Registered Nurse Job Description: Duties, Requirements, Template & Pay (2026)
A registered nurse (RN) assesses patients, administers medications and treatments, coordinates care with physicians and the wider team, and teaches patients and families how to manage their conditions. This page covers what RNs actually do on a shift, a copy-paste registered nurse job description template you can adapt for med-surg, ICU, long-term care or home health, the requirements that are legally required versus merely traditional, and what RN applicants cost on social media across 173 nurse campaign-months in Boostpoint's 2026 benchmark.
Registered nurse duties and responsibilities
The title covers a very wide range of work. A med-surg RN on a hospital floor manages five or six patients a shift, passes meds, hangs IVs, catches deterioration early and documents constantly. An ICU nurse manages one or two, on drips and ventilators. A long-term care RN supervises LPNs and CNAs across a 30-bed unit and spends much of the shift on assessments, care plans and family calls. A home health RN drives between visits and works alone. The duties below are the common core; the setting decides the emphasis, and the job description should say which setting it is in the first line.
Day to day, registered nurse responsibilities include:
- Assess patients on admission and throughout the shift: vital signs, pain, skin, mental status, fall risk; recognize and escalate changes in condition
- Administer oral, IV, IM and subcutaneous medications and monitor for reactions; manage IV access and infusions
- Carry out physician and provider orders; perform procedures such as wound care, catheter insertion, tube feeding and specimen collection
- Develop, update and document nursing care plans; chart in the EHR (Epic, Cerner/Oracle Health, PointClickCare) accurately and on time
- Coordinate care with physicians, therapists, case management and pharmacy; give and receive shift report
- Direct and delegate to LPNs, CNAs and nursing assistants; supervise care delivery on the unit
- Educate patients and families on diagnoses, medications, discharge instructions and self-care
- Respond to emergencies: codes, rapid responses, falls; provide first aid and life support as needed
- Maintain compliance with infection control, medication safety, restraint and documentation standards
Registered nursing is the largest healthcare occupation in the country, with about 3.47 million RNs employed in 2025 and roughly 180,800 openings a year through 2035, most of them replacement openings as nurses retire or leave the bedside. The median wage was $46.90 an hour in 2025, or $97,550 a year, with hospital, specialty and travel roles well above that. The shortage is not evenly spread: it's concentrated in rural hospitals, long-term care and night shifts, which is exactly where job descriptions need to work hardest. Our nursing shortage solutions page has the market picture.
Registered Nurse job description template
Copy this into your ATS or job board, replace the bracketed fields, and cut what doesn't apply. It's written in the order nurses read: pay, shift, ratio, unit — then the duties. RNs are almost always employed when they apply, and they screen postings on those four facts before reading anything else.
Job title
Registered Nurse (RN) — [Med-Surg / ICU / ED / Long-Term Care / Home Health], [Full-time / Part-time / PRN], [Days / Nights, 12-hour shifts], [City, State]
Summary
[Facility] is hiring a registered nurse for our [unit / 40-bed skilled nursing unit / home health team] in [City]. Pay is $[XX]–$[XX]/hour based on experience [plus $X/hour night differential, $X/hour weekend differential], with a $[X,XXX] sign-on bonus. Typical ratio is [1:5 on days / 1:6 on nights] with [a charge nurse and CNA support on every shift]. [Self-scheduling / every third weekend / no mandatory overtime.] [State] RN license required; [BLS / ACLS] required or obtained during orientation.
Responsibilities
- Assess, plan, implement and evaluate nursing care for assigned patients
- Administer medications and treatments per provider orders; manage IV therapy
- Document assessments, interventions and outcomes in [Epic / PointClickCare]
- Supervise and delegate to LPNs and CNAs; give and receive report
- Educate patients and families; coordinate discharge planning with case management
- Respond to changes in condition and emergencies per facility protocol
- Maintain compliance with infection control, medication safety and documentation standards
Requirements
- Current [State] RN license (or compact license) in good standing
- Graduate of an accredited nursing program (ADN or BSN)
- BLS certification; [ACLS / PALS within X months of hire]
- [1+ year of acute care / long-term care experience preferred; new graduates welcome with residency program]
- Able to lift and reposition patients, stand for a 12-hour shift, and pass a background check and health screening
Preferred
- BSN
- Specialty certification ([CCRN / CEN / CMSRN / gerontological nursing])
- Experience with [Epic / Cerner / PointClickCare]
- [Bilingual English/Spanish]
Schedule and pay
- $[XX]–$[XX]/hour depending on experience and certifications
- [Night differential $X/hour; weekend differential $X/hour; charge pay $X/hour]
- [Sign-on bonus $X,XXX paid over X months]; [relocation assistance]
- [Three 12-hour shifts per week, self-scheduling, every third weekend]
Benefits
- Medical, dental and vision from day [1 / 30]
- [401(k) / 403(b) with X% match]
- Paid time off [X hours per year] and [X] paid holidays
- Tuition reimbursement [$X,XXX per year] and paid certification renewals
- [Nurse residency program for new graduates]; [clinical ladder with pay steps]
- [Free parking, meals on shift, uniform allowance]
Requirements: what's required, what's preferred, and what kills applications
Nursing has a short list of non-negotiables set by the state board and a long list of things employers add out of habit. Only 11% of nurses who click an RN ad finish the application — the lowest completion rate of any hourly role we track except CDL drivers — and the requirements section is usually the reason.
| Requirement | What to know |
|---|---|
| State RN license | Required by law. Ask for the license number and state as a form field; verify it against the board yourself. Say whether you accept a compact (NLC) license — travel and relocating nurses look for that line. |
| ADN vs. BSN | Both qualify for licensure. Requiring a BSN removes roughly a third of the RN workforce from your pool; unless you're chasing Magnet status or the role is leadership, list BSN as preferred and offer tuition support. |
| BLS / ACLS / PALS | BLS is standard. ACLS and PALS are unit-specific; say "obtained within 90 days" rather than requiring them on day one, and pay for the course. |
| Experience | "2+ years acute care" is the line that quietly excludes new graduates and long-term care nurses. If you can train, say "new grads welcome" and describe the orientation. If you can't, say why in one sentence. |
| Physical requirements | Include them: lifting and repositioning, 12-hour shifts on your feet, exposure to infectious materials. They're legally useful and nurses expect them. |
| Background check and health screening | Required in nearly every state for patient-facing roles. State it; don't make it a pre-application step. |
| Cover letter, references, résumé upload | Not needed to start a conversation. Nurses apply from a phone between shifts; every upload field cuts completion. Collect these after the phone screen. |
How to customize it for your setting
Hospital (med-surg, tele, ICU, ED)
Lead with unit, shift and ratio; name the EHR; describe the residency for new graduates. Specialty units should state the certification path and who pays for it. Our best job boards for nurses guide compares where hospital RN postings actually convert.
Long-term care and skilled nursing
The RN is usually a supervisor: say how many LPNs and CNAs report to them and how many residents the unit holds. Nurses leave SNFs over staffing, so a truthful ratio beats a generous sign-on bonus. Pay and cost data for the whole team is in our RN, LPN and CNA recruiting cost breakdown.
Home health and hospice
Visits per day, territory, mileage reimbursement and the documentation system are the four facts. Autonomy is the draw; describe it.
PRN and per-diem
State the minimum shift commitment, the PRN rate (usually $8–$15/hour above base with no benefits) and how scheduling works. See PRN and per-diem staffing costs for how the math compares with agency.
What it costs to reach registered nurses on social
Registered nurse campaigns ran a median of $19.08 per applicant across 173 campaign-months in our 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, with the middle half between $12.76 and $34.84 and a blended (volume-weighted) figure of $20.00. Only 11% of nurses who clicked finished the application — against 31% for caregivers and 18% for CNAs — which is why RN campaigns cost more than caregiver campaigns despite buying similar attention.
That completion gap is the lever. RN campaigns that ask for license state, unit experience and shift preference in three tap-to-answer questions, with no résumé upload, sit at the low end of the band; campaigns that redirect to a careers portal sit at the high end. The broader healthcare picture — including why the sector's $11.47 blended cost hides a caregiver-to-therapy split of 8x — is on our healthcare recruiting page, and the agency alternative is priced in nurse staffing agency costs.
If you are hiring registered nurses rather than describing the job, the recruiting side — where they are, what the ad has to say, and what an applicant costs to reach — is on our RN, LPN and CNA recruiting cost page.
Writing the ad version
The ad is not the job description. It answers pay, shift, ratio and unit in the first two lines: "RNs — $38–$48/hr + $6 nights, 1:5 days on med-surg, self-scheduling, $10K sign-on. [Hospital], [City]. Apply in 60 seconds." Knockout questions: license state, years of RN experience, unit experience (multiple choice), shift preference. No résumé, no cover letter, no portal.
A 15-second video of the unit with a nurse saying what the ratio actually is on a bad day outranks any stock photo of a stethoscope. Nurses talk to each other about staffing; a posting that's honest about it gets shared.
RN nursing job description: what changes by setting
An RN nursing job description that works on a medical surgical floor will not recruit for a long term care unit or a home health route, because the same license covers four quite different jobs. On med-surg the nurse carries five or six patients, passes medications, catches deterioration and documents continuously. In intensive care it is one or two patients on drips and ventilators. In long term care the registered nurse supervises LPNs and CNAs across a unit and spends most of the shift on assessments, care plans and family calls. In home health the nurse drives between visits and works alone.
The duties list above is the common core. What belongs in the first three lines of your version is the part that differs: the ratio, the unit, the shift pattern and whether the role is supervisory. Nurses comparing postings sort on those four before they read a responsibilities list, and a description that opens with the common core reads as though it could be anywhere.
ER nurse job description
An ER nurse job description has to say what kind of department it is before anything else: a Level I trauma center, a community ED, a freestanding emergency department or an urgent care line. The duties change with it. An emergency nurse triages patients on arrival (most departments use a five-level scale such as the Emergency Severity Index), starts IVs and draws labs fast, gives time-critical medications, works codes, traumas and stroke and sepsis protocols, and moves patients out to a unit, another facility or home while the waiting room keeps filling.
Put in the posting: the annual visit volume or number of beds, whether nurses rotate through triage, trauma bays and fast track, the typical assignment, and whether there is a separate pediatric area. The specialty credential is the Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN), awarded by the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing. List it as preferred, not required, and say whether you pay for the exam. Most EDs also expect ACLS and PALS, and many add TNCC; the same “obtain within 90 days” advice from the requirements table applies.
Home health nurse job description
A home health nurse job description for a Medicare-certified agency carries duties the federal rules assign specifically to a registered nurse. Under 42 CFR 484.55, “a registered nurse must conduct an initial assessment visit” within 48 hours of referral or of the patient’s return home, or on the ordered start of care date, and the comprehensive assessment must be completed “no later than 5 calendar days after the start of care.” Under 42 CFR 484.80(h), when an aide is serving a patient who also receives skilled services, a registered nurse or other appropriate skilled professional must complete a supervisory assessment of the aide’s services “no less frequently than every 14 days.”
So the home health RN posting should list start-of-care and OASIS assessments, recertifications, aide supervision, wound care, medication reconciliation and teaching, alongside the four practical facts from the setting section above: visits per day, territory, mileage and the documentation system. Say whether the role is per-visit or salaried and how many visits count as a full day. If your agency is also hiring end-of-life nurses, our hospice nurse job description covers that role separately, and RN case manager covers the coordination role.
Psychiatric nurse job description
A psychiatric nurse job description covers an RN on an inpatient behavioral health unit, a crisis stabilization unit, a detox program or an outpatient clinic. The RN assesses mental status and suicide risk, administers and monitors psychiatric medications (including long-acting injectables), leads the milieu with the psychiatric technicians, de-escalates, takes part in restraint and seclusion decisions under the facility’s policy, and runs groups or medication teaching. Say which population the unit serves (adult, adolescent, geriatric, dual diagnosis), whether the unit is locked, the ratio, and which crisis intervention program you train in and pay for.
The specialty credential is the ANCC Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing certification (PMH-BC). Its eligibility requires the equivalent of 2 years full-time as a registered nurse, “a minimum of 2,000 hours of clinical practice in psychiatric–mental health nursing within the last 3 years” and 30 hours of continuing education in the specialty within the last 3 years. That puts it out of reach for nurses new to psych, so list it as preferred. The technicians the psych RN supervises are covered in our psychiatric technician job description.
Charge nurse job description
A charge nurse is an RN (in some settings an LPN) who runs the unit for a shift while usually carrying a reduced assignment or none. In nursing homes the role is a federal requirement: under 42 CFR 483.35(a)(2), except when waived, “the facility must designate a licensed nurse to serve as a charge nurse on each tour of duty,” and separately the facility must use the services of a registered nurse for at least 8 consecutive hours a day, 7 days a week.
A charge nurse job description should list: making and adjusting assignments, managing admissions, discharges and bed flow, being the first call for rapid responses and staff questions, handling family and physician escalations, covering breaks, and completing the shift’s staffing and incident paperwork. State whether the charge nurse takes patients and how many, the charge differential in dollars, and who the role reports to. The next step up is covered in our nurse manager job description and director of nursing job description.
Other RN specialties with their own job descriptions
Some RN roles differ enough to need their own posting: the ICU nurse job description, the labor and delivery nurse job description, the travel nurse job description, the hospice nurse job description, the RN case manager job description and the nurse manager job description.
Registered nurse interview questions (for hiring managers)
These RN interview questions are written for the person doing the hiring, not the candidate preparing for it. Most nurse interview questions online are practice lists for new graduates; the ones below are built to separate a nurse who will be safe on your unit from one who interviews well. Ask every candidate the same set and score the answers the same way; our interview scorecard template has a rubric you can adapt.
1. “Walk me through the first hour of your shift.”
A strong answer covers report, safety checks, prioritizing the sickest patient, and early medications. A vague answer (“I get report and see my patients”) tells you little about how they organize a shift.
2. “Tell me about a patient whose condition changed on your shift. What did you notice first, and what did you do?”
Listen for a specific early sign, a clear escalation (charge nurse, provider, rapid response) and documentation. Candidates who describe waiting to be sure before calling are the risk you are screening for.
3. “You have two call lights, a patient in pain and a new admission arriving. Where do you go first?”
There is no single right order. You want airway, breathing and circulation reasoning, delegation to the CNA or LPN where it is safe, and a willingness to ask for help.
4. “Tell me about a time you questioned a provider’s order.”
Good answers describe checking the order against the patient, calling the provider with a clear reason, and following the chain of command if needed. A nurse who has never questioned an order either has not practiced long or will not speak up.
5. “How do you delegate to a CNA you have not worked with before?”
Look for clear instructions, checking back, and knowing what cannot be delegated. This matters most in long-term care, where the RN may be supervising a whole unit.
6. “Describe a medication error or near miss you caught or made.”
You want honesty, reporting through the facility’s system, and what changed afterward. “I’ve never had one” is a weaker answer than a well-handled near miss.
7. “A family member is angry about their mother’s care. What do you say?”
Strong candidates listen first, avoid blaming colleagues, explain what they can, and bring in the charge nurse or manager when the concern is beyond the shift.
8. “What ratio, shifts and floating are you willing to work?”
Ask it plainly and tell them your real numbers. A mismatch here is a predictable early resignation, and you can find it in the interview instead of week six.
Keep questions to the job. Asking about pregnancy, childcare, age, religion or health conditions creates legal exposure; see illegal interview questions. For the rest of the nursing team, use our LPN interview questions and CNA interview questions.
Frequently asked questions
What are the duties and responsibilities of a registered nurse?
Assessing patients and recognizing changes in condition; administering medications and IV therapy; carrying out provider orders and performing procedures; documenting care in the EHR; coordinating with physicians and the care team; supervising LPNs and CNAs; educating patients and families; and responding to emergencies. The emphasis shifts by setting — bedside care in hospitals, supervision in long-term care, autonomous visits in home health.
What qualifications does a registered nurse need?
Graduation from an accredited nursing program (an associate degree or a bachelor's degree in nursing), a passing score on the NCLEX-RN, and a license from the state board of nursing (or a multistate compact license). BLS certification is standard; ACLS, PALS and specialty certifications depend on the unit. A BSN is preferred by many hospitals but is not required for licensure.
How much do registered nurses make?
The 2025 national median was $46.90 an hour, or $97,550 a year, per O*NET/BLS. Pay varies widely by state and setting; hospital, specialty and travel roles sit above the median, and night and weekend differentials commonly add $3–$8 an hour.
What should an RN job description template include?
The unit and setting, shift pattern and hours, nurse-to-patient ratio and support staff, the pay range with differentials and any sign-on bonus, the EHR system, license and certification requirements, physical requirements, and benefits including tuition support and clinical ladders. Pay, shift and ratio belong in the first two lines.
Why is it so hard to hire registered nurses?
Demand is growing faster than the workforce, most working RNs are employed and not searching job boards, and application completion for RN roles is the lowest of any hourly healthcare role at 11%. Employers who reach employed nurses on social media, keep the application to a few questions, and state ratio and pay plainly fill roles that job-board postings don't.
What is the difference between an RN and an LPN?
They are different licenses with different scopes. A registered nurse completes an associate or bachelor degree in nursing and passes the NCLEX-RN; a licensed practical nurse, called a licensed vocational nurse in California and Texas, completes a program of about a year to a postsecondary nondegree award. In long term care the registered nurse commonly supervises the LPNs and nursing assistants on the unit, writes and updates the care plans, and carries the assessments that the practical nurse is not licensed to complete.
What does a staff nurse do?
A staff nurse is a registered nurse who provides direct patient care on a unit, as opposed to a charge nurse, manager or educator. The staff nurse assesses assigned patients, gives medications and treatments, carries out provider orders, documents care, delegates to CNAs and LPNs, and teaches patients and families. The registered nurse job description template on this page is written for a staff nurse role.
What is a float nurse?
A float nurse is a registered nurse who works across several units instead of one home unit, filling gaps from call-outs, census swings and vacancies. Many hospitals run a float pool with its own pay differential. A float nurse job description should name the units the nurse will cover, the orientation for each, how assignments are made each shift, and the float differential in dollars.
What does a wound care nurse do?
A wound care nurse assesses and treats pressure injuries, surgical wounds, diabetic and vascular ulcers, and advises other nurses on dressings and prevention. The CWCN credential from the Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nursing Certification Board requires an RN license, a bachelor's degree, and either an accredited WOC nursing program or an experiential pathway with 1,500 specialty practice hours in five years.
Other job description templates
See all job description templates — free, editable templates for frontline, trades, healthcare and warehouse roles.
Hiring registered nurses?
The job description is the document; the ad is the thing that gets read. We write it, run it where working registered nurses are scrolling, and report what each applicant cost — cost per applicant, not cost per hire.
Pay, employment and outlook figures: O*NET OnLine (Registered Nurses, 29-1141), 2025 wage data, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–35 projections. Licensure requirements per state boards of nursing and the Nurse Licensure Compact. Cost-per-applicant figures: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark (registered nurse role family, 173 campaign-months). Last updated August 2026.