Shout out to all our Nurse Practitioners out there! Did you see this, and do you agree? Is #NursePractitionerLife the best possible life?⁣

Every year, U.S. News & World Report releases new rankings of the Best Jobs in America, and this year NPs aren’t just listed as the best job in health care … they’ve got the best job, period, in the whole country!

Why Nurse Practitioners Are Ranked #1

So what Nurse Practitioner job benefits did U.S. News & World Report value so highly?

For each job, the publication weighed up several key features of the profession. Future prospects count the most. Using BLS Employment Projections, they accounted for how many people are estimated to be employed as NPs in ten years, how fast that number is growing, and how many Nurse Practitioner job openings are projected to appear in this time. It turns out NPs do especially well on this count, scoring a fabulous 9.9 out of 10!

Wage potential counts heavily too. Again relying on BLS data, the ranking looked at the median Nurse Practitioner wage, the range of NP wages, and the rate of NP wage growth. To assemble the ranking, U.S. News & World Report also examined various metrics about employment, unemployment, and part-time employment rates, as well as the amount of on-the-job training required to become a Nurse Practitioner.

• Do you feel your current NP position doesn’t live up to the hype? Explore top Nurse Practitioner job openings where you can fulfill your potential!

Finally, the publication took data into account that have to do with safety, stability, and work-life balance. NPs only got a middling 5.3 grade on that last count. But with Nurse Practitioner career prospects for upward mobility so high, they decided that it more than makes up for an above-average stress level.⁣

Summary: Three reasons why Nurse Practitioners have the best job in America

1. Excellent future career prospects
2. High upward mobility
3. Above-average wage potential

Top Healthcare Jobs: Nurse Practitioners vs. CRNAs, SLPs and PAs

The ranking also contains great news for Nurse Anesthetists, whose job features in the top 20 of America’s 100 Best Jobs as well. Thanks to outstanding wage potential and high upward mobility, CRNAs are considered to have the fifth-best job in healthcare. That gets them in the top 10% of the healthcare jobs listed in the ranking, underscoring the vaunted reputation of CRNA career prospects.

Healthcare professions feature heavily among America’s top jobs in general. Physician Assistants, for example, are ranked as the third-best possible job in the whole country, thanks especially to great future prospects. For similar reasons, Speech-Language Pathologists come in at number 9 — and we’ve got many SLP job opportunities and PA positions for you to explore.

How do Registered Nurse jobs compare?

Registered Nurses collectively come in at a less favorable, but still pretty decent #18 in the top healthcare jobs ranking, and #54 overall. Better than being a sports coach, dentist or art director apparently!

Personally, though, we think RN job opportunities are too diverse to be done justice in a ranking like this. Depending on your specialty and where you live, wages for Registered Nurses will range from top-paying jobs to undervalued, and there’s an enormous gap between the most stressful and least stressful RN jobs. Reviewing the huge variety among the thousands of RN openings on our site, it feels a little foolish to make any generalizations about the work — for better or for worse!

Things look more unambiguously grim for our valued LPN and LVN colleagues, however, whose much-needed hard work remains shamefully under-appreciated. Facing an above average stress level, below average upward mobility, and a low work-life balance score, they are left being ranked #30 in healthcare and #88 overall by U.S. News & World Report.

That’s no reflection on your skills or efforts, but a wake-up call for your employers to improve your working conditions! We can’t force them to give you your due, but if you’re not getting recognized for your work, the best way to improve your prospects is to always keep exploring your options.