Celebrating Nurses Week.
Some facts about my invaluable colleagues...
This week is National Nurses Week in the US, and Sunday, May 12th is International Nurses Day.
I’ll just say it right up front. Without registered nurses (RNs), I couldn’t be remotely effective as an ER physician. So, to celebrate and highlight my colleagues, I’ll share a few facts and figures in a moment. But as an ER doc, there’s something that no infographic or data can ever capture, which I want to share first—and that is this: There is no piece of information as valuable to me as when an ER nurse approaches me to express concern about the clinical status of a patient under our mutual care. In almost all cases, I will stop whatever it is I am doing and immediately follow that nurse directly back to the patient’s room. ER nurses are particularly amazing because they have so much experience with patients across the spectrum of illness severity that they truly know when (and, frankly, when not) to sound the alarm. Indeed, they pick up subtle changes early and often, and they rarely “cry wolf.” In statistical terms, when an ER nurse comes to me to voice a worry about a patient’s status, both the sensitivity and specificity of that alert are very high.
Five facts about nurses.
1. They’re the largest part of the workforce.
At 4.7 million RNs in the US, nurses are the largest percentage of the healthcare workforce. The pandemic saw a drop in the nursing workforce, but there has been a recovery.
2. Nurses are the most trusted.
Patients like nurses too. In fact, in surveys, US adults consistently rate nurses as among the most trusted of professionals—not just in healthcare, but overall. Here are the results from a 2023 Gallup poll (I included all healthcare categories they listed, plus a few others for context).
Am I a little jealous? Maybe!
3. The gender/sex imbalance is changing.
Women make up nearly 90% of nurses in the US, but the percentage of men in the nursing profession has increased, most recently from 9.4% to 11.2% (from 2020 to 2022).
4. Nurses are highly educated.
Nearly 72% of nurses in the US have a college degree or higher for nursing, 17.4% have a master’s degree, and 2.7% have a doctoral degree.
5. Nursing continues to be a source of employment.
According to the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics, nursing jobs are expected to grow by 6% in the coming decade (which is faster than the average profession). And nursing is reasonably well compensated, with a median pay of $86,070 per year. (I say “reasonably” because nurses work really hard and they should all get a raise, if I have anything to say about it.) That said, for anyone considering nursing school, I highly recommend looking into the success and stability of any training institution. As MedPage Today has reported, there are some for-profit mills that are more than happy to take student money but not deliver adequate results. But there are plenty of excellent programs out there.
Happy Nurses Week! And to any RNs reading this: Thanks! You’re a lifesafer!
Thank you for this! Our daughter is in a direct nursing program in Nashville and we are beyond grateful for the education she is receiving and what she will be able to do in this world to make a difference! Thank you nurses!