We hope you are all having an awesome Nurses Week! Although nurses deserve recognition year-round, this week is the perfect time to honor some popular and unique specialties within the field. In this blog, we’ll be highlighting orthopedic nurses and orthopedic nurse practitioners. We’ll provide useful information on what these nurses do, their salaries, and some ways to thank them for their hard work! Read along as we pay some tribute to orthopedic nurses.
A Tribute to Orthopedic Nurses – Nurses Week 2018
What is an Orthopedic Nurse?
According to DiscoverNursing.com, orthopedic nurses care for “people with musculoskeletal diseases and disorders like arthritis, fractures, broken bones, joint replacements, genetic malformations, and osteoporosis.” These nurses have a deep understanding of the muscular system and the skeletal system, and how the two systems work together. Orthopedic nurses work alongside doctors to assess, diagnose, and treat patients suffering from all kinds of musculoskeletal problems. The typical duties of an orthopedic nurse can include:
- Assess patients through physical examination and/or x-rays
- Set or cast a patient’s fractured or broken bone
- Administer medications
- Educate patients on how to properly care for their injury
- Help patients regain their mobility and strength after injury
Orthopedic Nurses vs. Orthopedic Nurse Practitioners
While orthopedic nurses and orthopedic nurse practitioners are similar, orthopedic NPs differ in that they need more education and training. Orthopedic nurses are required to have their Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree in nursing, while nurse practitioners need to have their Master’s. Because they have more education and training, orthopedic NPs can perform different tasks than those of an RN, like prescribing medications and diagnosing patients. Orthopedic nurse practitioners can conduct physical exams, prescribe tests and treatments, and analyze the tests and treatments.
Orthopedic Nurse Salary and Job Outlook
Compensation for orthopedic nurses varies depending on experience, education, and state, but these nurses earn around $63,000-68,000 per year. As of 2015, the median annual salary for an orthopedic RN was $67,490. In fact, orthopedics is one of the most lucrative nursing specialties! Better yet, the job outlook is promising. The nursing field as a whole is expected to grow by 16 percent by the year 2024. For orthopedic nurse practitioners, the average annual salary is around $99,500. NPs have an even higher projected career growth than RNs. From 2016 to 2026, the field is projected to grow 31 percent, which is much faster than average.
Paying Tribute to Orthopedic Nurses
Nurses Week is the ideal time to take a moment to say “thank you” to orthopedic nurses, and nurses of any specialty. As a tribute to orthopedic nurses, and all nurses alike, I thought it would be a cool idea to share some of my favorite inspirational quotes about nursing. You might want to grab some tissues! Just kidding.
- “It would not be possible to praise nurses too highly.” – Stephan Ambrose
- “Nurses may not be angels, but they are the next best thing.” – Anonymous
- “The trained nurse has become one of the great blessings of humanity, taking a place beside the physician and the priest.” – William Osler
- “We often think of nursing as giving meds on time, checking an X-ray to see if the doctor needs to be called, or taking an admission at 2:00 a.m. with a smile on our faces. Too often, we forget all the other things that make our job what it truly is: caring and having a desire to make a difference.” – Erin Pettengill
Whether it’s in a card or on a piece of scrap paper, consider writing down one of these quotes and giving it to your favorite nurse as a little way of saying “thanks.”
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