Registered Nurses

Minimal Risk
Low High

Alternative careers

Related career paths that build on similar skills and experience

Nurse Practitioners
10% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Pays better Higher growth
View career
Why it fits

Extends RN assessment and patient education into advanced diagnosis and treatment with graduate training.

Critical Care Nurses
7% automation risk | Minimal Risk
2.3 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Builds on RN clinical judgment, monitoring, medication, records, and interdisciplinary care in higher-acuity units.

Medical and Health Services Managers
10% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Pays better Higher growth
View career
Why it fits

Applies clinical workflow, staffing, records, quality, compliance, and patient-care operations knowledge.

Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary
10% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Higher growth
View career
Why it fits

Transfers nursing expertise into clinical instruction, skills assessment, curriculum, and student supervision.


Share your results with friends and family.

Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
8.3/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

9% (Minimal Risk)

Minimal Risk (0-20%): This occupation appears difficult to replace end-to-end with current or near-future automation, including AI software and robotics. Roles in this range usually depend on human judgement, creativity, care, leadership, specialist expertise, or adapting to messy real-world situations. AI and machines may still change parts of the work, but the occupation is likely to remain a distinct human role.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Assisting and caring for others

Very important
Why this matters
Provide hands-on help, emotional support, or personal care to people—work that depends on empathy, trust, and responding to individual needs in the moment.
Jobs that also use this strength

Decision-making and problem solving

Very important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
Jobs that also use this strength

Psychology knowledge

Very important
Why this matters
Understanding human behavior, motivation, and individual differences to assess needs, respond appropriately, and support behavior change or mental health.
Jobs that also use this strength

Thinking creatively

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
Jobs that also use this strength

Working directly with the public

Quite important
Why this matters
The job involves face-to-face interaction with customers, clients, or guests—answering questions, handling requests, and managing service situations in real time. Roles with frequent public interaction are harder to replace end-to-end because they rely on trust, communication, and adapting to unpredictable human needs.
Jobs that also use this strength
Show 4 more strengths

Coaching and developing others

Quite important
Why this matters
Helps people learn and improve through coaching, mentoring, and feedback. This relies on trust, motivation, and adapting guidance to each person—work that’s hard to replace end-to-end with automation.
Jobs that also use this strength

Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
Jobs that also use this strength

Consulting and advising others

Quite important
Why this matters
Provide guidance and expert advice to managers or teams on technical, system, or process decisions—explaining options, tradeoffs, and recommended actions.
Jobs that also use this strength

Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
Jobs that also use this strength

What users think

Based on 1,242 votes

16.0% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a minimal chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 9% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Registered Nurses will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

High paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Registered Nurses was $93,600 ($45 per hour).

The median annual wage for Registered Nurses was 89.1% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Registered Nurses' job openings is expected to rise 4.9% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 3,282,010 people employed as 'Registered Nurses' within the United States.

This represents around 2.1% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 46 people are employed as 'Registered Nurses'.

People also viewed

Lawyers Computer Programmers Accountants and Auditors Actors Pharmacists

What people are saying (32)

Leave a comment
Ivzlwg
06 Oct 2025 14:59
unless we get detroit become human level androids, no chance nurses will be replaced by AI.. even then i see some serious ethical and legal issues with putting a robot into an ICU ward...
EES (No chance)
11 May 2025 15:06
a bedroom full of delirious patients vs ai

the patients win

Theres a lot of admin and management stuff that OUGHT to be replaced by AI. Drug sorting and stuff like that. But even with those being replaced by AI I still see nursing being a profession that's chronically short staffed.
Hi (No chance)
21 Jan 2025 15:59
Nursing involves emotion, such as compassion and empathy, and robots do not have these characteristics
Gijs (Low)
10 May 2023 07:58
I think that if we are at the point that AI takes over nursing jobs, all jobs can in principle be automated by this AI.
Think about it, a nurse needs finger dexterity, be able to be physically precise, be able to partly lift wounded people without hurting them.

Then there's the quick decision making in critical situations. Also the interpersonal skills.

I mean, there could be some automation. The example given of a sleeve that automatically gives IV's and a tray that dishes out medicine is interesting. But is the sleeve going to clean a patient when they suddenly poop themselves? Is the tray going to calm someone down if they have a panic attack?

If the robot has the kind of physical presence that it can do all that on its own and is also intelligent enough to make critical decisions, it's basically going to look like a human. And then this robot probably also could do plumbing, carpeting, HVAC repair, electrician's work, be a doctor, do accounting, do web development, design electrical systems, take people's surveys etc. In other words, if a robot can truly do nursing it can basically do anything and most jobs will already be automated.
Tamburo Battente (Low)
10 Jan 2025 23:46
Nursing, although many tasks performed by nurses could potentially be automated, still relies on understanding human social cues, which robots are far from mastering. Robots won't replicate the same warmth and empathy that nurses provide for a considerable time. Plus, generalizing automated tasks would be challenging, as nursing therapies often require personalized adjustments to meet individual needs.
TJ (Low)
14 Dec 2019 04:47
Some tasks of nursing are being automated, but the overall profession is safe for the moment.
Aaron (No chance)
03 May 2026 19:28
I’m a registered nurse. There’s too many intricacies in nursing and health care in general for robots to do, barring extraordinary advancements in both Ai and robotics. Not to mention the legal aspects - who will be liable in case of injury or death? Also will human patients trust AI and robots? Especially boomers who make up the majority of patients who still don’t understand basic internet functions.
Zack (No chance)
29 Oct 2024 22:33
Charting maybe, but the amount of robots required to perform all the tasks a nurse does from medication administration, turning patients, providing emotional support, assessing patients, and coordinating care with other professionals (I didn't even cover all of the things a nurse does...) would be extremely costly. Nursing will likely be one of the last professions to be automated.
Seth (No chance)
16 Sep 2023 20:32
Impossible bc robots can't do what humans can when assiting patients they are preprogramed.
Vipul (No chance)
21 Aug 2023 17:14
Because registered nurse directly connected with patients.
HAer (Low)
19 Apr 2023 19:01
Nursing required hands on skills. Placing an IV, redressing wounds, packing wounds, administering shots based on different bodies. A part of nursing is human emotional connection- something Ai cannot do.
MBChB (No chance)
11 Jun 2020 00:03
You can't automate empathy. Health & Medicine in general should be safe!
YT (No chance)
08 Oct 2019 03:31
this requires human touch. not robots. Especially those in the home care & old folks home.
Sierra Iwanow (Low)
26 Aug 2019 06:52
Nurses are there to help people where as robots can’t give you advice and reall support then and there like humans and people can.
JRG, RN (Uncertain)
14 Aug 2019 02:50
I can see the day when a patient sticks an arm into a sleeve, an IV is automatically inserted, medicines dispensed, vital signs taken, and oral meds will pop out of a closed tray. Etc.
Shanna (No chance)
14 May 2020 23:16
Wow!! I suppose that's a cost effective approach. However, the documentation requirements would need human oversite to assess how procedure was tolerated, pt. Teaching/understanding.
Simone
09 Jul 2020 08:01
That's only a small part of what nurses are currently responsible for. Nurses and engineers will be the last jobs to be automated, if ever. They will become very high tech jobs in the future, due to their multidimensional and dynamic nature. If you want to be a nurse or work in the healthcare industry go for it! Your job will be forever safe and in demand, not to mention the positive influence it'll have in your personal life!
Joey
01 May 2019 17:46
Will ai be a threat to my life?
Magic 8-Ball
13 Aug 2019 15:04
Signs point to yes.
Genysis (Low)
05 Jul 2020 07:33
They will definitely kill you.
Cranky steph (No chance)
22 Jul 2022 05:11
We all want to quit nursing after the last several years, so I really hope someone invents a robot that can do at least some of it.

A deeper healthcare crisis is looming.
phil (No chance)
10 Apr 2021 03:24
Critical thinking and on the moment action in response to patient changes.
jessie (No chance)
20 Mar 2020 13:29
my mum is a nurse
_a_random_guy_on_the_internet_
09 Mar 2020 17:18
I highly doubt that nurses and other medical professionals would be taken over by robots, it requires a human touch as no robot ever will be able to see what a human sees

Leave a reply about this occupation
0/8000

Job description

Assess patient health problems and needs, develop and implement nursing care plans, and maintain medical records. Administer nursing care to ill, injured, convalescent, or disabled patients. May advise patients on health maintenance and disease prevention or provide case management. Licensing or registration required.

O*NET-SOC code: 29-1141.00