What is a registered nurse (RN)?

In plain English

Registered nursing is a licence, not a specialty. The same licence covers the hospital bedside, the operating room, the clinic, the school, the dialysis unit and an insurer's care management department, and nursing specialties are voluntary certifications on top of it rather than separate licences.

Not every registered nurse holds a National Provider Identifier. An identifier is needed by clinicians who bill or are named in transactions, so the registered nurses on a public register are the ones who have needed one. That is a real and useful population, but it is not a census of the profession, and a page that treated it as one would be overstating what the public record can tell you.

The advanced practice roles - nurse practitioner, certified registered nurse anesthetist, certified nurse midwife, clinical nurse specialist - are built on the RN licence and are separately licensed, certified and filed.

Training and credentials

An associate or bachelor's degree in nursing from an approved program, then the national licensure examination and a state licence; specialty certifications follow experience.

Where they practise

Hospitals of every kind, nursing homes and post-acute care, home health, clinics and physician offices, dialysis centres, schools, insurers and case management.