School Nursing

Types of Degrees School Nursing Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many school 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	415
Graduate Certificate	50
Doctor’s Degree	43

What School Nursing Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, school nursing majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for School Nursing Majors

This major prepares you for careers in which these 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.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• 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.
• Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.

Skills for School Nursing Majors

A major in school 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.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.

Abilities for School Nursing Majors

A major in school nursing will prepare for your careers in which the following abilities are important:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• 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 School Nursing Major?

People with a school nursing degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Nurse Practitioners	36.1%	$107,030
Nursing Instructors and Professors	24.0%	$73,490
Registered Nurses	14.8%	$71,730

Who Is Getting a Master’s Degree in School Nursing?

This major is dominated by women with about 96% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of school nursing majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	20
Black or African American	20
Hispanic or Latino	34
White	319
International Students	0
Other Races/Ethnicities	22

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to School Nursing

Some degrees associated with school nursing may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. 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.

Find out what the typical degree level is for school nursing careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Some College Courses	4.1%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	25.3%
Bachelor’s Degree	10.6%
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.	1.0%
Master’s Degree	41.9%
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.	1.7%
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.	1.0%
Doctoral Degree	14.0%
Post-Doctoral Training	2.2%

Online School 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	0	0
Bachelor’s Degree	10	1
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	35	5
Post-Master’s	31	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	6	1
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	10	3
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to School Nursing

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to school 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
Critical Care Nursing	652
Geriatric Nurse/Nursing	566
Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery	538
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.