Uploaded July 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Did you know that the average salary of a Registered Nurse in the United States is $75,000 a year? Learn more about the profession with our nurse facts.
1. Britishwoman Florence Nightingale is credited with the establishment of modern nursing practices. Before her work, nursing the sick was not seen as a respectable career.
2. All aspiring nurses in the United States, Canada, and Australia must pass the NCLEX, the National Council Licensure Examination, in order to practice.
3. People surveyed in both the United States and the United Kingdom routinely vote nursing as the most trustworthy profession.
4. In 1925, nurse Mary Breckinridge created the Frontier Nursing Service, a Kentucky organization that sent female nurses out on horseback to care for thousands of rural patients.
5. As of 2020, the average registered nurse in the United States made around $75,000 a year.
6. The root word for "nursing" is the same as that for "nourish," "nutrition," and "nursery."
7. Saint Helena, mother of Roman emperor Constantine the Great, is believed to have created the first nursing home for the elderly in the 3rd century AD.
8. In the United States, nurses who have just graduated take an oath called the Nightingale Pledge, adapted from the Hippocratic Oath taken by doctors.
9. There are over 100 different areas of nursing specialization.
10. The US American Nurses Association ended their policy of racially segregating nurses in response to the urgent need for nurses during WWII. However, many black nurses were given the unwelcome task of caring for Nazi POWs rather than American soldiers.
Did you know that the average salary of a Registered Nurse in the United States is $75,000 a year? Learn more about the profession with our nurse facts.
1. Britishwoman Florence Nightingale is credited with the establishment of modern nursing practices. Before her work, nursing the sick was not seen as a respectable career.
2. All aspiring nurses in the United States, Canada, and Australia must pass the NCLEX, the National Council Licensure Examination, in order to practice.
3. People surveyed in both the United States and the United Kingdom routinely vote nursing as the most trustworthy profession.
4. In 1925, nurse Mary Breckinridge created the Frontier Nursing Service, a Kentucky organization that sent female nurses out on horseback to care for thousands of rural patients.
5. As of 2020, the average registered nurse in the United States made around $75,000 a year.
6. The root word for "nursing" is the same as that for "nourish," "nutrition," and "nursery."
7. Saint Helena, mother of Roman emperor Constantine the Great, is believed to have created the first nursing home for the elderly in the 3rd century AD.
8. In the United States, nurses who have just graduated take an oath called the Nightingale Pledge, adapted from the Hippocratic Oath taken by doctors.
9. There are over 100 different areas of nursing specialization.
10. The US American Nurses Association ended their policy of racially segregating nurses in response to the urgent need for nurses during WWII. However, many black nurses were given the unwelcome task of caring for Nazi POWs rather than American soldiers.
