Clinical Nurse Leader

Types of Degrees Clinical Nurse Leader Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many clinical nurse leader graduations there were in 2018-2019 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Master’s Degree	502
Bachelor’s Degree	13
Graduate Certificate	12

What Clinical Nurse Leader Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, clinical nurse leader 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 Clinical Nurse Leader 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Therapy and Counseling - Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.

Skills for Clinical Nurse Leader Majors

A major in clinical nurse leader prepares you for careers in which the following skill-sets are crucial:

• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
• 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.
• Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.

Abilities for Clinical Nurse Leader Majors

As a clinical nurse leader major, you will find yourself needing the following abilities:

• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• 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 Clinical Nurse Leader Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with clinical nurse leader:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Registered Nurses	14.8%	$71,730

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Clinical Nurse Leader?

This major is dominated by women with about 92% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of clinical nurse leader majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	0
Black or African American	0
Hispanic or Latino	0
White	10
International Students	0
Other Races/Ethnicities	3

How Much Do Clinical Nurse Leader Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

The median salary for someone in a career related to clinical nurse leader is $75,510. This median refers to all degree levels, so you may expect those with a more advanced degree to make more while those with less advanced degrees will typically make less.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Clinical Nurse Leader

Some degrees associated with clinical nurse leader may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

Find out what the typical degree level is for clinical nurse leader careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Some College Courses	11.1%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	68.7%
Bachelor’s Degree	24.1%

Online Clinical Nurse Leader Programs

In the 2018-2019 academic year, 42 schools offered some type of clinical nurse leader program. 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	4	1
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	36	9
Post-Master’s	9	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	1	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in Clinical Nurse Leader Worth It?

The median salary for a clinical nurse leader grad is $75,510 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

This is 89% more than the average salary for an individual holding a high school degree. This adds up to a gain of about $712,200 after 20 years!

Majors Related to Clinical Nurse Leader

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to clinical nurse leader.

Major	Number of Grads
Registered Nursing	251,279
Family Practice Nurse/Nursing	15,536
Nursing Administration	9,071
Other Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing	6,319
Nursing Practice	6,250
Nursing Science	4,704
Nurse Anesthetist	2,031
Adult Health Nurse/Nursing	2,012
Nursing Education	1,991
Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse/Nursing	1,266
Public Health/Community Nurse/Nursing	1,022
Critical Care Nursing	643
School Nursing	523
Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery	475
Geriatric Nurse/Nursing	464
Clinical Nurse Specialist	428
Perioperative/Operating Room and Surgical Nurse/Nursing	236
Maternal/Child Health and Neonatal Nurse/Nursing	211
Emergency Room/Trauma Nursing	37
Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing	35
Palliative Care Nursing	23

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.