Registered 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, registered nurses rate their career happiness 2.7 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 13% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy registered 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Neurodiagnostic technologist | 2.8 | $46k |
| Clinical nurse specialist | 2.8 | $78k |
| Healthcare social worker | 2.8 | $61k |
| Medical billing and coding technician | 2.7 | $40k |
| Speech language pathologist | 2.7 | $79k |
| Registered nurse | 2.7 | $78k |
| Nurse | 2.7 | $44k |
| Nuclear medicine technologist | 2.7 | $79k |
| Pharmacist | 2.7 | $129k |
| Orderly | 2.6 | $26k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are registered nurses happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do registered nurses find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as registered nurses?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are registered nurse’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are registered nurses making the best use of their abilities?
Are registered nurses happy with their salary?
Registered nurses rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.3/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most registered nurses having generally positive views of their salary.
We asked registered nurses how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.3 out of 5 stars
1033 registered nurses
15% of registered nurses rated their compensation 5 stars
34% of registered nurses rated their compensation 4 stars
25% of registered nurses rated their compensation 3 stars
16% of registered nurses rated their compensation 2 stars
9% of registered nurses rated their compensation 1 stars
Do registered nurses find their jobs meaningful?
On average, registered 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 registered nurses how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
1034 registered nurses
20% of registered nurses rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
24% of registered nurses rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
24% of registered nurses rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
19% of registered nurses rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
12% of registered nurses rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as registered nurses?
Registered nurses rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.7/5. The majority of registered nurses find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked registered nurses how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.7 out of 5 stars
1101 registered nurses
29% of registered nurses rated their career fit 5 stars
32% of registered nurses rated their career fit 4 stars
22% of registered nurses rated their career fit 3 stars
11% of registered nurses rated their career fit 2 stars
6% of registered nurses rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a registered nurse’s work environment?
As a whole, registered 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 registered nurses how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
1102 registered nurses
15% of registered nurses rated their work environment 5 stars
28% of registered nurses rated their work environment 4 stars
27% of registered nurses rated their work environment 3 stars
20% of registered nurses rated their work environment 2 stars
11% of registered nurses rated their work environment 1 stars
Are registered nurses making the best use of their abilities?
Former registered nurses on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.3/5. Most registered nurses are satisfied with how well their abilities are skills are made of use.
We asked registered nurses how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.3 out of 5 stars
1103 registered nurses
20% of registered nurses rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
26% of registered nurses rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
27% of registered nurses rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
19% of registered nurses rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
8% of registered nurses rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars