How to become an ICU Nurse: education, training and skills.
What workers in the job actually report about their education, experience and training, the skills to build first, and the stepping-stone roles that lead in.
BLS does not publish pay for ICU nurses separately. Every pay figure on this page is for the BLS occupation “Registered Nurses” (SOC 29-1141), which includes ICU nurses and other jobs; it is not a figure for ICU nurses alone.
- 50% Bachelor's Degree
- 36% Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree
- 11% Master's Degree
- 4% Post-Master's Certificate
BLS typical entry-level education: a bachelor's degree
BLS lists a bachelor's degree as the typical entry-level education for registered nurses in the United States (Employment Projections, 2025–35). Half of icu nurses report needing a bachelor's degree (50% of workers surveyed by O*NET), the most common answer. O*NET places the job in Job Zone 4 of 5 (considerable preparation). The most common answer for related work experience was “no related experience needed” (32%), and for on-the-job training “over 3 months, up to and including 6 months” (64%).
Data Government data groups this job as Critical Care Nurses (O*NET-SOC 29-1141.03; BLS series “Registered Nurses”). Figures on this page are for that occupation.
What BLS lists for registered nurses
According to BLS 2025–35 projections data, registered nurses in the United States typically need no work experience in a related occupation to enter the occupation.
Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35
Once hired, registered nurses in the United States typically need no on-the-job training to become fully competent, according to BLS 2025–35 projections data.
Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35
Six steps to becoming an ICU Nurse
Data Steps 1 to 5 summarise BLS and O*NET data for the role; step 6 is advice.
- EducationPlan for a bachelor's degree
BLS typical entry-level education, 2025–35 projections. In O*NET's worker survey, 50% report a bachelor's degree.
- TrainingExpect on-the-job training
Most common: over 3 months, up to and including 6 months.
- ExperienceRelated experience
Most common: no related experience needed (32% of workers).
- SkillsBuild the core skills
Monitoring, Social Perceptiveness, Service Orientation are rated most important.
- ToolsLearn the tools
Epic Systems, MEDITECH software, eClinicalWorks EHR software.
- CredentialsCheck licensing where you live
Many occupations need a state license or certification. Requirements vary by state, so confirm with your state's licensing board.
What workers report
Data Share of workers giving each answer, O*NET.
O*NET Job Zone 4 (Considerable Preparation Needed): A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Related roles that need less preparation
Data O*NET related occupations in a lower Job Zone with a skill match of 65% or more.
What employers require, by BLS survey
Data BLS figures for registered nurses (SOC 29-1141), 2025 preliminary BLS Occupational Requirements Survey. This TryHired page covers a specialty within that occupation; the figures describe the whole occupation.
- Most common minimum education
- Associate's degree
- 61.7% of workers
- No minimum education
- less than 0.5%
- of workers
- No prior experience required
- 82.4%
- of workers
- On-the-job training required
- 54.3%
- of workers
- Median on-the-job training
- 27 days
- License or certification required
- more than 99.5%
- of workers, as reported by employers (state licensing rules are separate)
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Requirements Survey. Minimum requirements reported by employers for average performance; individual employers differ. Estimates are preliminary; ranges are shown as published.
How this page is built
Education, experience, training and Job Zone come from O*NET 31.0 survey data for the occupation. The typical entry-level education, work experience and on-the-job training lines come from BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35. O*NET answers with low-precision estimates are not shown, and an answer is called the most common only when no hidden answer could be larger. Stepping-stone roles use our skill-match score: Skill match is the cosine similarity of the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level and subtract the average across all occupations, then compare the direction of the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 means unrelated or opposite (negative values are shown as 0). Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.
- Licensing rules in your state.
- Requirements at a specific employer.
- How long the path will take you personally.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).
How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.
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