Types of Degrees Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many occupational and environmental health nursing graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Master’s Degree	10
Basic Certificate	9
Graduate Certificate	7

What Majors Need to Know

O*NET surveyed people in occupations related to occupational and environmental health nursing and asked them what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. The responses were rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being most important.

Knowledge Areas for Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing Majors

Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing majors often go into careers in which the following 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 Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing Majors

When studying occupational and environmental health nursing, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• 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 Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing Majors

A major in occupational and environmental health nursing will prepare for your careers in which the following abilities are important:

• 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 Major?

People with a occupational and environmental health nursing degree often go into the following careers:

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

How Much Do Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing majors often go into careers with median salaries of $75,510. This median refers to all degree levels, so the salary for a person with just a bachelor’s degree may be a little less and the one for a person with an advanced degree may be a little more.

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

Some degrees associated with occupational and environmental health nursing 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.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to occupational and environmental health nursing have obtained the following education levels.

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 Programs

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)	0	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	0	0
Associate’s Degree	0	0
Bachelor’s Degree	1	1
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	2	1
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	1	1
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in Worth It?

The median salary for a occupational and environmental health nursing 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

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to occupational and environmental health nursing.

Major	Number of Grads
Registered Nursing	262,974
Family Practice Nurse/Nursing	16,647
Nursing Practice	8,862
Nursing Administration	8,663
Other Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing	4,717
Nursing Science	4,701
Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse/Nursing	2,895
Adult Health Nurse/Nursing	2,075
Public Health/Community Nurse/Nursing	2,011
Nurse Anesthetist	1,768
Critical Care Nursing	747
Geriatric Nurse/Nursing	622
Nurse Midwife/Nursing Midwifery	567
School Nursing	539
Clinical Nurse Leader	502
Clinical Nurse Specialist	340
Perioperative/Operating Room and Surgical Nurse/Nursing	269
Women’s Health Nurse/Nursing	262
Maternal/Child Health and Neonatal Nurse/Nursing	192
Emergency Room/Trauma Nursing	87
Forensic Nursing	23
Palliative Care Nursing	13

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.