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Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses vs Critical Care Nurses

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses and Critical Care Nurses on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses Critical Care Nurses
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$62,340
$93,600
Employment · BLS OEWS
632,430
3,282,010
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
6th pct
39th pct

At a glance

Dimension Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses Critical Care Nurses
Median pay $62,340 $93,600
Employment 632,430 3,282,010
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+2.6%) About average (+4.9%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 54,400 189,100
Typical education · O*NET Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Low · 6th pct Moderate · 39th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 39th pct · 22% of tasks 47th pct · 25% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Augmentation-leaning (37.8%) Automation-leaning (48.0%)
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman No No

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Shared: Service Orientation, Social Perceptiveness, Coordination, Oral Comprehension, Written Comprehension, Oral Expression, Problem Sensitivity, Customer and Personal Service, English Language, Active Listening, Speaking, Monitoring, Speech Clarity, Reading Comprehension, Critical Thinking, Deductive Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning, Near Vision, Speech Recognition, Psychology, Medicine and Dentistry, Judgment and Decision Making, Active Learning, Written Expression, Writing, Complex Problem Solving, Information Ordering, Education and Training, Instructing, Therapy and Counseling, Mathematics, Flexibility of Closure.

Specific to Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses

  • Time Management
  • Administration and Management
  • Learning Strategies
  • Category Flexibility
  • Static Strength
  • Trunk Strength
  • Systems Analysis
  • Memorization

Specific to Critical Care Nurses

  • Biology
  • Perceptual Speed
  • Selective Attention
  • Operations Monitoring
  • Fluency of Ideas
  • Speed of Closure
  • Finger Dexterity
  • Sociology and Anthropology

Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

Tools & technology

Shared: Medical software , Office suite software , Cloud-based data access and sharing software , Internet browser software .

Specific to Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses

Specific to Critical Care Nurses

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses or Critical Care Nurses — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

More comparisons

Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses vs Critical Care Nurses." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/licensed-practical-and-licensed-vocational-nurses-vs-critical-care-nurses

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses vs Critical Care Nurses. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/licensed-practical-and-licensed-vocational-nurses-vs-critical-care-nurses

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-licensed-practical-and-licensed-vocational-nurses-vs-critical-care-nurses,
  title  = {Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses vs Critical Care Nurses},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/licensed-practical-and-licensed-vocational-nurses-vs-critical-care-nurses}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.