Geriatric Nurse – Career and Education Profile

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As a geriatric nurse, you’ll work with elderly patients to manage diseases, promote health, and generally work with senior citizens to increase their quality of life.

Job Responsibilities

The tasks you’ll do on a daily basis will depend on your education level and the facility where you work. Geriatric nurses are most commonly employed by nursing homes, where you’ll assist patients with hygiene, prepare patients for therapy to encourage mobility, feed patients who cannot feed themselves, develop pain management plans, provide companionship, communicate with families, monitor progress, check vital signs, administer medication, and more. Geriatric nurses can also work at more general hospitals or clinics, doing many of the same tasks but with the goal of sending the patient home rather than providing long-term care. Some geriatric nurses specialize in specific diseases that affect elderly patients, such as Alzheimer’s. You can also work at home health care services, traveling to elderly patients’ homes to provide daily care.

Salary and Career Options

On average, geriatric nurses make around $57,000 annually. You can make more if you get an associate of science in nursing or bachelor of science in nursing, which allows you to become an RN, but if you want to get started working in geriatrics as quickly as possible, you can become an LPN, which requires less than a year of training. The higher your level of education, the more money you can expect to make.

Educational Requirements

Your education will include classes in general nursing, anatomy, emergency first aid, communication, and more, and nursing programs also include on-hands training through clinical work. After you have at least 2000 hours of experience as a geriatric nurse and complete at least 30 hours of continuing education in this field, you can also pursue Gerontological Nursing Certification, allowing you to work in more specialized positions in this field.

LPN to RN College Programs

While several schools have online nursing degrees available, few offer LPN to RN programs. What's the good news? We have listed some accredited schools below that do offer the program in addition to schools with other bridge programs available. Find out more information and contact each school by using any of the links below.

Indiana State University—Indiana State University offers a robust online program designed for LPNs wanting to become registered nurses and earn their BSN degree. Since ISU's credits transfer to over 80 campus majors, this is an ideal program for people wanting to open opportunities for their career down the road.

The College Network—The College Network is a partnership with several universities and organizations like the National League for Nursing that focuses on online education and programs, with several courses for nurses or those interested in a nursing career. Specifically, TCN helps students prepare for their PN and RN licensures and move on to earn graduate degrees.

Other Nursing Degrees

Walden University—Walden University is typically a graduate school with several masters and doctoral programs available, but they do have BSN and RN to MSN bridge programs available. Walden is based out of Minneapolis and offers several options in transferring your previously earned credits to and from (or even within) the school.

Kaplan University—Kaplan University is one of the nation's largest and leading online educators and offers several bridge programs for registered nurses to earn their BSN or MSN degree. If you have previously earned credits, Kaplan makes it easy for you to transfer to any one of their undergraduate or graduate programs.

Herzing University—While Herzing University does not offer an undergraduate nursing degree, it is a great choice for working nurses wanting to pursue leadership positions in Nurse Education or Management. With over 10 campuses and 45 online programs available, Herzing has a massive network that makes it easy to transfer to or from the school.

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