INFOGRAPHIC: Making the Move to Registered Nurse

As America's population grows older, medical staff is highly sought after across the country. Few professions are in greater demand than nursing, where new graduates can slide into a career quickly given the need to add over seven hundred thousand new nurses between 2010 and 2020. 

Yet, despite the rosy outlook for job opportunities, pay, and advancement, not all nurses are created equal. Registered nurses, or RNs, are at the top of the pecking order when it comes to careers, enjoying higher salaries and more job flexibility than other nursing professionals.

An RN’s responsibilities go beyond typical nursing duties, and include consulting with patients, administering treatments, developing custom care plans, and performing diagnostic tests. What's more, Carrington College reminds nurses that, as an RN, they can choose a specialty that fits their strengths and work preferences, such as neonatal or medical-surgical.

RNs have an exciting and rewarding career track ahead of them that goes far beyond basic care to patients. They can choose a career trajectory that includes management (such as the Chief Nursing Officer), business (such as manager of a care business), or education (as a professor of nursing at medical colleges and universities).