Why Nurse Practitioner Is the No. 1 Job of 2024
There are lots of opportunities for these healthcare workers, and demand is growing.
The median annual salary for nurse practitioners is $121,610, according to the BLS.
These factors contribute to nurse practitioner taking the No. 1 spot in this year’s 100 Best Jobs list, up one spot from last year’s rankings. It also swept the top spots for U.S News’ Best Health Care Jobs and Best STEM Jobs rankings.
Read on to learn more about why nurse practitioners are in such high demand and why this profession may be a good choice for those who are interested in a career in patient care.
The Growing Need
“There are several factors that are contributing to the increasing demand for nurse practitioners, including the increasing primary care and health care workforce shortages, aging population, changing health care landscape, and patient preferences,” says Olivia MJ Newby, president of the Virginia Council of Nurse Practitioners. She adds, “Because 88% of NPs are certified in primary care, NPs are able to help fill these primary care gaps.”
While jobs in the health care field are typically in demand, one reason the number of these jobs is expected to grow substantially is that aging U.S. residents tend to need more medical care than younger people.
“The American population is living longer with chronic disease,” Carolina Tennyson, acute care nurse practitioner and assistant professor at the Duke University School of Nursing, said in an email.
Nurse practitioners’ advanced skills can also help combat a doctor shortage. A 2021 report from the Association of American Medical Colleges states that the organization expects to see a shortage of between 17,800 and 48,000 primary care physicians and a shortage of physicians in the non-primary-care specialties of between 21,000 and 77,100 by the year 2034.
The study also mentions doctors who are of retirement age and exiting the workforce as a key finding, adding that more than 2 in 5 doctors will be 65 or older within the next 10 years.
The physician shortage can be especially prevalent in rural areas, and nurse practitioners are uniquely positioned to help meet the needs of people living in underserved communities.
Research published in the professional journal Health Affairs reported that about a quarter of primary care providers in rural areas in 2016 were nurse practitioners. The services of these professionals were crucial during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when rural areas saw a substantial number of cases of the virus.
Making a Difference
Because nurse practitioners are nurses, their approach to health care is patient-focused. They should have a passion for the people for whom they provide care.
Kelley Borella, assistant professor and director of the MSN nurse practitioner pathway at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, says she’s been passionate about health care from an early age. Her father died suddenly when she was a child, and her mother struggled with health problems for several years after his death. Borella notes that she observed nurses providing varying levels of care during that time, some of whom left an impression on her.
“Those nurses that made a difference in my mother’s life – as well as my own – inspired me. I wanted to be that person for someone, so I decided that nursing was the career for me,” she says.
“While in school, I developed a passion for women’s health care. I loved being a nurse but had a strong desire for more autonomy and responsibility. I wanted to be more involved in patient management,” she adds.
Nurse practitioners are certainly involved in patient management. They work in hospitals, medical offices, free and mobile clinics, nursing homes, schools, and other locations. Some nurse practitioners even have their own practices.
Various studies show that, as a result of the care and counseling NPs provide, patients who see them as their primary care providers often have fewer emergency room visits, shorter hospital stays and lower medication costs.
“NPs focus on the whole person and have a unique emphasis on counseling patients to help them make healthy lifestyle choices and educated health care decisions,” Tennyson says. “By providing health care that incorporates disease prevention, NPs can lower the cost of health care.”