Nurses are generally in high demand with good job security, making hiring relatively easy for experienced nurses, but it can be tougher for new graduates who need to be persistent and strategic, targeting specific units like home health or leveraging networking, while location and specialty also significantly impact job prospects.
Australia has a great need for nurses, and many foreign nurses find employment easy to find there. You need to be properly qualified, and ideally you should have a few years' experience already before you apply.
According to the report's top-10 list of most in-demand healthcare jobs, several nursing roles rank near the top: Registered Nurse (RN) remains the #1 role in hiring volume — including travel, ICU, medical-surgical, emergency, and labor & delivery nurses, among other specialties.
Several nursing roles such as school nursing, occupational health nursing, and nurse education are identified as low-stress yet fulfilling career paths within healthcare, offering regular schedules, competitive salaries, and less physically demanding environments.
Long-Term Care Nurse
There is a focus on palliative care. As the U.S. population ages, the number of people needing nursing home care is increasing. Because of this, long-term care nursing is one of the top nursing specialties in demand.
Top 10 Happiest Nursing Jobs
Highest Paid Nursing Specialties:
Nurses often work long hours performing tasks that are both physically and emotionally demanding. What's more, the work nurses perform can have important and even life-or-death consequences for patients, significantly adding to workplace stress.
Audiologist. An audiologist is a qualified healthcare professional who works with people with hearing impairments. It's reportedly one of the least stressful jobs in Australia, noted for good growth potential, low risk, clear job expectations, no deadlines and no physical labour.
You should not feel like you cannot work as a nurse if you experience anxiety. Many nurses with anxiety deal with their situations in positive ways that actually make them better nurses. And given the variety of potential work environments, a job change may work wonders.
While AI can assist in valuable ways, it will never replace the assessments, critical thinking and personal interactions completed by nursing and other health professionals. Instead, AI and healthcare providers can work together, creating a treatment plan that is unique as the individual who requires it.
How old are nurses when they start? The average age of a new nurse ranges from mid twenties to late thirties and forties, depending on when the student started school. The youngest age someone could achieve RN status is 20,assuming the student graduated high school at 18 and immediately entered a2-year ADN program.
Top Highest-Paid Nursing Jobs in 2026
Yes, $70k is a fair salary in Australia, often near the median income, making it a decent living for a single person, especially outside major cities, but it can be tight in expensive areas or for those with high living costs like mortgages, with full-time averages now closer to $90k-$100k.
The "3-month rule" in a job refers to the common probationary period where employers assess a new hire's performance, skills, and cultural fit, while the employee learns the role and decides if the job is right for them; it's a crucial time for observation, feedback, and proving value, often with potential limitations on benefits until the period ends. It's also advice for new hires to "hang in there" for three months to get acclimated and evaluate the job before making big decisions.
So, is being a nurse worth it after all? – the answer is an absolute Yes! Becoming a nurse can be worthwhile despite the rigorous nature of the profession. For those with a passion for research, healthcare, and most importantly, compassion for others, the profession offers a fulfilling career.
There's no single #1 happiest job universally, but Firefighters consistently rank high for job satisfaction due to their sense of purpose, while Care Workers, Counsellors, Content Creators, and IT roles (Java Devs, Systems Analysts) also appear frequently on "happiest" lists for fulfillment, autonomy, or good pay/balance. Overall, jobs with meaning, helping others, nature connection, strong coworker bonds, or good work-life balance tend to be cited as happiest.
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Nurses lead for those with the most burnout risk, with an estimated 6.9% burnout likelihood. This role is followed closely by ER physicians at 6.6% and primary-care doctors at 6.2% odds. Child and family social workers come in at 6.0%, while teachers and EMTs round out the top five with odds between 5.4–5.6%.
The First Year Is Difficult
Nearly 18% of newly licensed registered nurses quit the profession within the first year. Like with more advanced nurses, common causes for leaving include stressful working conditions, lack of leadership and supervision, and understaffed facilities.
Examples of low-stress nursing positions include school nurse, nurse researcher, case management nurse, and more. Work-life balance benefits—such as no night shifts, weekends, or holidays—are a major factor in what makes these jobs less stressful compared to hospital bedside roles.
Many nurses have experienced verbal abuse from patients and dont feel safe anymore at work. All of these factors can lead to nurse burnout and unhappy nurses.
Research with patients and patient outcomes has shown that nurses with a BSN have better patient outcomes on average. So, in a competitive healthcare market that must maximize patient outcomes, BSN has become the preferred degree for most hiring efforts.
The highest paid nurse is a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA). Professionals in this field earn as low as USD 101,000 and as high as USD 174,000, with an average salary of USD 124,00.
A typical day in the life of a nurse
Nurses work with multidisciplinary teams, including surgeons, physicians, specialists, assistants, technicians and many other healthcare providers. Their daily duties may include: Taking patient vital signs, measurements and medical histories. Asking about the patient's symptoms.