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Alamo Colleges DistrictCareer Explorer

Critical Care Nurses

Part of Health Science, in the Therapeutic Services pathway.

Bright outlookJob zone 4: considerable preparationO*NET 29-1141.03

What the work is

Provide specialized nursing care for patients in critical or coronary care units.

On a typical day

  • Identify patients' age-specific needs and alter care plans as necessary to meet those needs.
  • Provide post-mortem care.
  • Evaluate patients' vital signs or laboratory data to determine emergency intervention needs.
  • Perform approved therapeutic or diagnostic procedures, based upon patients' clinical status.
  • Administer blood and blood products, monitoring patients for signs and symptoms related to transfusion reactions.
  • Administer medications intravenously, by injection, orally, through gastric tubes, or by other methods.

What it pays

$94,370
Median pay per year, San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX metro
New workers start near $66,430
Experienced workers reach $122,990
  1. $66k10th
  2. $78k25th
  3. $94kMedian
  4. $101k75th
  5. $123k90th
Wage percentiles: 10th $66,430, 25th $78,100, Median $94,370, 75th $100,760, 90th $122,990

About 23,660 people do this job in the San Antonio area.

Job outlook

Alamo region (Bexar and 12 surrounding counties), Texas Workforce Commission projection 2024 to 2034. U.S. figures from the BLS for comparison.

+16.3%

employment change in the Alamo region, 24,492 to 28,477 jobs · U.S. +5%

1,712

openings a year in the Alamo region, from growth and people leaving · U.S. 189,100

24,492

employed in the Alamo region in 2024 · U.S. 3,391,000

Typical entry education: Bachelor's degree

Skills this career uses

The skills O*NET rates most important for the job, with how much of each the work needs on a 1 to 7 scale.

  1. Monitoring4.0
  2. Critical Thinking4.1
  3. Social Perceptiveness4.1
  4. Reading Comprehension4.0
  5. Active Listening4.0
  6. Speaking4.0
  7. Service Orientation4.0
  8. Active Learning4.0

Education people in this job have

Share of workers by highest education, from O*NET surveys. It shows what others did, not what you must do.

  1. Associate degree36%
  2. Bachelor's degree50%
  3. Master's degree14%

Job zone 4, considerable preparation: Usually a bachelor's degree, sometimes a strong associate plus experience.

Alamo programs that lead here

  • Northeast Lakeview
  • Palo Alto
  • St. Philip's
  • San Antonio
  1. Biology: Pre-Nursing

    Transfer pre-major · Health & Biosciences

  2. Nursing A.A.S.

    Alamo program

  3. Biology (Pre-Nursing)

    Transfer pre-major · Health & Biosciences

  4. Nursing

    Degree · Health & Biosciences

  5. Nursing Generic

    Degree · Health & Biosciences

  6. Biology: Pre-Nursing

    Transfer pre-major · Health & Biosciences

  7. Nursing Generic AAS

    Degree · Transfer pre-major · Health & Biosciences

  8. Nursing RN-BSN

    Degree · Online option · Health & Biosciences

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