Nursing Assistant

Types of Degrees Nursing Assistant Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many nursing assistant/aide and patient care assistant/aide graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Basic Certificate	37,077
Undergraduate Certificate	921
Associate Degree	74
Bachelor’s Degree	25

What Nursing Assistant Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, nursing assistant majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Nursing Assistant Majors

According to O*NET survey takers, a major in nursing assistant should prepare you for careers in which you will need to be knowledgeable in the following areas:

• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
• Medicine and Dentistry - Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.

Skills for Nursing Assistant Majors

A major in nursing assistant prepares you for careers in which the following skill-sets are crucial:

• Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.

Abilities for Nursing Assistant Majors

A major in nursing assistant will prepare for your careers in which the following abilities are important:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.

What Can You Do With a Nursing Assistant Major?

People with a nursing assistant degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Nursing Assistants	11.5%	$28,540

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing Assistant?

The major attracts more women than men. About 92% of the recent graduates in this field are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of nursing assistant majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	0
Black or African American	0
Hispanic or Latino	25
White	0
International Students	0
Other Races/Ethnicities	0

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Nursing Assistant

Some degrees associated with nursing assistant may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to nursing assistant have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	7.4%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	59.9%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	24.5%
Some College Courses	7.6%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	0.5%

Online Nursing Assistant Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	86	2
Certificate (2-4 Years)	1	0
Associate’s Degree	10	0
Bachelor’s Degree	0	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	0	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to Nursing Assistant

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to nursing assistant.

Major	Number of Grads
Licensed Practical/Vocational Nurse Training	45,886
Other Practical Nursing, Vocational Nursing and Nursing Assistants	4,826

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020

More about our data sources and methodologies.