The average day for a nurse is all but boring. Nurses on average walk 4 miles a day, which is nearly one mile more than a 5k run. On an average working day in America, nurses walk 4,697,144 miles, which if you took off walking across the U.S., you could do it 1,753 times.
So, how many nurses make up these statistics? Currently, there are around three million licensed Registered Nurses in the United States, which means there are 1,174,286 nurses that work on an average day. Each nurse will see an average of 6.9 patients per day, that is an average of 8,102,573 Americans that are cared for by a nurse every day. With that being said, 2.5% of America’s total population is a nurse’s patient.
The Institute of Medicine has a goal that by 2020 we will have an increase of nurses with Bachelor’s degree or higher to 80% and to double the population of nurses with doctoral degrees. Today, of the 3 million licensed RN’s in the US 13.5% of them have a masters and doctorate degree, 36.8% with a bachelors, 36.1% have an associates degree and 13.9% diploma in nursing. With every 10% increase of a Bachelors in Nursing, there is a 4% decrease in risk of death.
The nursing field is a very lucrative occupation and employed registered nurses are projected to grow 26% to 3.45 million by 2020. Therefore, nursing is the top occupation in terms of job growth. So, if you’re looking for a rewarding job to change the world, become a nurse.
Check out the infographic below presented by Jacksonville University School of Nursing to learn more about the day in the life of a nurse.
