11 Highest Paying Nursing Specialties

If you’re taking a nursing degree, why not consider the highest paying nursing specialties? You may come up with a few questions about this…what’s in it for the hospital that will hire you? What’s in it for them if they are going to pay you 100 grand a year? You must contain uniqueness and the top-notch nursing skills to be worth it. How can you be the unique, highly-skilled, health care provider? Check our list of the highest paying nursing specialties and you’ll discover how!

There are many specialties in nursing. You can major in geriatrics if you think you get along well with the grannies and gramps. If you’re a kid at heart, you fit in the pediatrics world. All these different courses and specialties share one thing – nurses overall are caring.

As a nurse, your job requires you to be knowledgeable of the diseases of the patients you are to take care of. In handling a different set of people every day, patience is something that you need, to build a harmonious relationship.

Before we head on to the top paying nursing specialties we want to share a previous article to the doctors who may be reading this now. You can check the 11 best paying jobs for doctors in the US to see if you’re on the right track.

So, are you ready to start our countdown? Awesome! Here are the 11 highest paying nursing specialties!

11. Neonatal Nurse

Median Salary: $74,000

Neonatal nursing is one of the highest paying nursing specialties. Neonatal nurses are the ones who take care of sick babies. If you love taking good care of babies, then this is a perfect job for you. You will be paid well for doing what you love and what you’re good at. Did you know that one of your job roles is to help the ‘mom to be’ ready for motherhood? That’s right! This is more likely to happen in teenage pregnancies, where the mom is too young to be a full-time mom.

10. Gerontological Nurse Practitioner

Median Salary: $75,000

Gerontological Nursing is also called geriatrics. The highlight of a geriatric nurse is to care for the elderlies. According to a recent case studies, 80% of the people aged 65 end up suffering from chronic diseases. Only 1% of American nurses specialize in the geriatrics. Therefore, the demand for them continues to grow each year.

9. Nurse Practitioner

Median Salary: $76,000

One of the starting grounds in nursing is being a nurse practitioner. Their role varies from treating medical problems to conducting a minor surgery. As a nurse practitioner, you are as well resembling the role of a doctor. You teach and explain medical cases to patients. You interpret and deliver test results and give prescriptions. The flexibility of a nurse practitioner is one of the reasons why its one of the best jobs. A nurse practitioner can work in hospitals, medical centers, hospices, and private homes too.

8. Clinical Nurse Specialist

Median Salary: $79,000

Being a clinical nurse specialist is just like playing a registered nurse’s role. They only differ one thing when it comes to the field of expertise. If you are a clinical nurse specialist, you must focus on treating exclusive cases. Your can major in pediatrics, emergency medicine, oncology and so on. It is one of the highest paid nursing specialties for its demand. Although, the range of the salary varies in which state you are practicing.

7. Orthopedic Nurse

Median Salary: $81,000

If you graduated from a nursing program and have no idea on what to do next, be an orthopedic nurse! You will face the task of treating patients with musculoskeletal problems. In other words, people with muscle or bone disabilities. Part of your job is to take care of fractured and arthritis patients. Tip: If you want to earn more than $81,000, research for a state that has many athletes. Athletes and geriatric patients are prone to musculoskeletal diseases. And guess what, those states are willing to pay more than $81,000 a year!

6. Pediatric Endocrinology Nurse

Median Salary: $81,000

Are you familiar with the endocrine system? It’s a network of endocrine organs that control specific hormonal release in the body. They treat kids pediatric patients diagnosed with diabetes, thyroid disease, and hypoglycemia. As a pediatric endocrinology nurse, you are going to be working up close with a doctor. If the kid has juvenile diabetes, your role is to make them understand  what they should and shouldn’t do. You are the one that conducts tests to the patient to check his or her condition. A challenging part of being a pediatric endocrinology nurse is that you need to be research-oriented. You need to avoid using jargons in explaining each medical case to a patient.

5. Nurse Educator

Median Salary: $83,846

If you have the undying love for the art of teaching, pursue the position of a nurse educator. You don’t actually need to be a ‘know-it-all’ in this field. What’s more important is how you relay the lecture to your students. It’s more of using strategies and tactics in helping nursing students to be the next you.

4. Certified Nurse Midwife

Median Salary: $85,000

If the reason you don’t see a midwife is because you think they lack formal education, you’re wrong! A certified nurse midwife has a nursing degree and certification too. They are a good option as well over an OB/GYNs. Their primary role is to take all the safe procedures and operations to deliver a baby. Did you know that you can see a midwife for an STD checkup? It’s their job to keep us inform about the guidelines in having a sexually transmitted disease. A certified nurse midwife plays a role in providing better information about family planning.

3. Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner

Median Salary: $95,000

A psychiatric nurse practitioner is responsible for aiding a mentally-ill person. It’s one of the highest paying nursing specialties in the field. One will be qualified if they have earned the advanced nursing program. If you want to get paid $95,000 a year, you need to learn your responsibilities before taking an oath. You are going to help the doctor in assessing and treating mentally ill patients. Part of your job will be to prescribe medicines and perform in group activities.

2. Nurse Researcher

Median Salary: $95,000

When we were kids, we dreamed of two things: becoming a doctor or a scientist. Maybe some of us became a doctor now. Some chose to be a nerdy scientist. What is their job, anyway? No, it’s not always holding two chemical flasks in your hands. It is more of reading, analyzing, and researching scientific facts. As a nurse researcher, you contribute to improving treatment process and procedures. You are also eager to discover where idiopathic diseases originated.

1. Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist

Median Salary: $ 134,000

The Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist tops our list of the highest paying nursing specialties! Your job as a CRNA is to ease the pain of an operation or surgery. You either make the body area numb or you let the patient sleep during the operation. It is one of the in-demand jobs of 2015, to be exact. The minimum educational requirement to be a certified registered nurse anesthetist is a master’s degree. So, if you’re undecided of the next path to take, consider being a CRNA to help severely ill patients feel less pain.