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Psychiatric Aides vs Registered Nurses

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Psychiatric Aides and Registered 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.”

Psychiatric Aides Registered Nurses
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$41,590
$93,600
Employment · BLS OEWS
34,900
3,282,010
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
17th pct
39th pct

At a glance

Dimension Psychiatric Aides Registered Nurses
Median pay $41,590 $93,600
Employment 34,900 3,282,010
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Declining (-0.4%) About average (+4.9%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 5,300 189,100
Typical education · O*NET Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Low · 17th pct Moderate · 39th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk — 47th pct · 25% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — Augmentation-leaning (66.7%)
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman — 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: Psychology, Oral Expression, Speaking, Social Perceptiveness, Service Orientation, Oral Comprehension, Problem Sensitivity, Active Listening, Monitoring, Written Comprehension, Deductive Reasoning, Customer and Personal Service, Inductive Reasoning, Speech Clarity, Critical Thinking, Speech Recognition, Active Learning, Coordination, Information Ordering, Therapy and Counseling, Reading Comprehension, Writing, Instructing, Complex Problem Solving, Judgment and Decision Making, Written Expression, Near Vision, English Language, Category Flexibility, Flexibility of Closure, Administrative, Learning Strategies.

Specific to Psychiatric Aides

  • Selective Attention
  • Far Vision
  • Persuasion
  • Negotiation
  • Perceptual Speed
  • Trunk Strength
  • Auditory Attention
  • Sociology and Anthropology

Specific to Registered Nurses

  • Medicine and Dentistry
  • Mathematics
  • Administration and Management
  • Education and Training
  • Time Management
  • Fluency of Ideas
  • Memorization
  • Speed of Closure

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: Spreadsheet software , Office suite software , Electronic mail software , Presentation software , Operating system software , Word processing software , Medical software .

Specific to Psychiatric Aides

    Specific to Registered Nurses

    Full profiles

    This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Psychiatric Aides or Registered 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. "Psychiatric Aides vs Registered 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; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/psychiatric-aides-vs-registered-nurses

    APA

    Singulariki. (2026). Psychiatric Aides vs Registered Nurses. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/psychiatric-aides-vs-registered-nurses

    BibTeX 
    @misc{singulariki-psychiatric-aides-vs-registered-nurses,
  title  = {Psychiatric Aides vs Registered 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; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/psychiatric-aides-vs-registered-nurses}
}

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