Nurses have a significant role beyond medical care, as they also specialize in offering comfort and emotional support to patients dealing with stressful health issues. They attend to individuals who are injured, sick, or incapacitated. While nursing is noble and essential, it comes with its share of challenges, including demanding schedules, time constraints, inflexible requirements, physically demanding tasks, workplace hazards, low staffing, patient overflow, potential violence, and career burnout. Some nurses face all these stressors simultaneously.
In the era of COVID-19, a low-stress hospital care career seems hard to fathom. Nurses have borne the brunt of the pandemic, leading to a substantial toll on the workforce. A 2021 study by Nursing CE Central revealed that a staggering 95% of surveyed nurses felt burnt-out in the last three years. Fortunately, not all nursing careers are equally stressful. Certain jobs and specializations offer varying levels of challenges, rewards, and satisfaction. Aspiring nurses should explore different roles and understand the spectrum of potential job demands in the healthcare industry.
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Enrolling in a nursing program at an accredited university with experienced professors can guide you toward a nursing career that aligns with your preferences. If you seek a nursing career with a stress-free work environment, here are ten of the least stressful nursing careers to consider.
1. Nurse Educators
Nurse educators dedicate their careers to teaching nurses in colleges, universities, and clinical settings. Armed with advanced nursing degrees, they impart knowledge about workload, policies, and nursing requirements. Nurse educators play a crucial role in shaping future nurses, ensuring their preparedness for high-quality care. This role doesn’t expose nurses to the same stressors as those working directly with patients, offering satisfaction through meaningful impact. According to Salary.com, nurse educators earn an average annual salary of $103,736, with a range between $86,662 and $115,755.
Nurse Educator: Job Description, Salary, and How to Become One
2. Institutional Nurses
Institutional nurses provide basic medical care in hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, and similar settings. Roles like school nurse or summer camp nurse fall under this category. These nurses deliver basic care without the need for long hours and overnight shifts, resulting in a low-stress environment. Despite the lack of excitement, institutional nurses find fulfillment in offering basic and family care. Licensed practical nurses or licensed vocational nurses (LPNs/LVNs) typically fill these roles. LPN/LVNs earn an average hourly wage of $31.06, with an expected annual bonus of $7,875, according to Indeed.
3. Research Nurses
Research nurses play a vital role in discovering and administering new, more effective treatments through involvement in clinical trials. Their responsibilities include collecting blood samples, administering vaccines, assessing lab work, and monitoring patient health. Research nurses work in labs, following well-defined and rigorous roles that shield them from the chaotic events in patient care. Despite lower stress levels, they contribute significantly to advancing medication and treatment options. Glassdoor estimates an average annual salary of $99,372 for research nurses.
4. Public Health Nurses
Public health nurses focus on caring for entire populations by educating people about broader health issues and promoting healthy and safe practices. Working with whole communities, these nurses address various factors influencing health conditions, such as genetic makeup, lifestyle, and environment. Public health nurses don’t often deal with intensive care, alleviating some pressure. They provide essential care services, including preventive care, screening, and health education, to populations lacking access to care. Public health nurses have an average base salary of $64,914, and Indeed estimates an annual bonus of $11,250.
5. Occupational Health Nurses
Occupational health nurses provide healthcare services to the American workforce. Their main job responsibility is to evaluate the health of workers in relation to their job tasks and potential hazards. Effective occupational health nurses treat injuries and illnesses that occur in the workplace and work to prevent health issues resulting from exposure to hazards. They also assist in the recovery and conditioning of workers for a specific workplace. In this way, their scope of work is generally less stressful compared to many other nursing careers, such as Emergency Room (ER) nursing. Occupational health nurses play a crucial role in workplaces by caring for and safeguarding workers. Indeed reports an average annual salary of $70,287 for occupational nurses, with an estimated yearly bonus of $8,000.
6. Case Management Nurses
Case management nurses create, implement, and review healthcare plans for patients, especially those who are elderly, recovering from serious injuries, or dealing with chronic illnesses. They work both within and outside hospitals and medical facilities, collaborating with doctors and other medical professionals to provide comprehensive care to their patients. This involves advocating for their patients, coordinating their care, and offering healthcare services and education. As these nurses operate behind the scenes to help patients access resources and services, there is minimal danger or risk, creating a low-stress work environment. Nurse case manager salaries vary, but Payscale estimates an average salary of $72,017 per year, or about $34.16 per hour.
7. Home Health Nurses
Home health nurses deliver personalized care to patients in their homes, often focusing on the elderly, critically ill, disabled, or those recovering from surgery, injury, or accident. They may also assist pregnant women and new mothers with ongoing care, support, and education. Since home health nurses usually care for individual patients, they have more time in the recovery process, fostering a calm healthcare environment for both patients and themselves. According to Indeed, home health nurses earn an average rate of $22.65 per hour.
8. Clinic Nurses
A clinic nurse is the initial point of contact for patients entering a medical clinic. Clinic nurses provide care, assess patients, order medical tests, and develop and communicate treatment plans. Typically supporting small organizations, these nurses handle tasks like checking vitals and routine work, making it a lower-stress nursing role that primarily involves long-term care and seldom deals with urgent situations or emergencies. Ziprecruiter estimates the average annual salary for clinic nurses at $49,856.
9. Nurse Informaticists
Nursing informaticists work at the intersection of nursing, communications, computer science, and information science. Those in nursing informatics jobs use their clinical backgrounds along with computer and organizational skills to analyze and develop health systems used in clinical settings. While tracking and interpreting healthcare data is a substantial task, the remote nature of this position makes it less stressful while remaining rewarding. Payscale reports an average annual salary of $79,790 for nurse informaticists.
Nursing Informatics: Job Description, Salary, and How to Become One
10. Nurse Administrators
Nurse administrators oversee nurses and healthcare teams in hospitals and other care facilities. They guide practicing nurses through requirements, policies, and protocols, assisting in the establishment and adherence to standards. Working in a managerial capacity and usually from an office, nurse administrators use their business acumen, strong communication skills, and time management expertise to build effective nursing teams. Since they typically do not engage in direct patient care, their jobs tend to be on the low-stress end of the spectrum. Salary.com estimates that average annual salary for nurse administrators is $97,007.
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