If a nurse seeks employment in rural areas, then Missouri has opportunities waiting. If a nurse seeks employment in a cosmopolitan metropolis, then Missouri has opportunities waiting here as well. This state provides plenty of opportunity to study nursing and to build a nursing career in a variety of settings, from hospitals to clinics to agencies that handle traveling nurse positions.

Becoming a Nurse in Missouri

Nurses who seek a master’s degree in nursing can look to Jewish Hospital College of Nursing and Allied Health in St. Louis, Southwest Missouri School of Nurse Anesthesia in Springfield, and Research College of Nursing in Kansas City. Saint Louis University in St. Louis provides the BSN, MSN and a doctoral degree in nursing, and smaller colleges such as Deaconess College of Nursing in St. Louis provides students with an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in nursing. Some colleges in this state are specialty-specific (such as the focus on anesthesia at Southwest in Springfield noted above), and other schools provide a wide range of specialties. Some of these focuses include adult care, anatomy, pediatrics, geriatrics and management or administrative programs.

Nursing Jobs in Missouri

Some of the largest health care employers in this state will be found in urban areas. For instance, St. John’s Health System, ranked 15th among America’s “Top 100 Health Systems,” is located in Springfield – as is CoxHealth, known as Burge Deaconess Hospital. Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics is based in Kansas City. The Children’s Mercy Hospital represents an outgrowth of a community need to provide health care for children, and this facility provides more than 40,000 in-patient days of care and more than 135,000 visits in the out-patient department each year. In addition to the 50 full-time medical and surgical staff physicians, some 250 area physicians have attending medical staff privileges. Nursing salaries in Missouri range, based upon experience, degree earned, job description and location. For instance, an LPN pediatric nurse in Springfield can earn, on average, $42,000 per year, whereas that same LPN may earn, on average, $34,000 per year. An RN in Missouri can average about $70,000 per year statewide.