05/25/2026
In July of 2025 WCN published a Supply and Projections report showing the nurse practitioner as the #1 nursing role in demand through 2032. https://www.facebook.com/share/1ChgjaYyrx/
Becky Peterson graduated this month with a degree that paves the way for her to examine patients, prescribe medication and make diagnoses, just like a physician. But she won’t be Dr. Peterson, and her graduate program took just two years.
Instead, she is becoming a nurse practitioner, a good-paying job that is also the fastest-growing field in healthcare.
“There is a place for medical-school doctors, and a place for nurse practitioners. And all of us are trying to do the same thing, which is meet the needs of people who need help,” said Peterson, who graduated from a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill program and lives in Morrisville, N.C.
These days, heading to the doctor’s office often doesn’t involve a doctor. At least not directly. Instead, nurse practitioners have become major gap fillers, growing their ranks by 60% to 461,000 between 2019 and 2025, data from the American Association of Nurse Practitioners show.
Physician assistants who can fill similar roles are also in high demand, as are other non-MD health providers. They are all part of a broader trend to push basic care beyond the doctor’s office.
🔗 Read more: https://on.wsj.com/4uPboR4
