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Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · Holland code ISC

Nurse Practitioners

Diagnose and treat acute, episodic, or chronic illness, independently or as part of a healthcare team. May focus on health promotion and disease prevention. May order, perform, or interpret diagnostic tests such as lab work and x rays. May prescribe medication. Must be registered nurses who have specialized graduate education.

Also called: ACNP (Acute Care Nurse Practitioner), Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP), Gastroenterology Nurse Practitioner, Nurse Practitioner (NP), Adult Nurse Practitioner, Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN), ARNP Specialist (Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner Specialist), Family Practice Certified Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner.

O*NET 29-1171.00

At a glance

US median annual pay
$132,300
Middle half earn $117,990 to $156,700. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Most common education
Master's Degree
65% of workers surveyed by O*NET report this level.
Preparation needed
Job Zone 5 of 5
Extensive preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.

What the work involves

The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.

  • Maintain complete and detailed records of patients' health care plans and prognoses.
  • Develop treatment plans, based on scientific rationale, standards of care, and professional practice guidelines.
  • Provide patients with information needed to promote health, reduce risk factors, or prevent disease or disability.
  • Analyze and interpret patients' histories, symptoms, physical findings, or diagnostic information to develop appropriate diagnoses.
  • Diagnose or treat complex, unstable, comorbid, episodic, or emergency conditions in collaboration with other health care providers as necessary.
  • Prescribe medication dosages, routes, and frequencies, based on such patient characteristics as age and gender.
  • Diagnose or treat chronic health care problems, such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
  • Prescribe medications based on efficacy, safety, and cost as legally authorized.

Skills and knowledge it leans on

Skills

  • Reading Comprehension4.1 / 5
  • Active Listening4.1 / 5
  • Critical Thinking4.1 / 5
  • Writing4.0 / 5
  • Speaking4.0 / 5
  • Active Learning4.0 / 5

Knowledge areas

  • Medicine and Dentistry4.8 / 5
  • English Language4.3 / 5
  • Biology4.2 / 5
  • Psychology4.2 / 5
  • Customer and Personal Service4.1 / 5
  • Therapy and Counseling4.0 / 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.

  • Realistic43
  • Investigative76
  • Artistic6
  • Social75
  • Enterprising18
  • Conventional51

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)

  • general practitioner · DE Arzt für Allgemeinmedizin/Ärztin für Allgemeinmedizin · FR médecin généraliste
  • advanced nurse practitioner · DE Akademischer Krankenpfleger/Akademische Krankenschwester · FR infirmier de pratique avancée/infirmière de pratique avancée
  • nurse responsible for general care · DE Krankenpfleger Allgemeine Krankenpflege/Krankenschwester Allgemeine Krankenpflege · FR infirmier de soins généraux/infirmière de soins généraux
  • specialist nurse · DE Fachkrankenpfleger/Fachkrankenschwester · FR infirmier spécialiste/infirmière spécialiste
  • midwife · DE Hebamme/Entbindungspfleger · FR maïeuticien/sage-femme

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.

Median annual earnings, Professionals, by country
CountryMedian 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 +0.19. 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 (29-1171).

Is it a fit for you?

Interest is one input, alongside ability, pay and what is hiring near you. The career interests test takes about thirteen minutes and ranks occupations by how closely their profile matches yours.

Take the career interests test

Occupation data: O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Values were rounded, tasks limited to the most important eight, and combined with the sources named in each section; O*NET has not reviewed or endorsed this adaptation. Pay and outlook: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. International titles: ESCO, European Commission. UK classification and employment: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence.