Licensed practical nurses are one of the least happy careers in the United States.
At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, licensed practical nurses rate their career happiness 2.8 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 17% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy licensed practical nurses are to similar careers in the industry. Take a look at the results below:
Salaries and satisfaction ratings in similar careers
| Career | Satisfaction | Avg Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Cardiovascular technologist | 2.9 | $59k |
| Orthotist | 2.9 | $71k |
| Personal care aide | 2.8 | $25k |
| Home health aide | 2.8 | $25k |
| Psychiatric technician | 2.8 | $23k |
| Licensed practical nurse | 2.8 | $41k |
| Medical laboratory technologist | 2.8 | $65k |
| Pharmacy technician | 2.8 | $18k |
| Medical administrative assistant | 2.8 | $19k |
| Clinical nurse specialist | 2.8 | $83k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are licensed practical nurses happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do licensed practical nurses find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as licensed practical nurses?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are licensed practical nurse’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are licensed practical nurses making the best use of their abilities?
Are licensed practical nurses happy with their salary?
Licensed practical nurses rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.0/5. Licensed practical nurses tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked licensed practical nurses how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.0 out of 5 stars
404 licensed practical nurses
9% of licensed practical nurses rated their compensation 5 stars
23% of licensed practical nurses rated their compensation 4 stars
33% of licensed practical nurses rated their compensation 3 stars
22% of licensed practical nurses rated their compensation 2 stars
12% of licensed practical nurses rated their compensation 1 stars
Do licensed practical nurses find their jobs meaningful?
On average, licensed practical nurses rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.2/5. Most tend to be satisified with the level of meaning they find in their careers.
We asked licensed practical nurses how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
407 licensed practical nurses
18% of licensed practical nurses rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
23% of licensed practical nurses rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
30% of licensed practical nurses rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
16% of licensed practical nurses rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
13% of licensed practical nurses rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as licensed practical nurses?
Licensed practical nurses rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.7/5. The majority of licensed practical nurses find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked licensed practical nurses how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.7 out of 5 stars
444 licensed practical nurses
29% of licensed practical nurses rated their career fit 5 stars
35% of licensed practical nurses rated their career fit 4 stars
20% of licensed practical nurses rated their career fit 3 stars
9% of licensed practical nurses rated their career fit 2 stars
7% of licensed practical nurses rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a licensed practical nurse’s work environment?
As a whole, licensed practical nurses rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.2/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.
We asked licensed practical nurses how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
444 licensed practical nurses
17% of licensed practical nurses rated their work environment 5 stars
27% of licensed practical nurses rated their work environment 4 stars
26% of licensed practical nurses rated their work environment 3 stars
18% of licensed practical nurses rated their work environment 2 stars
11% of licensed practical nurses rated their work environment 1 stars
Are licensed practical nurses making the best use of their abilities?
Former licensed practical nurses on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.0/5. Most licensed practical nurses are satisfied with how well their abilities are skills are made of use.
We asked licensed practical nurses how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.0 out of 5 stars
453 licensed practical nurses
14% of licensed practical nurses rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
26% of licensed practical nurses rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
24% of licensed practical nurses rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
22% of licensed practical nurses rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
14% of licensed practical nurses rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars