Did you know….?
There are nearly 3.1 million registered nurses in the United States and 2.4 million of them are actively employed.
The American Nurses Association was founded in 1896. Isabel Adams Hampton Robb was the first president of the American Nurses Association.
According to projections released from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, RNs top the list of the top ten occupations with the largest projected job growth in the years 2002-2012. Although RNs made the top ten in years past, this was the first time in recent history that RNs have ranked first.
There are over 240,000 advanced practice nurses in the United States. Of these, approximately 144,200 are nurse practitioners, 69,000 are clinical nurse specialists, 13,700 are nurse midwives and 32,500 are nurse anesthetists.
The research indicates that advanced practice registered nurses can provide 60 to 80 percent of primary care services as well as or better than most physicians and at a lesser cost. Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia allow advanced practice nurses to prescribe medications.
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported that a recent study revealed that patients fared just as well when treated by nurse practitioners as they did when treated by physicians.
Americans registered nurses report that health and safety concerns play a major role in their decisions to remain in the profession, according to a recent finding from Health and Safety Survey. In the survey, over 70% of nurses cited that the acute and chronic effects of stress and overwork as one of their top three health and safety concerns. Yet nurses still continue to push harder; with more than two-thirds reporting that they work some type of unplanned overtime every month.
There are many more interesting facts and surveys that only corroborate what we all know. Nurses are the backbone of the healthcare system and work as hard as they ever did.