Credencial
Registered nurse licence (RN)
The licence you cannot work as a registered nurse without. Two routes lead to the same exam and the same licence — a two-year associate degree or a four-year bachelor's — and they cost very different amounts.
O que custa conseguir, a metade media do rango.
Meses de adestramento a tempo completo, medio tempo leva máis tempo.
Meses da prima de salario necesarios para cubrir ese custo. Non meses ata que estea por diante en xeral - o tempo de adestramento de riba vén primeiro.
Fonte: US Department of Education, College Scorecard, Field of Study data, 2026 · vista
O que é esa cifra de custo, e o que non é
The low end is the 25th percentile across institutions offering the two-year associate route; the high end is the 75th percentile across institutions offering the four-year bachelor's. That range is median cumulative FEDERAL LOAN DEBT at completion, not a tuition sticker price and not total cost. It is what completers actually borrowed, so it excludes grants, savings, family money, employer funding and living costs — which makes it a FLOOR on what the credential costs, never a ceiling. The low and high figures are the 25th and 75th percentiles across the institutions that report a figure for this programme, so a quarter of institutions sit below the low end. College Scorecard pools two award years into each figure; the release used here is dated 10 June 2026.
Two years full time for the associate route, four for the bachelor's. Both end at the same NCLEX-RN exam and the same licence, and employers increasingly prefer the bachelor's — which is the reason the cheaper route is not automatically the better one.
The licence renews every one to three years depending on the state, with continuing-education requirements attached.
Cantos homes teñen isto, e cantos están traballando no campo
Cantos gañan isto cada ano
226,946 people who passed the NCLEX-RN licensing exam for US licensure — 2025, calendar year 2025.
Non o convertimos en porcentaxe. Este é un fluxo anual, as persoas que obtiveron a credencial nun ano. As cifras de emprego son un stock permanente, todos traballando na ocupación ao mesmo tempo. Dividir un fluxo nun stock produce un número que se le como unha taxa de contratación e non é un. Cando temos unha conta permanente de titulares de credenciais publicamos a parte empregada; aquí non temos unha, así que publicamos o fluxo e paramos.
O que inclúe esa conta: Everyone who passed the NCLEX-RN for US licensure during 2025 — first-time and repeat, US-educated and internationally educated. 328,443 people sat it and 226,946 passed, a 69.1% pass rate. A candidate can pass only once, so this is close to a count of nurses becoming licensable in that year. It excludes candidates sitting the exam for Canadian registration, whom NCSBN reports separately, and it is not a count of anyone holding a licence today.
NCSBN also publishes a count of active RN LICENCES — 6,062,790 as at 24 July 2026 — and we deliberately do not use it. That is licences, not nurses: a nurse holding single-state licences in four states appears four times, and NCSBN publishes no de-duplicated figure. Dividing employment into it would produce a share of about 56% that understates how many licensed nurses are working, so we publish the exam flow instead and no percentage at all.
NCSBN, 2025 NCLEX Examination Statistics, Research Brief vol. 96 (June 2026), Table 1 (People newly credentialed during one year) · vista
Que lle pasou á xente que rematou o adestramento?
Catro anos despois de rematar, dos rexistros federais
De 177,214 persoas que completaron Registered nursing, bachelor's degree e xa non estudaban catro anos despois, 4,421 non tiña ingresos rexistrados en absoluto — 2.5%. Os que traballaban gañaban unha media de $88,910, coa metade media entre $67,853 e $114,470.
"Non hai ingresos rexistrados" non é "desempregado". A medida é a ausencia de calquera rexistro salarial e de ingresos positivos por autoemprego durante todo o ano. A ninguén se lle preguntou se quería traballar, polo que a conta inclúe a xente que deixou a forza de traballo por elección - criar fillos, coidar, viaxar, vivir cos ingresos doutra persoa, mudarse ao estranxeiro - xunto con todos os que querían un traballo e non tiñan ningún. Ninguén publica a división e non a adiviñaremos. O que si establece é cantas persoas remataron esta formación e non gañaban nada dela ou de calquera outra cousa catro anos despois, que é exactamente o que a cifra de salario de riba non pode dicir.
O que cobre o código do programa: CIP 51.38 is registered nursing, together with nursing administration, nursing research and clinical nursing specialisms. At associate and bachelor's level it is almost entirely pre-licensure programmes leading to the NCLEX-RN, so the figure can fairly be read as being about becoming a registered nurse. At master's level and above it also carries nurse practitioners, nurse anaesthetists, nurse midwives, nurse educators and nursing administrators, which are different jobs with different pay.
This is the four-year bachelor's route. The two-year associate route is a separate federal row and comes out at 3.0% not working, against 2.5% here — the cheaper route does slightly worse on this measure, and both are among the best outcomes published.
Quen está na cohorte: os que remataron os estudos e recibiron axuda federal para estudantes - aproximadamente a metade dos estudantes de licenciatura dos EUA, e a outra metade non se mide aquí. As persoas que continuaron os estudos non están en ningunha das columnas. O Departamento suprime as institucións con cohortes demasiado pequenas para publicar e engade ruído estatístico ao resto, polo que esta é unha suma das institucións grandes o suficiente para informar: 825 dos cales, recuperándose 97.1% do propio Departamento de conta nacional para este programa. Se se eliminan os programas de informes máis pequenos, a taxa móvese en 0.0 puntos porcentuais.
Fonte: US Department of Education, College Scorecard, Field of Study data, 2026 — release of 10 June 2026; measured four years after completion · vista · a mesma cifra para cada programa que poidamos publicar
O que permite facer
O salario pertence ao traballo, non á credencial. Estas son as ocupacións para as que te cualifica.
| Traballo | É necesario? | Mediana | Emprego |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registered Nurses | Legally required to hold the job | $97,550 | 3,379,720 |
| Nurse Practitioners Requires an active RN licence plus a master's or doctorate. |
A step towards it, not sufficient on its own | $132,300 | 323,040 |
| Nurse Anesthetists Requires an active RN licence, critical-care experience and a doctorate. |
A step towards it, not sufficient on its own | $236,590 | 51,840 |
| Nurse Midwives Requires an active RN licence plus a graduate midwifery programme. |
A step towards it, not sufficient on its own | $134,040 | 7,920 |
"Median pay and employment: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025" (en inglés).
Paga por si só?
O traballo que isto desbloquea paga unha mediana de $97,550. A media ponderada polo emprego en cada ocupación que publicamos é $50,020, Así que a prima por manter isto é de $47,530 un ano antes dos impostos.
Léao como unha comparación cun traballo medio, non co seu traballo. O que é esa liña base e o que deixa fóra
E supón que consegues o traballo. Cada cifra de retorno neste sitio está condicionada a ser contratada para o traballo. Esa é a suposición que a contaxe de titulares de credenciais de riba existe para probar, e é a suposición que todos os outros sitios de pago fan silenciosamente.
O que precisa antes de comezar
- A place on an accredited nursing programme
- A criminal background check — every state board runs one
Non faga isto se
- you cannot pass a criminal background check, which every board requires
- you are not prepared to work nights, weekends and holidays for years
- you cannot physically lift, turn and move adult patients
Todas as credenciais, polo período de amortización · Como se calcula isto · Procurar outra cousa