Methodology

To create the list, WalletHub evaluated all 50 U.S. states on 20 different metrics across two key dimensions:

• Opportunity and competition, which included monthly average starting salary for nurses, average annual salary, quality of nursing schools, and nurses per 1,000 residents (70 points)
• Work environment, which included average number of work hours, mandatory overtime restrictions, ratio of nurses to hospital beds, job growth, and quality of public hospital systems (30 points)

Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for nurses. A weighted average across all metrics was used to calculate a state's overall score and determine its rank order.

Data for the rankings was collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Council for Community and Economic Research, CDC, and more.

The best (and worst) states for nurses

According to WalletHub, the 10 best states for nurses were:

1.       Washington (Total score: 64.16)

2.       New Hampshire (Total score: 62.07)

3.       Oregon (Total score: 60.06)

4.       Arizona (Total score: 59.23)

5.       Maine (Total score: 58.79)

6.       New Mexico (Total score: 58.10)

7.       Massachusetts (Total score: 57.28)

8.       Minnesota (Total score: 56.77)

9.       Illinois (Total score: 55.67)

10.   Connecticut (Total score: 55.29)

In comparison, the 10 worst states for nurses were:

1.       Oklahoma (Total score: 38.80)

2.       Alabama (Total score: 41.16)

3.       North Dakota (Total score: 41.67)

4.       Hawaii (Total score: 42.35)

5.       Louisiana (Total score: 42.98)

6.       South Dakota (Total score: 43.39)

7.       Mississippi (Total score: 43.66)

8.       Vermont (Total score: 44.42)

9.       Tennessee (Total score: 44.59)

10.   Nebraska (Total score: 44.84)

What's the outlook for the nursing field?

WalletHub spoke to several nursing experts about the future of the profession, as well as what organizations can do to help combat nurse burnout and better recruit and retain nurses.

Overall, experts said the long-term outlook for the nursing field remains strong and positive, with both workforce needs and growth projections growing faster than average for RNs.

"Our population continues to grow older, and with this, [health care] needs — especially for individuals with chronic conditions — [remain] a top priority," said Jan Carney, associate dean for public health and health policy at University of Vermont's Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine. "Nurses can work in a variety of healthcare settings, from hospitals and outpatient clinics to long-term care settings, schools, community settings, and in public health."

"Few health professional roles offer as many different opportunities to advance in your career as nursing," said Allison Squires, director of the Global Consortium of Nursing and Midwifery Studies at New York University's Rory Meyers College of Nursing.

"New nurses have opportunities all over the country so they can really choose where they want to live and work with little difficulty," Squires added.

Despite the positive outlook for the nursing field, there are still challenges, including an ongoing shortage of nurses and growing feelings of burnout over the last few years.

"We need individual, organizational level, academic level, and legislative level initiatives to proactively and holistically combat burnout in the nursing workforce," said Danielle Ellerbe, an assistant professor of professional practice, health management, and policy at the University of Miami.

According to Ellerbe, some potential strategies include offering flexible work shifts, financial bonuses for extra shifts, cross-training across departments, and providing nurses with a wider platform in organizational decision making.

Separately, Timothy Vogus, a professor of management at Vanderbilt University, said hospitals and health systems can pursue "magnet" status, which designates their organization as demonstrating excellence in nursing care.

"Magnet hospitals are defined by workplace conditions like better staffing ratios, allowing nurses to practice at the 'top of their license' and use their specialized expertise in everyday work, give nurses on the frontline a meaningful voice in shaping workplace conditions and improvements (i.e., empower them to make patient care decisions and drive change), and sustained engagement in nursing research that advances the profession and ensures workplace changes are evidence-based," Vogus said.

Overall, "[w]e must install systemic changes that allow the work of a nurse to be sustainable long-term," Ellerbe said.