Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · Holland code SIC
Critical Care Nurses
Provide specialized nursing care for patients in critical or coronary care units.
Also called: Critical Care Nurse Practitioner, Critical Care Registered Nurse (CCRN), ICU Nurse (Intensive Care Unit Nurse), Staff Nurse, Certified Critical Care Nurse, ICU Critical Care NP (Intensive Care Unit Critical Care Nurse Practitioner), Intensive Care Unit Registered Nurse (ICU RN), Newborn ICU RN (Newborn Intensive Care Unit Registered Nurse).
O*NET 29-1141.03
At a glance
- US median annual pay
- $97,550
- Middle half earn $80,330 to $112,350. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
- Most common education
- Bachelor's Degree
- 50% of workers surveyed by O*NET report this level.
- Preparation needed
- Job Zone 4 of 5
- Considerable preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.
- US employment outlook, 2024 to 2034
- +5% · Faster than average
- 3,391,000 jobs in 2024, projected 3,557,100. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, which groups this with similar roles as "Registered nurses".
What the work involves
The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.
- Evaluate patients' vital signs or laboratory data to determine emergency intervention needs.
- Monitor patients for changes in status and indications of conditions such as sepsis or shock and institute appropriate interventions.
- Administer medications intravenously, by injection, orally, through gastric tubes, or by other methods.
- Monitor patients' fluid intake and output to detect emerging problems, such as fluid and electrolyte imbalances.
- Prioritize nursing care for assigned critically ill patients, based on assessment data or identified needs.
- Compile and analyze data obtained from monitoring or diagnostic tests.
- Conduct pulmonary assessments to identify abnormal respiratory patterns or breathing sounds that indicate problems.
- Assess patients' pain levels or sedation requirements.
Skills and knowledge it leans on
Skills
- Monitoring4.1 / 5
- Reading Comprehension4.0 / 5
- Active Listening4.0 / 5
- Speaking4.0 / 5
- Critical Thinking4.0 / 5
- Active Learning3.9 / 5
Knowledge areas
- Medicine and Dentistry4.7 / 5
- Customer and Personal Service4.2 / 5
- Psychology4.1 / 5
- English Language4.1 / 5
- Biology3.9 / 5
- Mathematics3.8 / 5
Importance ratings on O*NET’s 1 to 5 scale. Higher means the occupation depends on it more.
Who tends to enjoy it
How strongly this occupation draws on each of the six Holland interest types, which is the same profile the career interests test compares you against.
- Realistic49
- Investigative67
- Artistic12
- Social76
- Enterprising20
- Conventional54
The same work abroad
Other countries classify jobs differently, so these are the closest matches through the international ISCO-08 standard, not exact equivalents.
European occupation titles (ESCO)
- advanced nurse practitioner · DE Akademischer Krankenpfleger/Akademische Krankenschwester · FR infirmier de pratique avancée/infirmière de pratique avancée
- specialist nurse · DE Fachkrankenpfleger/Fachkrankenschwester · FR infirmier spécialiste/infirmière spécialiste
Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)
- Registered community nurses (2232)70,400 employed
- Registered specialist nurses (2233)82,300 employed
- Registered nurse practitioners (2234)91,500 employed
Employment is the UK Annual Population Survey for April 2025 to March 2026, all workers in the group, which can be broader than this one occupation.
Pay across Europe, for the whole group
Median annual earnings of all employees in “Professionals”. This is the broad ISCO group this occupation falls in, not the occupation itself, so treat it as context for the wage level, not as a salary for this job.
| Country | Median pay |
|---|---|
| Belgium | €61,714 |
| Germany | €59,529 |
| Ireland | €56,877 |
| Austria | €55,374 |
| Netherlands | €53,595 |
| Sweden | €43,567 |
| France | €41,515 |
| Spain | €35,735 |
| Italy | €33,649 |
| Portugal | €26,072 |
| Poland | €14,380 |
Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, businesses with ten or more employees outside public administration, in euro and not adjusted for the cost of living. Reference years differ between sources: the US, Japan and Europe figures on this page come from different survey years, so compare them as rough levels, not to the euro or yen.
Exposure to AI
This occupation sits in the middle third of the 774 occupations scored, with an exposure score of +0.23. The scores are standardized across those occupations, so 0 is the average and a score of 1 is about one standard deviation above it.
Our note on reading it: the dataset links AI applications to the abilities that occupations require, so the score reflects overlap between the two. It is a comparison between occupations, not a forecast about jobs. It does not say whether exposure means tasks are replaced or workers get more done with the tools, and it says little about one employer or one role.
Source: Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195-2217. Matched to this page by 6-digit SOC code (29-1141).
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