RN Manager Jobs Overview
If you’re a registered nurse (RN), you already bring a unique skill set to the job market. Add to that the ability to manage other RNs, and you’ll find yourself in a highly sought after category of nursing professionals. You can find RN leadership roles in a number of different healthcare settings, from in-patient hospitals, to outpatient clinics, and post-acute rehabilitation facilities, opening any number of career paths for you.
If you’d like to get a better feel for what kind of RN manager jobs — or other nursing jobs — are available in your area, our healthcare-specific job board is ready to deliver. See all the latest full-time, part-time, contract, per diem, and temporary jobs on a job board that was designed for nursing professionals like you.
Education, Certifications, and Skills for Managing RN Jobs
Before you can lead fellow RNs, you first need to qualify as one, through both your education and your licensure. Academically, you’re required to obtain either a degree in nursing — either an associate’s degree (ADN) or a bachelor’s degree (BSN). Often nurse managers will also hold a master’s degree in nursing (MSN), depending on the hiring organization’s requirements. Coupled with your educational bona fides, you’ll also need to be officially licensed by your state to perform your duties within the RN scope of practice.
Having work experience as a nurse leader, like a charge nurse, is a natural step towards the role of nurse manager. Keep in mind that while a charge nurse has a mix of nursing and administrative functions, a nurse manager is primarily focused on administrative operations, with less patient contact. You’ll find that your patient experience is key to being an effective nursing administrator.
Because the nurse manager role is more heavily focused on the business — as opposed to the clinical — side of nursing, employers may prefer to see additional certifications, such as the Certified Nurse Manager and Leader (CNML). The CNML certification covers several key nurse management topics, including:
- Conflict management.
- Budget allocation and management.
- Participation in professional organizations.
- Promoting inclusive and diverse workplaces.
- Business skills and clinical principles.
With your credentials and certifications in hand, you can home in on the key managerial skills that employers look for when hiring for open RN manager jobs. Among these, your demonstrated ability to communicate effectively — at both the individual and organizational levels — and to engage in objective and adaptive decision making are key to standing out from the competition.
Resume and Cover Letter for RN Management Jobs
As you prepare your job search process, you want to make sure that your resume and cover letter are not only current, but also deliberately designed to catch the hiring manager’s eye. To avoid the quick scan-and-pass, you need to make sure that your nurse manager resume reflects what an organization is looking for. The best way to do that is to mirror the language an organization uses in its job posting.
For example, if a job posting states that candidates must have experience “identifying the educational needs of others and developing educational or training programs,” then you should use the same key words and phrasing in your resume if you have this kind of experience in your background. This not only aligns your skills and experience to those specifically sought by an employer, but it may also help your resume pass through the filters of any automated screening systems an employer may be using.
Once you’ve synchronized your resume with an employer’s job posting, the next step is to craft a nurse manager cover letter that introduces your personality, makes the case for an employer to hire you, and adds more context to the bullet points in your resume. Your cover letter should further illuminate your strengths as an RN and a leader, but then show how these attributes will support the employer’s mission and healthcare operations.
One way to do that, while also adding context to your background and qualifications, is to talk about specific experiences and learnings from them. For example, if your resume shows that you have experience developing training programs, then talk about specific programs you developed, challenges you faced when doing so, and some best practices you learned in the process.
Interviewing for RN Manager Jobs
The more that your RN manager resume and cover letter align your experience to the needs of a prospective employer, the more likely that hiring managers will want to meet you in person. The interview process is your opportunity to make a good first impression, both professionally and personally. No matter how much experience you have with interviews, the key to success is preparation.
Knowing the background of your interviewer and the workings of the prospective employer will help you to build rapport and will reveal ways to pitch your candidacy during the interview. But you also want to make sure you’re comfortable answering common nurse manager interview questions. Going over likely questions and crafting answers in advance that resonate with hiring managers will help you to feel more confident going into your interview and will help you get the right messaging across.
Salary for RN Management Jobs
As you begin your search for RN manager jobs, salary expectations are important to keep in mind. You want to make sure that your expectations are aligned with market rates — so you don’t over- or under-sell yourself.
The average salary of medical health and services managers is $134,440 annually, which comes out to almost $65 per hour. Keep in mind that this is just a nationwide average. It doesn’t account for the many factors that go into an RN manager salary, like your qualifications, the hiring organization’s budget, or the realities of the healthcare hiring market in your area. If salary is a big factor in your job search, then it may help to know some of the top-paying states for medical and health services managers, which include:
Get Matched With the Best RN Manager Jobs Near You Today
If you’d like a more meaningful job search experience, consider using the nation’s leading healthcare hiring job board. As a nurse-founded company, IntelyCare knows how to connect nursing professionals with interested employers. Start the process today by checking out the most recent RN jobs near you.