Become a Geriatric Nurse

What you'll do: Geriatric nurses care for the elderly, focusing on the development and implementation of treatment plans for chronic illnesses, including diabetes, hypertension and respiratory disorders. They also educate and counsel families of elderly patients who suffer from acute and chronic conditions.

Minimum degree you'll need to practice: Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN)

Certification: The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) offers three main categories of certification for geriatric nurses, one for RNs and two for advanced practice nurses (APNs).

Average annual salary: $70,000

Cities where jobs are often found: Scottsdale, Fort Lauderdale, St. Petersburg, Honolulu

Graduates can start their geriatric nursing career with a 4-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree. To help you advance to higher levels of practice, nursing schools offer Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degrees and post-master's programs for clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) looking to focus their career on gerontological care.

To qualify for certification, nurses must hold a current, active RN license, have graduated from an accredited nursing school program and meet specific experience criteria:

• Gerontological Nurse Specialist—requires two years of practice as an RN, with 2,000 hours of practice and 30 hours of continuing education in gerontological nursing in the last three years.
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• Clinical Nurse Specialist in Gerontological Nursing—requires that your CNS in gerontology program included 500 hours of faculty-supervised clinical practice and course work in advanced health assessment, advanced pharmacology and advanced pathophysiology.
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• Gerontological Nurse Practitioner—requires that your gerontological NP program included 500 hours of faculty-supervised clinical practice and course work in advanced health assessment, advanced pharmacology and advanced pathophysiology, plus training across the life span in health promotion, disease prevention, differential diagnosis and disease management.

The AACN reports that by the year 2030, nearly 20 percent of Americans will be age 65 and over. In addition, older adults represent half of all hospital stays, nearly two-thirds of all ambulatory adult primary care visits and almost three-quarters of all home care visits. Taking these statistics into consideration, geriatric nursing careers will expand significantly over the coming decades. In hospitals and nursing care facilities, nurses can expect an increase in employment of 22 and 20 percent, respectively.
_{Sources:
American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2004
Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009 Nurse Week, 2004
American Nurses Association, 2009
American Nurses Credentialing Center, 2009
Payscale.com, 2009
Indeed.com, 2011}