In the midst of this pandemic, the health care industry has been on the front lines of battling COVID-19. While many people in many different jobs are involved in providing health care services, the most common occupation in health care is Registered Nurses. As a matter of fact, there are about 71,000 Registered Nurses in the state of Minnesota, making it the third largest occupation in the state. At that level, about 1 in every 40 employed workers is a Registered Nurse (RN).
RNs are in high demand across the state, but there have been difficulties training new RNs due to testing and clinical bottlenecks. Organizations like HealthForce Minnesota are working to help recruit and retain an expanded and more diverse student population in healthcare careers. Successful RNs have strong skills in interpersonal relationships and communication, as they have to work directly with both patients and health care teams, including doctors and other nurses. Empathy is also a valuable trait for successful nurses given the wide variety of ailments their patients may be going through at any given time.
Registered Nurses are responsible for a wide variety of work tasks that require skills such as high attention to detail, active listening, social perceptiveness, coordination, supervision, and critical thinking. Work duties include maintaining accurate and detailed reports and records, administering medications to patients, recording patients’ medical information and vital signs, consulting with health care teams, modifying treatment plans, and supervising less-skilled nursing staff.
Registered Nurses are the highest ranked in-demand occupation in the state according to DEED’s Occupations in Demand data and is in the top ten in demand occupations in all six planning regions, including number one in both the Southeast and Southwest regions. Median wages for Registered Nurses are $38.16 per hour, with half of the Registered Nurses employed in the state earning hourly wages between $32.66 and $45.62.
High demand for Registered Nurses is also reflected in DEED’s statewide Job Vacancy data where there were 2,450 openings for nurses in the 4th Quarter of 2019. Median wage offers for these Registered Nurse job vacancies sat at $29.44 per hour. There is a little variation for the educational requirements for Registered Nurses according to DEED’s Educational Requirements for Occupations data, which shows that 54% of the job openings in the state require an Associate’s Degree while 41% require a Bachelor’s Degree.
If you are interested in more information about opportunities as a Registered Nurse, check out Jobs in Demand here on the CareerForceMN.com website for wage ranges, educational and training requirements, current open positions in Minnesota and more.
Need help developing your job search strategy, updating your resume or preparing for interviews? Contact staff at a CareerForce location near you!
