Top 10 Highest Paying Nursing Professions in 2024

Are you a nurse? Or do you want to enter into the nursing profession? Well, this article is for you; make sure you stick around to the end of this article, as I’ll be revealing the best nursing profession that pays the highest.

Note that these prices may differ based on the location you are working at and the nature of the firm you’re working with. Nursing is a great field to enter as it has many opportunities.

I’ll be counting down from number 10, so please read till the end to know the highest-paid profession in nursing.

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Highest Paying Nursing Jobs in 2023

#10. Nurse Researchers

Nurse researchers make about $78,000 to $90,000 a year. They usually do is that they work in universities, labs, and other places where they do research. So they work on journals, presentations, and all the background information of nursing.

They put a lot of work into making journal articles and studies to determine which nursing practices work best.

#9. Travel Nurses

Travel nurses make an average of about $75,000 to $100,000 annually. This is a broad aspect of nursing because a travel nurse can work in any field. It could be emergency nurses, ICU travel nurses, MedSurg travel nurses, etc. Basically, there is a travel nurse for any field you can think of.

Travel nurses make more than regular nurses because they leave their homes or residence for assignments in other cities or states. The assignment could be in a couple of weeks or months, depending on the nature of the assignment.

They get paid for housing, transportation, and sometimes food outside their basic salary.

#8. Nurse-midwives 

Nurse-midwives make around $97,000 a year. What nurse-midwives do is follow women throughout pregnancy and help in delivery. They also take care of the mother and baby’s health. 

This is a great option for women that love labor and delivery. They also do at-home births, and sometimes they can work in the hospital. They have their practice and can work even at birthing centers. There are a lot of job opportunities in that field.

#7. Mental health nurse practitioners 

They make around the same $97,000 a year as the nurse-midwives. These nurse practitioners work mainly with psychological disorders, mental illness, schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, and so on. They see all those patients. So, these nurse practitioners can work either in outpatient settings like offices or with patients inside a facility.

They can also see patients in a psych consult; that’s what they do; they attend to patients needing mental solutions.

#6. Pediatric nurse practitioners 

Pediatric nurse practitioners make about $99,000 a year. They have two different road maps. They can either work outpatient or inpatient, with a little pay difference. 

Inpatients get paid a little bit more than outpatients. A pediatric nurse practitioner follows the care of a baby into a child into an adolescent. You can have solely a nurse practitioner or a practitioner who works alongside a doctor. If you’re in a state allowing nurse practitioners to practice independently, you can take your child there.

#5. Family nurse practitioner

This is quite similar to the pediatric nurse practitioner unless the pediatric nurse practitioner or family nurse practitioner sees everything from a baby to a 100-year-old. They see the entire spectrum.

This is for those who don’t want to specialize or do one particular thing; they need to get a warrant for a degree and then go from there.

#4. Nursing professors 

This is one aspect that many often do not discuss, but someone has to teach this to upcoming nurses; that is why we are informing you. If you like teaching, mentoring, or tutoring students on the nursing line, then you will probably like to be a nursing professor.

One interesting thing about the nursing professor career is that if you practice one area, but like the other area, you can teach it in nursing school.

One exciting thing about the nursing professor is that you can go along with your students to clinical, which is cool.

#3. NICU nurse practitioners

Nicu is a neonatal ICU. This is where premature or sick babies go when they’re born. Nurse practitioners in this field manage the baby’s care alongside a neonatologist. So they plan carefully and make others follow the baby’s care throughout hospitalization.

This is similar to every other nurse practitioner, just that this case is in an ICU setting, which is why the pay is slightly greater.

#2. Gerontology nurse practitioner 

A gerontology nurse practitioner makes about $107,000 per year, similar to a family nurse practitioner. The difference is that this is leaning more toward the older population.

This is for people who love working with older people; if you do not like kids and have no desire to work with kids, then you can consider this field. The majority of people in this profession work in outpatient settings. 

#1. CRNA

CRNA means certified registered nurse anesthetist. They make around $160,000 a year, which is amazing. CRNA prepares patients to go under anesthesia. They prep the medication; they prep the patients; they incubate and watch the patient’s care throughout the surgery or procedure.

They work in dentist offices, outpatient surgery, and inpatient surgery; they work in different fields that you can go into to see a CRNA. They require about one or two years of ICU experience before entering the program.

So, these is our top 10 nursing professions you should consider.

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