Nursing is one of the top jobs for new grads. What are they thinking?

Something curious is happening in nursing these days. 

Talk to current nurses, and you’ll get a picture of a profession in crisis, one that’s grappling with rising rates of workplace violence, inadequate staffing ratios and widespread burnout. 

But then there’s this: LinkedIn data last week found that nursing is one of the top jobs for entry level professionals — both with and without a four-year degree — as measured by the number of career starters listing the role on their profiles.

Nursing degrees, whether at the bachelors or associates level, are still in demand.

The field remains compelling because of its high degree of job security and the ability to work anywhere in the country, said Jean Foret Giddens , dean at the University of Kansas School of Nursing . It’s also a mission-driven profession at a time when young people place a high value on doing meaningful work.  

“For a lot of people, particularly younger people, there's a high interest in nursing because it intersects with things like promoting wellness and promoting health and social justice,” she said. “For many students, there's an interest in working within the communities to address population health and wellness and the environment.”

Enrollment in nursing programs has been increasing year over year since 2001, although it dipped slightly in 2022 and was essentially flat last year. But interest still far exceeds the number of spots available. Nursing schools have been struggling to find enough clinical sites, faculty and preceptors to train students, and tens of thousands of qualified applicants are turned away each year, according to data from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) . 

A four-year degree isn’t required to be a nurse, but the tide has been turning ever since a 2010 Institute of Medicine report called on the profession to strive to have at least 80% of nurses obtain a bachelors. 

And the numbers have been increasing rapidly ever since. More than 70% of nurses now have a bachelor of science in nursing — up from 49% in 2010 — and nearly 70% of employers have a strong preference for hiring nurses with a BSN, according to an AACN survey last year. A quarter of employers require a four-year nursing degree, the survey found.

Still, the need for nurses is strong, and in many parts of the country, particularly rural areas, candidates are in high demand even if they only have an associate’s degree. “It's a matter of what the market will bear,” Giddens said, adding however that most nurses do end up getting a bachelor’s degree.

Strong demand also means that nursing school graduates have more career options than in the past.

Graduating nurses are choosing careers beyond acute-care, as hospital experience is no longer considered a prerequisite for moving into outpatient and community-based jobs, Giddens noted. These days — while inpatient care is still the most common starting point — more entry-level nurses are choosing settings like hospice care, home care and public health. 

But hospitals still need nurses, and the question of where — and whether — new nurses will practice looms large. Compared to past generations, Gen Z nurses are more likely to express dissatisfaction with their career, their job and the level of care they provide, according to a survey last year from staffing firm AMN Healthcare . 

As many as a third of new nurses are leaving the profession within two years of graduating nursing school, according to one widely-cited 2022 study. 

There’s also widespread pessimism among nurses overall. When AMN repeated its nursing survey this year, a majority of nurses (55%) said that they were at least somewhat likely to change jobs this year. Pay, staffing ratios and flexible schedules were the top concerns among nurses. 

“We all thought that the further you got post-pandemic, the better it would be,” said Christin Stanford , vice president of client solutions at AMN. “Unfortunately, the picture for many nurses is still cloudy. And even now, we still have 38% of nurses saying that 2024 will be worse than 2023.”

New nurses in particular value flexibility, work-life balance and career advancement opportunities, Giddens noted. 

“People want to work for organizations that are high-functioning healthcare organizations,” she said. “So there’s an appeal to being a member of a team that’s highly regarded.”

Sustained interest in travel nursing, remote jobs and contract positions also means that nurses are also looking for employers that can seamlessly integrate a workforce that may be made up of both full-time and temporary nurses, said Robin Geiger, DNP, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, NP-C, NEA-BC , senior vice president of clinician advocacy at staffing firm Ingenovis Health .

The worsening epidemic of workplace violence also remains a top concern. 

“It goes back to culture,” Geiger said. “They want to be validated for their services that they provide. They want to be seen, and they want to make sure that they’re safe.”

Yet for all the negative headlines around being a nurse these days, nurses themselves remain some of the best ambassadors for the profession. Often it’s a personal experience with the healthcare system that draws young people to a nursing career.

Giddens at the University of Kansas recalled a student who chose to pursue a nursing career after experiencing the deaths of her grandmother and mother in short succession, and witnessing the care they received.

“She was so inspired from that situation that she wanted to be able to do the same for others,” she said.

It’s a sentiment that Geiger, who also came from a career in academia, echoed. 

“If they’ve gone into the nursing profession, then they care; they have empathy,” she said. “They also want to feel like people care about them, and that the work they’re providing is good, it’s rewarding and it’s serving a better cause.”

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