Registered Nurses: where your skills can take you
Assess patient health problems and needs, develop and implement nursing care plans, and maintain medical records. Administer nursing care to ill, injured, convalescent, or disabled patients. May advise patients on health maintenance and disease prevention or provide case management. Licensing or registration required.
Usual study level (from US data): Bachelor degree (uni — or check Cert/Diploma + experience pathways first) · AHPRA registration (Nursing & Midwifery Board)
Job names and descriptions on this page come from the US government's job list (O*NET). Some use American words, for example "elementary school" for primary school.
Three moves that use what a registered nurse already knows
Ranked by how much of the job's skills and knowledge carries over. Each one says what the move usually costs in study.
Acute Care Nurses
In national shortage — employers actively looking (Jobs and Skills Australia, 2025)
🧰 Your current job already uses reading people, looking after customers and clients, working in step with other people and sound judgement.
🎓 A certificate or diploma. About the same level of study as your job, but in a different field: it leans on Education and Training, which your job does not use much. The most common level in the US is a bachelor's degree (67%).
🪪 AHPRA registration (Nursing & Midwifery Board)
🔎 Find degrees on Course Seeker ↗ (type the job's name there)
Provide advanced nursing care for patients with acute conditions such as heart attacks, respiratory distress syndrome, or shock. May care for pre- and post-operative patients or perform advanced, invasive diagnostic or therapeutic procedures.
Nurse Midwives
In national shortage — employers actively looking (Jobs and Skills Australia, 2025)
🧰 Your current job already uses reading people, working in step with other people, looking after customers and clients and sound judgement.
🎓 A degree. This job has its own registration. The most common level in Australia is a bachelor degree (65%).
🪪 AHPRA registration as a nurse and a midwife (Nursing & Midwifery Board)
🔎 Find degrees on Course Seeker ↗ (type the job's name there)
Diagnose and coordinate all aspects of the birthing process, either independently or as part of a healthcare team. May provide well-woman gynecological care. Must have specialized, graduate nursing education.
Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses
In shortage in regional areas (Jobs and Skills Australia, 2025)
🧰 Your current job already uses reading people, looking after customers and clients, working in step with other people and sound judgement.
🎓 A certificate or diploma. The most common level in Australia is a certificate or diploma (84%).
🪪 AHPRA registration as an enrolled nurse (Nursing & Midwifery Board)
🔎 Find courses for this job on training.gov.au ↗
Care for ill, injured, or convalescing patients or persons with disabilities in hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, private homes, group homes, and similar institutions. May work under the supervision of a registered nurse. Licensing required.
These are the three closest moves. The full list holds 24. Answer four quick questions — how much more study, which field, what you want more of, where you live — and the list fits you. Subscribers can plan any move.
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O*NET 30.3 — This service incorporates information from the O*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. JobMatcha has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.
ABS ANZSCO 2022 Australian Update — Australian occupation tags are derived from the Australian Bureau of Statistics ANZSCO 2022 Australian Update correspondence tables (ABS, © Commonwealth of Australia, licensed under CC BY 4.0), bridged to U.S. occupations via U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics SOC crosswalks (public domain). Only high-confidence (>= 0.8) one-to-one chains are shown; other mappings are withheld as 'Australian data unavailable'.
Australian pay and shortage lines: Jobs and Skills Australia.