Critical Care Nurses

Provide specialized nursing care for patients in critical or coronary care units.

Most important skills

Monitoring
Reading Comprehension
Active Listening
Speaking
Critical Thinking
Social Perceptiveness
Service Orientation
Active Learning

Key knowledge

Medicine and Dentistry
Customer and Personal Service
Psychology
English Language
Biology
Mathematics
Therapy and Counseling
Education and Training

What the work involves

Identify patients' age-specific needs and alter care plans as necessary to meet those needs.
Provide post-mortem care.
Evaluate patients' vital signs or laboratory data to determine emergency intervention needs.
Perform approved therapeutic or diagnostic procedures, based upon patients' clinical status.
Administer blood and blood products, monitoring patients for signs and symptoms related to transfusion reactions.
Administer medications intravenously, by injection, orally, through gastric tubes, or by other methods.
Advocate for patients' and families' needs, or provide emotional support for patients and their families.
Set up and monitor medical equipment and devices such as cardiac monitors, mechanical ventilators and alarms, oxygen delivery devices, transducers, or pressure lines.

Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Social, Investigative, Conventional.

Qualifications and licensing

Most common education

Bachelor's Degree (50% of respondents)

Related experience

None (32.1%)

On-the-job training

Over 3 months, up to and including 6 months (64.3%)

Preparation level

O*NET job zone 4: Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed

Licensing

License required (national summary): Registered nurses must have a nursing license issued by the state in which they work: graduate from an approved nursing program and pass a qualifying exam; other requirements vary by state (state board of nursing). source (checked 2026-10-25)

Check before planning

Projection education uses SOC 29-1141 (detailed_parent); it may describe a broader group.

Limits

Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.

Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections; State licensing authorities (curated, see evidence links) · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0

Work environment

How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).

Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.

Rankings compare typical U.S. occupation-level work conditions; individual jobs and employers vary. Data: O*NET 31.0 Work Context and BLS wages (May 2025).
Condition	Level	Compared with other occupations	Most common answer (O*NET survey)
Contact with others	Very high	Higher on contact with others than 83% of occupations compared	78% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others”
Dealing with the public	Very high	Higher on dealing with the public than 90% of occupations compared	61% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important”
Teamwork	Very high	Higher on teamwork than 90% of occupations compared	82% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important”
Freedom to make decisions	Low	Lower on freedom to make decisions than 72% of occupations compared	44% of surveyed respondents chose “Some freedom”
Time pressure	High	Higher on time pressure than 79% of occupations compared	64% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day”
Conflict situations	Very high	Higher on conflict situations than 96% of occupations compared	36% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a week or more but not every day”
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people	Very high	Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 97% of occupations compared	46% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day”
Consequence of error	Very high	Higher on consequence of error than 99% of occupations compared	89% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely serious”

Work-pressure profile

Time pressure: high
Conflict situations: very high
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: very high
Consequence of error: very high

Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.

Full answer distributions

Contact with others

No contact with others: 0%
Occasional contact with others: 0%
Contact with others about half the time: 0%
Contact with others most of the time: 22.22%
Constant contact with others: 77.78%

n = 27, Occupational Expert 08/2021