Nursing Schools In North Carolina

Nursing Schools in North Carolina – A Lot To Choose From

Nursing students from far and wide come looking for nursing schools in North Carolina, a state well known for its scenic beauty. In addition to the diverse scenic landscape, you will find a similar variety of nursing schools dotting the map across the state.

Your selection process will include a choice from among well known and notable colleges and state universities, plus community colleges and technical schools. These fine schools have become professionals in shaping prospective nurses in the entry level.

The state of North Carolina continues to reflect a high demand for LPN’s and RN’s who are well educated, and this is very good news for those that plan to practice and study here. An unusual dilemma remains in that the state has some difficulty in deciding where the demand for nurses is the greatest and also the various specialties in the nursing field where they should focus. In addition, they are still trying to determine the educational standards that the next generation nurses should be held to.

Wide Selection of Nursing Schools and Degrees

The list of nursing schools in North Carolina on the next page illustrates the wide variety of levels of education and the nursing degrees that are available to the prospective student. The selection process can be a bit overwhelming, but you need to establish your own list of criteria and go from there.

Recent studies indicate that the majority of RN’s begin their career by completing the ADN degree from the community colleges, and this group is by far the largest. The two year program gives the student basic practical skills that are required to enter the field of nursing, and they are able to get jobs and earn a nice salary much quicker. A nurse employed in the state has many opportunities to acquire additional training and to work towards an advanced degree. The dozens of accredited nursing schools make it fairly easy with the wide variety of nursing programs that they offer.

If your situation is such that you are planning to obtain your BSN, or perhaps an RN to BSN, or those individuals that want the MSN or PhD, then we suggest that you limit your search among the nursing schools in North Carolina to the four year universities and colleges on the list.

Perhaps a campus based classroom environment is not convenient for you. You’ll be pleased to discover that some of the schools on the list have begun highly successful online degree programs that are specifically designed to meet the needs of nurses that are already on the job.

Nursing Positions in North Carolina

As you begin to look for a position, you will learn that nursing salaries will vary depending upon where you work in the state. To give you an example of nursing salaries across the state, the average salary range for a staff RN is $51,000.00 to $61,000.00 in Chapel Hill, Durham and Raleigh areas. Similar position for a nurse in Charlotte runs from $55,000.00 to $66,000.00 which is somewhat higher. For those nurses that are employed in some of the rural areas, their salary range is slightly lower than those in the Raleigh area.

This can be attributed to the fact that North Carolina has in excess of 100 hospitals across the state of all types and sizes. The largest employer of professional nurses in the state is hospitals who tend to offer the top salaries in the area. To name a few of these large employers, there is Moses Cone Memorial Hospital located in Greensboro, Forsyth Medical Center located in Winston Salem, Mission Hospital located in Asheville, the University of North Carolina Hospital located in Chapel Hill, and Duke University Hospital located in Winston Salem.

While it’s true that the majority of nurses are entering the profession with the ADN degree, North Carolina hospitals, like many of their counterparts in other states, are hiring more nurses that already have their BSN degree. This trend continues to increase and the NC hospitals are now strongly suggesting that new graduates come in for jobs with a BSN degree already in hand.

The primary reason for this is that current RN vacancies are more common in the trauma and critical care units, and the nurses with the associates degree are not qualified or experienced enough to handle those types of cases. In addition, hospital administrators and the various boards firmly believe that the best way to retain a nurse is through education.

If you have a wish to become a registered nurse, we urge you to find one of the best nursing schools in North Carolina for you and enroll in a program that will provide you with a very rewarding career.