Given a choice of several career options, more Maine high school seniors are interested in pursuing nursing or work in the health care field than any other occupation.

According to a Friday report of MyCollegeOptions.org, which surveys the nation’s students on a variety of topics and then aggregates the information, 10.3 percent of students in the Lewiston area are interested in careers in nursing and health care.

If you add in another 4.6 percent of students who say they’re interested in becoming doctors, that’s nearly 15 percent of all graduating seniors heading — or hoping to head — for a career in medicine.

For those interested in becoming registered nurses, the U.S. Department of Labor anticipates that employment in this particular field is expected to grow much faster than any other occupation in the country. There are currently 2.9 million licensed registered nurses in the United States, and the Labor Department estimates 581,500 new jobs by 2018, plus thousands of other job openings to replace retiring nurses.

The greatest growth for RNs will be in physicians’ offices; the least growth will be in hospitals.

According to the Labor Department, that’s because the rate of hospital inpatient admissions is not expected to grow by much as more people are treated as outpatients, so the need for nurses will level off in hospitals but will increase at outpatient clinics and physicians’ offices that provide same-day surgery, rehabilitation and chemotherapy.

The growth in the nursing profession is not new.

In a labor advice column published in the Gadsden Times in Alabama in 1968, writer Ernie Hood reported a probable 87.5 percent growth rate of licensed practical nurses from 320,000 that year to 600,000 nurses by 1980. He was right about the extreme growth, but his estimate of actual jobs was a little shy. And, by 1990 there were 844,044 LPNs in the United States

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, job opportunities for LPNs will grow another 21 percent by 2018, as this nation’s aging population demands greater access to nursing care in residential facilities.

The statistics might be different for physicians, including specialists, but the upward employment trend is the same.

So, it’s not surprising that 15 percent of high school seniors are interested in entering the health care field. It’s wise to study for a career that, at least statistically, is expected to provide long-term employment paying a decent wage.

An interesting fact about the current nursing population is that more men are entering the field. An estimated 5.8 percent of all RNs are men, and they tend to be younger than their female counterparts. This is a direct result of the disappearing stigma that nursing is women’s work. It is not, and men are taking note.

Regardless of gender, the academic requirements for nurses have increased considerably in the past 50 years. Long gone are the days of internships, as training, testing and licensing requirements have increased, with associate and bachelor’s degrees now a minimum for nursing employment.

The academic demand is evident at Maine universities, where nursing programs are packed and students wait patiently for course openings. It’s a competitive field of study that moves into a competitive market of employment.

But, it’s a market that will see real job growth in the next decade, and the fact that local youths are smart enough to recognize that promising job market is refreshing, especially for the aging among us who may be reliant on these students for care in the future.

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The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and editorial board.