Nurses are one of the least happy careers in the United States.
At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, nurses rate their career happiness 2.7 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 13% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy nurses are to similar careers in the industry. Take a look at the results below:
Salaries and satisfaction ratings in similar careers
| Career | Satisfaction | Avg Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Pharmacy technician | 2.8 | $18k |
| Medical administrative assistant | 2.8 | $19k |
| Clinical nurse specialist | 2.8 | $83k |
| Medical billing and coding technician | 2.7 | $40k |
| Registered nurse | 2.7 | $71k |
| Nurse | 2.7 | $70k |
| Pharmacist | 2.7 | $107k |
| Orderly | 2.6 | $26k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are nurses happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do nurses find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as nurses?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are nurse’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are nurses making the best use of their abilities?
Are nurses happy with their salary?
Nurses rated their satisfaction with their salaries 3.0/5. Few are explicitly unhappy with their salaries, with most nurses having generally positive views of their salary.
We asked nurses how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
3.0 out of 5 stars
2925 nurses
14% of nurses rated their compensation 5 stars
26% of nurses rated their compensation 4 stars
27% of nurses rated their compensation 3 stars
19% of nurses rated their compensation 2 stars
14% of nurses rated their compensation 1 stars
Do nurses find their jobs meaningful?
On average, nurses rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.2/5. Most tend to be satisified with the level of meaning they find in their careers.
We asked nurses how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
2927 nurses
21% of nurses rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
25% of nurses rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
24% of nurses rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
17% of nurses rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
14% of nurses rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as nurses?
Nurses rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.7/5. The majority of nurses find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked nurses how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.7 out of 5 stars
3101 nurses
31% of nurses rated their career fit 5 stars
30% of nurses rated their career fit 4 stars
21% of nurses rated their career fit 3 stars
12% of nurses rated their career fit 2 stars
7% of nurses rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a nurse’s work environment?
As a whole, nurses rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.1/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.
We asked nurses how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.1 out of 5 stars
3101 nurses
16% of nurses rated their work environment 5 stars
24% of nurses rated their work environment 4 stars
26% of nurses rated their work environment 3 stars
21% of nurses rated their work environment 2 stars
13% of nurses rated their work environment 1 stars
Are nurses making the best use of their abilities?
Former nurses on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.1/5. Most nurses are satisfied with how well their abilities are skills are made of use.
We asked nurses how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.1 out of 5 stars
3113 nurses
18% of nurses rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
23% of nurses rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
26% of nurses rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
20% of nurses rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
13% of nurses rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars