Critical Care Nursing

Types of Degrees Critical Care Nursing Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many critical care nursing graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Master’s Degree	459
Graduate Certificate	138
Doctor’s Degree	55

What Critical Care Nursing Majors Need to Know

People with careers related to critical care nursing were asked what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. They weighted these areas on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest.

Knowledge Areas for Critical Care Nursing Majors

Critical Care Nursing majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• Medicine and Dentistry - Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
• Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Therapy and Counseling - Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.

Skills for Critical Care Nursing Majors

A major in critical care nursing prepares you for careers in which the following skill-sets are crucial:

• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.

Abilities for Critical Care Nursing Majors

As a critical care nursing major, you will find yourself needing the following abilities:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).

What Can You Do With a Critical Care Nursing Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with critical care nursing:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Acute Care Nurses	14.8%	$71,730
Critical Care Nurses	14.8%	$71,730
Nurse Practitioners	36.1%	$107,030
Registered Nurses	14.8%	$71,730

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Critical Care Nursing

Some careers associated with critical care nursing require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to critical care nursing have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	0.9%
Some College Courses	4.4%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	42.2%
Bachelor’s Degree	25.3%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	0.9%
Master’s Degree	24.6%
Post-Master’s Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Master’s degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees at the doctoral level.	0.9%
First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.	0.9%
Doctoral Degree	1.8%

Online Critical Care Nursing Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	1	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	0	0
Associate’s Degree	1	0
Bachelor’s Degree	9	1
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	29	7
Post-Master’s	27	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	2	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	11	3
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to Critical Care Nursing

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to critical care nursing.

Major	Number of Grads
Registered Nursing	253,629
Family Practice Nurse/Nursing	15,154
Nursing Practice	9,216
Nursing Administration	8,050
Nursing Science	4,481
Other Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing	4,364
Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse/Nursing	3,261
Adult Health Nurse/Nursing	2,295
Public Health/Community Nurse/Nursing	1,963
Nurse Anesthetist	1,939
Geriatric Nurse/Nursing	566
Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery	538
School Nursing	508
Clinical Nurse Leader	447
Clinical Nurse Specialist	292
Women’s Health Nurse/Nursing	288
Perioperative/Operating Room and Surgical Nurse/Nursing	208
Maternal/Child Health and Neonatal Nurse/Nursing	135
Emergency Room/Trauma Nursing	76
Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing	29
Forensic Nursing	20
Palliative Care Nursing	3

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By Aleksahgabrielle under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.