, while the college's nursing faculty with a master's degree start at $40,000.

The nursing educators are currently teaching 72 applicants who were accepted out of 115 in LSSC's general nursing program. The selected students had top GPAs of 3.5 and higher, while 24 more advanced nursing students out of 28 applicants qualified for the concurrent program at LSSC, where they're being taught University of Central Florida courses at the local campus.

"They are very close to the baccalaureate when they graduate from us and then in another year they get their BSN from UCF," Wacker said. "They learn so much, but it's tough. It's very, very tough. ... We take the brightest who can make it."

Meeting hospital needs

Holly Kolozsvary, RN, human resources director for Central Florida Health Alliance, the health system for Leesburg Regional Medical Center and The Villages Regional Hospital, along with Tina Hayes, RN, who does all of the nurse recruiting for the two hospitals, praise the nursing curriculum offered at LSSC, Lake Technical Center and other colleges and universities.

"They have great programs. I would probably say that 50 percent or more of our nursing staff is from right here," Kolozsvary said. "We're always looking for ways to bring in students for various occupations. Certainly, nursing is one of our primary areas with the largest percentage of employees being nurses."

Hayes noted the schools are "constantly seeking our advice" to improve the nursing program.

Florida Waterman said nearly 85 percent of the hospital's new graduate nurses are from Lake County, with about 50 percent from Lake-Sumter State College while the remaining from surrounding counties, south Florida and out-of-state.

"Several of the graduate nurses we have hired over the past 18 months have been employees who worked in a variety of positions at Florida Hospital Waterman while attending nursing school," said Patricia Dolan, RN, vice president/chief nursing officer.

"We make every attempt to be flexible with their work schedules while they are attending school," she said. "Through the nursing scholarship program and tuition assistance we have been able to advance and promote our employees. Retention is the key to developing a stable workforce."

The hospitals work closely with LSSC and Lake Tech to provide a clinical site for nursing students to gain experience as they complete their studies. Nursing leaders from the hospitals also sit on advisory boards to promote nursing within the community.

"Since the fall of 2011, FHW has provided an extended nurse internship program to 90 graduates from central Florida and other states," Dolan said.

"This program consists of a 12-week extension of an orientation program that includes didactic classes to establish comfort with assessment and critical thinking skills with the use of SimMan laboratory, and a mentoring program where more experienced nurses' nurture new nurses to help them develop their skills. The nursing internship program is our attempt to "grow our own.'"

The medical field also requires nurses to constantly continue their education to keep up with new procedures, technologies and medical advances. Obamacare also is spurring the way nurses do their jobs.

"The charting has changed," Hayes said. "We are going more computerized; we are adding new systems. Eventually, it will make it easier, but right now it's just a big learning curve for everyone."

"We have to be very smart and work smarter not harder," added Kolozsvary. "All industry is like this. On a daily basis we need to do more with less and be very, very smart and be challenged and positive. We take care of people and it's not like we can cop an attitude ... The patient deserves the best when we are in that room. They do not deserve to hear any grumbling about what is going on. They need to be taken care of, so that's a challenge to teach people that attitude has to stay outside. We are here to take care of patients. That's our mission and this is the community that we serve."

 

Good job market

 

Lake and Sumter County is touted as an ideal place for nurses to work as more people move to Florida to retire. The boom of The Villages also spurs the demand for the registered nursing workforce.

"We are in a good market," Kolozsvary said. "We have had graduate nurses and new nurses from a lot of other states who apply to us, along with a lot of other counties in Florida. ... We are very marketable with our pay scales and certainly our benefits are extremely lucrative."

Hayes said it sparks applications when nurses hear about Central Florida Health Alliance's hospitals being on the top "100 Best Employers for Working Families," and being the recipient of other employee honors.

"We have a daycare on site here at Leesburg and we have the charter schools at the other hospital," Hayes said of The Villages. "We are one of the few hospitals that are still growing."

Other hospitals across the country are not faring as well

"There are hospitals that are closing down right now and we are still adding beds," Kolozsvary said. "We are very fortunate to sit in Central Florida right in the middle of the state where we still have growth."

The growth is happening as the area strives to rebound from the 2007 recession.

Florida Hospital Waterman officials noted a Florida Center for Nursing 2011 survey shows Florida's unemployment rate has consistently been higher than the national unemployment rate since January 2008. However, employment in Florida's healthcare sector has remained a shining point in these tough economic times. RN employment has increased during the recession.

The number of full-time equivalent RNs employed in hospitals has increased every year since the recession began in 2007 (with the exception of 2009), according to the publication Medical. Nationally, in 2009 and 2010, RNs over age 50 comprised approximately 30 percent of the hospital workforce.

The Florida Hospital Association said current nursing employment is being driven by several factors: Nurses who are delaying retirement, nurses who had previously left the workforce returning to work, and part-time nurses who are working more hours.

Older nurses will eventually leave the workforce and need to be replaced, yet some officials believe it will remain a slow, steady workforce transformation until the economy improves and the overall unemployment rate declines.

Wacker said Lake-Sumter State College is noticing the slow transformation.

"Because of the economy, people are staying longer and they are not retiring," Wacker said. "So our new graduates, and I just looked at a survey, some of them can't get jobs and they are going into other things. So it's a bad situation at three levels: Qualified applicants are being refused admission because we can only take the best and the brightest and who can make it; the faculty aging issue and nobody going into education; and then we the economic issue of the hospitals having to limit new hires because they don't have the attrition rates they would normally have for retirement."

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the registered nursing workforce will remain the "top occupation" in terms of job growth through 2020 across the country, with the number of employed nurses rising from 2.74 million in 2010 to 3.45 million in 2020. In addition to 712,000 new job openings, the department predicted 495,000 replacement hirings, bringing the total number of nursing job openings to 1.2 million in the next seven years.

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing said nursing school enrollment is not growing fast enough to meet the projected demand for registered nurses, given that 75,587 qualified applicants were turned away from U.S. nursing schools in 2011 because of an insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space and budget challenges.

Wacker believes residents can make a difference on the future of nursing education.

"I think it's important if they write to their legislators to see if more money can become available for BSN level nurses to get master's degrees in education to be able to teach, because that is the minimum requirement," said Wacker, who believes there needs to be an incentive for experienced BSN nurses to return to school to become teachers to teach future generations of aspiring nurses. 

Topics: growth, nursing boom, applicants, nurse, college

5 Nursing Jobs Poised for Big Growth

Posted by Alycia Sullivan

Fri, Nov 30, 2012 @ 02:53 PM

Article from CareerBuilder.com

The nursing shortage often lamented by policymakers and health care professionals appears to have eased during the recession, but experts warn that demand for nurses will rise sharply in the coming years. New data from the federal government appears to bear that out, showing that the nursing field is likely to add jobs rapidly over the coming decade.

That's according to employment projections released earlier this year by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Of the 30 occupations that will see the largest gain in new jobs between 2010 and 2020, six are in nursing. Registered nurses are at the very top of the list, with more new jobs projected than any other occupation. Home and personal care aides are poised for astronomical growth (around 70 percent), reflecting the large numbers of elderly people likely to need these services. 

These big gains follow the trend for the health care industry overall. The BLS projects that health care practitioners (a group that includes physicians, registered nurses, health technologists and others) will see the second-largest number of new jobs among all occupational groups: 2 million between 2010 and 2020, adding jobs at a rate of 25.9 percent. Health care support jobs (a category that includes personal care and home health aides, among others) will see the fastest growth of any occupational group: 1.4 million jobs between 2010 and 2020, at a rate of 34.5 percent.

The list below features six nursing jobs poised for major growth.

1. Registered nurses
Number of new jobs: 711,900
Growth rate: 26 percent
Overall rank (in number of new jobs created, among all occupations): 1
What they need: To complete a bachelor's degree in nursing, an associate degree in nursing or a diploma, plus pass a licensure exam
What they do: Treat and educate patients under the supervision of physicians, in a wide variety of health care settings

2. Home health aides
Number of new jobs: 706,300
Growth rate: 69.4 percent
Overall rank: 3
What they need: To complete a minimum 75-hour training program and pass a test or state certification exam
What they do: Provide basic nursing care for elderly and other needy patients in their homes

3. Personal care aides
Number of new jobs: 607,000
Growth rate: 70.5 percent
Overall rank: 4
What they need: To complete a training program
What they do: Perform duties similar to home health aides, but with a focus on household help, bathing and dressing

4. Nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants
Number of new jobs: 302,000
Growth rate: 20.1 percent
Overall rank: 11
What they need: Vocational or on-the-job training, plus certification requirements that vary by state and type of health care facility
What they do: Provide routine, hands-on care in a range of health care settings such as hospitals and nursing care facilities

5. Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses
Number of new jobs: 168,500
Growth rate: 22.4 percent
Overall rank: 28
What they need: To complete a one-year training program and pass a licensure exam
What they do: Care for patients under the supervision of registered nurses and physicians

6. Medical assistants
Number of new jobs: 162,900
Growth rate: 30.9 percent
Overall rank: 30
What they need: To complete a one- or two-year training program, either at a community college or vocational school, or on the job
What they do: Perform a range of clinical and administrative tasks in offices of physicians and other health care practitioners

Topics: jobs, growth, nursing

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