Nursing Assistants & Aides

Types of Degrees Nursing Assistants & Aides Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many nursing assistant/aide and patient care assistant/aide graduations there were in 2020-2021 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Basic Certificate	32,934
Undergraduate Certificate	1,342
Bachelor’s Degree	177
Associate Degree	104

What Nursing Assistants & Aides Majors Need to Know

O*NET surveyed people in occupations related to nursing assistant and asked them what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. The responses were rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being most important.

Knowledge Areas for Nursing Assistant Majors

This major prepares you for careers in which these knowledge areas are important:

• 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

When studying nursing assistant, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
• 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.
• Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.

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.
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).

What Can You Do With a Nursing Assistants & Aides Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with nursing assistant:

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

Who Is Getting an Associate’s Degree in Nursing Assistants & Aides?

The major attracts more women than men. About 86% 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	3
Black or African American	18
Hispanic or Latino	39
White	29
International Students	0
Other Races/Ethnicities	15

How Much Do Nursing Assistants & Aides Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

Nursing Assistant majors often go into careers with median salaries of $29,580. This median refers to all degree levels, so you may expect those with a more advanced degree to make more while those with less advanced degrees will typically make less.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Nursing Assistants & Aides

Some degrees associated with nursing assistant may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

Find out what the typical degree level is for nursing assistant careers below.

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 Assistants & Aides Programs

In 2020-2021, 590 schools offered a nursing assistant program of some type. 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)	94	1
Certificate (2-4 Years)	1	0
Associate’s Degree	12	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

Is a Degree in Nursing Assistants & Aides Worth It?

The median salary for a nursing assistant grad is $29,580 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

Trades Related to Nursing Assistants & Aides

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

Major	Number of Grads
Licensed Practical/Vocational Nurse Training	44,900
Other Practical Nursing, Vocational Nursing and Nursing Assistants	4,813

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.