Clinical nurse specialists are one of the least happy careers in the United States.
At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, clinical nurse specialists rate their career happiness 2.8 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 15% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy clinical nurse specialists are to similar careers in the industry. Take a look at the results below:
Salaries and satisfaction ratings in similar careers
| Career | Satisfaction | Avg Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Licensed practical nurse | 2.8 | $48k |
| Medical laboratory technologist | 2.8 | $46k |
| Pharmacy technician | 2.8 | $37k |
| Medical administrative assistant | 2.8 | $37k |
| Neurodiagnostic technologist | 2.8 | $46k |
| Clinical nurse specialist | 2.8 | $78k |
| Medical billing and coding technician | 2.7 | $40k |
| Registered nurse | 2.7 | $78k |
| Nurse | 2.7 | $44k |
| Nuclear medicine technologist | 2.7 | $79k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are clinical nurse specialists happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do clinical nurse specialists find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as clinical nurse specialists?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are clinical nurse specialist’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are clinical nurse specialists making the best use of their abilities?
Are clinical nurse specialists happy with their salary?
Clinical nurse specialists rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.9/5. Clinical nurse specialists tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked clinical nurse specialists how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.9 out of 5 stars
20 clinical nurse specialists
25% of clinical nurse specialists rated their compensation 5 stars
5% of clinical nurse specialists rated their compensation 4 stars
25% of clinical nurse specialists rated their compensation 3 stars
25% of clinical nurse specialists rated their compensation 2 stars
20% of clinical nurse specialists rated their compensation 1 stars
Do clinical nurse specialists find their jobs meaningful?
On average, clinical nurse specialists rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.4/5. Most tend to be satisified with the level of meaning they find in their careers.
We asked clinical nurse specialists how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
21 clinical nurse specialists
24% of clinical nurse specialists rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
24% of clinical nurse specialists rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
33% of clinical nurse specialists rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
5% of clinical nurse specialists rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
14% of clinical nurse specialists rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as clinical nurse specialists?
Clinical nurse specialists rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.7/5. The majority of clinical nurse specialists find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked clinical nurse specialists how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.7 out of 5 stars
23 clinical nurse specialists
30% of clinical nurse specialists rated their career fit 5 stars
35% of clinical nurse specialists rated their career fit 4 stars
13% of clinical nurse specialists rated their career fit 3 stars
17% of clinical nurse specialists rated their career fit 2 stars
4% of clinical nurse specialists rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a clinical nurse specialist’s work environment?
As a whole, clinical nurse specialists rated their enjoyment of their work environment 2.9/5. Some clinical nurse specialists are happy with their work environment, but it does not seem to be a meaningful contributer to career satisfaction for most.
We asked clinical nurse specialists how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
2.9 out of 5 stars
23 clinical nurse specialists
17% of clinical nurse specialists rated their work environment 5 stars
13% of clinical nurse specialists rated their work environment 4 stars
30% of clinical nurse specialists rated their work environment 3 stars
17% of clinical nurse specialists rated their work environment 2 stars
22% of clinical nurse specialists rated their work environment 1 stars
Are clinical nurse specialists making the best use of their abilities?
Former clinical nurse specialists on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.9/5. Clinical nurse specialists tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.
We asked clinical nurse specialists how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
2.9 out of 5 stars
20 clinical nurse specialists
15% of clinical nurse specialists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
20% of clinical nurse specialists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
30% of clinical nurse specialists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
10% of clinical nurse specialists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
25% of clinical nurse specialists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars