Yes, nursing is widely considered a very good career in Australia, offering strong job security due to high demand, competitive salaries that increase with experience and specialisation, excellent flexibility (full-time, part-time, casual), diverse career paths, and potential pathways to permanent residency for international nurses. The profession provides a stable, rewarding, and respected career with high growth projections.
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.
As we have previously detailed, an entry-level Registered Nurse can expect to earn around $1084.10 per week, which is enough for a single person to easily cover living costs and leave a little leftover for savings. Obviously, as you progress through your career, things will become more comfortable.
Top 10 Happiest Nursing Jobs
In the current scenario, Nurses are in high demand in Australia. According to the Department of Health and Aged Care's Nursing Supply and Demand Study, Australia is projected to face a shortage of over 70,000 nurses by 2035. Be it hospitals, clinics, and aged care centres, nurses are needed everywhere.
Lengthy hours, quality of working environments, lack of leadership and the ageing population and workforce, can all be seen as influential factors, in which have the potential to leave this profession in a situation of calamity.
Nursing Issue #1: Inadequate Staff
Focusing on value-based and holistic patient-centered care requires a larger, more diverse, and highly educated nursing workforce. But maintaining adequate staffing remains an ongoing issue.
List of Lower-Stress Nursing Jobs
Nurses often enjoy the flexibility of their job, including the ability to tailor their work week. This allows them to better balance their work and personal lives while also accommodating their individual preferences and needs.
What Is a BSN? BSN is an undergraduate degree which stands for Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Completing a BSN program is one way to start your career in nursing and obtain your RN license. While technically all BSN graduates are RNs—at least if they take the RN licensure exam and practice nursing—all RNs aren't BSNs.
According to Roach (1993), who developed the Five Cs (Compassion, Competence, Confidence, Conscience and Commitment), knowledge, skills and experience make caring unique.
There are both pros and cons of nursing. Some advantages of being a nurse include the ability to help others, career versatility, employment growth and salary potential, while some of the potential drawbacks include exposure to germs and patient deaths.
If you're a registered nurse or midwife earning at least $90k a year, you could get a home loan with a 10% deposit (an LVR up to 90%), without having to pay thousands in lenders mortgage insurance. What is lenders mortgage insurance?
Nursing is one of the most promising careers for the future. The global shortage of healthcare professionals ensures a consistent demand for nurses. In addition, advancements in medical technology and the growing emphasis on preventive care have expanded the roles of nurses beyond traditional settings.
This means there are no plans to provide free travel to nurses.
“The pay disparity paints a dire picture of just how far behind nurses and midwives' wages are thanks to the former government's wages policy and the impact of inflation. In NSW, nurses and midwives are now the second worst paid in the country when starting their career,” said Ms Candish.
The " nurse syndrome" is often invoked in the field of private relationships, to refer to women (mainly) who tend to invest in intimate relationships with people in pain whom they find themselves taking care of, at the risk of permanently establishing an imbalance in the couple, or even toxic relationships.
The mean scores of the personality traits of the nurses were, from high to low, agreeableness (4.01 ± 0.45), conscientiousness (3.85 ± 0.40), openness to experience (3.72 ± 0.46), extraversion (3.65 ± 0.61), and neuroticism (2.54 ± 0.63) (Table 2).
Nursing Named Most Trusted Profession for 23rd Consecutive Year. Over 75% of respondents in Gallup's annual Most Honest and Ethical Professions Poll consider nurses to be the most trusted profession. This marks the 23rd consecutive year nurses have earned the top spot in the poll.
While nurses in all specialties are prone to stress and burnout, critical care nurses experience the highest levels. Nurses who work in the ED and ICU have higher acuity patients with increased morbidity and mortality.
According to a 2025 Medscape-based survey, some of the happiest specialties reported are Allergy & Immunology (94 %), Pathology (88 %), Dermatology (87 %), Public Health & Preventive Medicine (87 %), and Psychiatry (87 %).
Here are some of the challenges nurses face in their profession:
Essential components of hourly rounding, often referred to as the “5 P's”, include assessing pain, restroom needs, proximity of possessions, patient position, and safety of environment for patients every hour during waking hours (Brosey & March, 2015).
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.
As new nurses are only beginning to apply their theoretical knowledge to clinical practice, they are not yet able to meet the demands of their new work environment. They also lack communication skills, teamwork experience, and the practical knowledge of more experienced nurses.