Whakawhiwhinga
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.
Ko te utu hei whiwhi — te haurua o te awhe.
Mō ngā marama o te whakaakoranga, i te wā katoa. Ka roa ake te wā wātea.
Ko ngā marama o te utu utu e hiahiatia ana hei whakawhāiti i taua utu. Kāore i te marama tae noa ki te wā e haere ana koe i mua i te katoa - ka tae mai te wā whakaakoranga i runga ake nei i te tuatahi.
Ka taea te whakataki te pūtake: US Department of Education, College Scorecard, Field of Study data, 2026 · kitenga
He aha taua taupū utu, he aha kāore i te mea.
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.
He tokomaha nga tāngata e pupuri ana i tēnei, he tokomaha hoki e mahi ana i roto i te āpure.
He maha nga tāngata e whiwhi ana i tēneia tau
226,946 people who passed the NCLEX-RN licensing exam for US licensure — 2025, calendar year 2025.
Kāore e tahuri ana tātau i taua ōrautanga. Ko tēnei he rerenga tau - ko ngā tāngata i whiwhi i te tohu i roto i tētahi tau. Ko ngā tau mahi he pūtea tūturu, he tangata katoa e mahi ana i te mahi i tētahi wā. Ko te wehenga o tētahi rerenga ki tētahi pūtea e whakaputa ana i tētahi tau e ako ana pērā ki te mokatere whakawhiwhinga, ā, kāore i te kotahi. I te wāhi e pupuri ana tātau i tētahi tatauranga tūturu o ngā kaipupuri tohu, ka whakaputaina e tātau te wāhanga i whakamahia; i tēnei wāhi kāore tātau i te kotahi, nō reira ka whakaputaina e tātau te rerenga, ka tū.
Ko te mea kei roto i taua tatau: 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) · kitenga
He aha te take o nga tāngata i oti te whakaakoranga?
E whā tau i muri i te whakamututanga, mai i ngā pūkete ā-iwi
Ko te mea 177,214 ngā tāngata i oti Registered nursing, bachelor's degree Kāore anō rātau kia ako i te whā tau i muri mai, 4,421 Kāore i whiwhi i te moni i runga i te pūkete — 2.5%. Ko ērā i mahi i whiwhi i tētahi tauwaenga o te 100. $88,910, me te haurua o waenganui i waenganui $67,853 me $114,470.
Kāore he "whakahaere i te pūkete" e kore ana e "kore mahi". Ko te inenga ko te korenga o tētahi pūkete utu me tētahi moni whiwhinga tōrunga mō te tau katoa. Kāore i pātaihia e tētahi mēnā e hiahiatia ana e rātou te mahi, nō reira ka pupuri te tatau i ngā tāngata i mahue te kaha mahi i te kōwhiringa - te whakawhanake i ngā tamariki, te tiaki, te haere, te noho i runga i te moni whiwhinga o tētahi atu tangata, te neke atu ki waho - i te taha o ia e hiahia ana ki tētahi mahi ā, kāore i te whai. Kāore e whakaputaina e tētahi te wehenga, ā, kāore e whakaaro ana tātau. Ko te mea e whakatau ana he maha ngā tāngata i oti tēnei whakaakoranga, ā, kāore i whiwhi i tētahi atu mea mai i a ia, mai i ētahi atu mea rānei i te whā tau, ko te mea e kore e taea e te tau o te utu ki runga te kī ki a koe.
Ko te mea e tautuhi ana te waehere papatono: 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.
Ko wai i roto i te kohoro: Ko te nuinga o nga kaiako i whiwhi i te āwhina ā-iwi o te ākonga - tata ki te haurua o nga ākonga US, ā, kāore i te ine i tēnei wāhi. Ko ngā tāngata i haere ki te akoranga ā-whāiti, kāore i roto i te tīwae kotahi. Ko te Tari e whakakore ana i ngā whare wānanga me ngā rōpū iti rawa hei whakaputa, ā, ka tāpiri i te pōhēhētanga tatauranga ki te toenga, nō reira ko tēnei he taumaha i runga i ngā whare wānanga nui rawa ki te pūrongo: 825 o rātau, e whakaora ana 97.1% Ko te tatau ā-motu o te Tari mō tēnei papatono. Ka neke te mokatere o te whakawāteatanga o ngā papatono pūrongo iti rawa 0.0 Ko ngā pūwāhi ōrautanga.
Ka taea te whakataki te pūtake: US Department of Education, College Scorecard, Field of Study data, 2026 — release of 10 June 2026; measured four years after completion · kitenga · te taurite ōrite mō ia papatono ka taea e tātau te whakaputa
Ko te mea e whakaae ana ia kia mahia e koe
Ko te utu e pā ana ki te mahi, ehara i te tohu. Ko ēnei ngā mahi e whakaaetia ana e ia.
| He mahi | E hiahiatia ana? | Median | Ka mahi |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
Ko te utu me te mahi pāpāho: BLS Kaimahi me ngā Tatauranga Uara, Mei 2025.
E utu ana rātau mō rātau anō?
Ko te mahi e whakawātea ana tēnei e utu ana i tētahi tauwaenga o $97,550. Ko te pūtahi o te mahi-tō- $50,020, Nō reira ko te utu mo te pupuri i tēnei e tata ana ki $47,530 kotahi tau i mua i te tāke.
Ka pānui tēnei hei whakataurite ki tētahi mahi noa iho, ehara i te āhua o tōmu mahi. He aha taua raina taketake, me te mea e waiho ana i waho
Ka whakaaro hoki ka whiwhi i te mahi. Ko ia whika utu i tēnei pae e whakawhāiti ana ki te whakawhiwhinga ki te mahi. Ko te whakaaro tonu ko te tatau o te kaipupuri tohu i runga ake nei kia whakamātautia, ā, ko te whakaaro tonu e mahi ai ia atu pae utu.
Ko te mea e hiahiatia ana e koe i mua i te tīmatanga
- A place on an accredited nursing programme
- A criminal background check — every state board runs one
Kāore i te mahi tēnei mēnā
- 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
Ko ngā tohu katoa, e te wā whakawhiwhinga · He pēhea te tatau i tēnei · Ka rapu i tētahi atu mea