Registered Nurse: Tasks, Salary and Career
Tasks of a registered nurse
The registered nurse is a central role in healthcare: planning, delivering and documenting nursing care for patients in hospitals, care facilities and home-care services. The profession combines clinical knowledge with organisational responsibility and direct human contact.
Core tasks include basic and treatment-related care, preparing and assisting with medical procedures, administering medication, and monitoring and documenting patients' health status. Guiding trainees and care assistants is also part of the role.
- Carry out basic and treatment-related care
- Check and document vital signs
- Implement medical orders
- Advise and involve relatives
Salary: what can nurses expect?
A nurse's salary depends on the region, collective agreements, experience and type of facility. Facilities bound by collective agreements often follow public-sector or church-run pay scales with clear experience-based steps.
Allowances for shift, night and weekend work, as well as role allowances for further qualifications, can noticeably increase the base salary. A detailed salary comparison is always worthwhile in the specific individual case.
Career paths in nursing
After the three-year generalist training, nurses have numerous specialisation options — for example in intensive care, surgery, anaesthesia or oncology. Further training not only broadens the scope of work but also improves earning potential.
Those who want to take on leadership responsibility can develop into a ward manager or director of nursing. A nursing science degree is also an increasingly popular path, for example towards nursing management or quality management.