Fast Facts about Nurses in America

About America’s Nurses

Listed below are fast facts according to the 2004 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses conducted by the Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

• Number of licensed registered nurses (RNs) in the United States grew by almost 8 percent between 2000 and 2004 to a new high of 2.9 million
• Average age of RNs climbed to 46.8 years, the highest average age since the first comparable report was published in 1980.
• Just over 41 percent of RNs were 50 years of age or older (33 percent in 2000 and 25 percent in 1980).
• Only 8 percent of RNs were under the age of 30, compared with 25 percent in 1980.
• Average annual earnings for RNs were $57,785.
• Real earnings (comparable dollars over time) have grown almost 14 percent since 2000, the first significant increase in more than a decade.
• Employment in nursing rose to more than 83 percent of RNs with active licenses, the highest since 1980.
• RNs with master's or doctorate degrees rose to 376,901, an increase of 37 percent from 2000.

The Nursing Shortage

• The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that employment opportunities in the nursing profession will have greater than average growth.  
• This RN shortage will continue to grow if current trends continue.  

Appropriate Staffing and Other Issues in Patient Safety

• The risk of making an error greatly increases when nurses work shifts longer than 12 hours, when they work significant overtime, or when they work more than 40 hours per week.  
• Adding half an hour of RN staffing per patient day could reduce pneumonia in surgical patients by over 4 percent.  
• Higher nurse-to-patient ratios are associated with a lower incidence of nearly all adverse outcomes. One major study found a 10-percent increase in the number of licensed nurses is estimated to decrease lung collapse by 1.5 percent, pressure ulcers by 2 percent, falls by 3 percent, and urinary track infections by less than 1 percent.  
• In hospitals with high RN staffing, medical patients had lower rates of five adverse patient outcomes (UTIs, pneumonia, shock, upper gastrointestinal bleeding, and longer hospital stay) than patients in hospitals with low RN staffing.
• Higher staffing at all levels of nursing was associated with a 2- to 25-percent reduction in adverse outcomes, depending on the outcome.

Nurses on The Job

• In 2004, 3 out of 5 nursing jobs were in hospitals.  
• Median annual earnings of registered nurses were $52,330 in May 2004.