Nursing is still growing overall, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting about 189,100 RN openings per year on average through 2034. But for many nurses, the bigger story heading into 2026 is not job growth. It’s how care is being delivered.
Virtual and hybrid models are expanding. More care is moving beyond hospital walls. And nurses are increasingly being asked to coordinate complex populations with fewer resources. The American Hospital Association has noted that health systems are responding by adopting new staffing models, including remote and hybrid clinical roles.
The nursing roles outlined below are grounded in workforce and care delivery signals from nursing and health system reporting, including a Wolters Kluwer survey of nursing leaders that identifies which roles are expected to be most in demand, along with documented examples from major health systems and payers.
1) Virtual Nurse
Why it’s Hot in 2026
Health systems are using virtual nursing to offload high-volume tasks, support bedside teams, and improve throughput. The AHA has described virtual care, including virtual nursing and patient monitoring, as a top focus area in the evolution of the nursing care model.
Who it’s Best Suited For
Experienced bedside nurses who are strong communicators, calm under pressure, and excellent at patient education, discharge teaching, and prioritization.
Evidence it’s Working
Becker’s reporting highlights measurable operational results from multiple systems. For example, Henry Ford Health reported in a pilot that the average virtual nurse completed more than 5,000 tasks and saved bedside staff more than 100 hours per month.
2) Telehealth Nurse
Why it’s Hot in 2026
Telehealth is now a standard access channel in many organizations, supporting triage, chronic disease check-ins, post-discharge follow-up, and patient education. Nursing leaders have specifically flagged telehealth nurses as among the roles expected to be most in demand.
Who it’s Best Suited For
Nurses who love assessment by interview can recognize red flags without relying on hands-on cues, and can document cleanly and quickly.
Why it’s Popular
It expands access and supports flexible staffing models that health systems are actively pursuing.
3) Remote Patient Monitoring Nurse
Why it’s Hot in 2026
Remote patient monitoring is scaling as organizations try to prevent readmissions and manage chronic disease outside the hospital. Nurse leader trend reporting specifically points to RPM being deployed at scale and requiring nursing operational leadership and outcomes measurement.
Who it’s Best Suited For
Detail-oriented nurses who like patterns and problem solving, are comfortable with devices and dashboards, and can coach patients on adherence.
Why it’s Popular
It supports hybrid care models and creates earlier intervention opportunities, especially for heart failure, COPD, diabetes, and post-op monitoring programs.
4) Nurse Informaticist
Why it’s Hot in 2026
As digital transformation accelerates, organizations need nurses who can translate clinical reality into usable workflows, documentation, and decision support. Nursing leaders have identified nurse informatics as the role most in demand in a recent survey.
Who it’s Best Suited For
Nurses who enjoy systems thinking, EHR optimization, quality metrics, and cross-functional work with IT, operations, and clinical leaders.
Why it’s Popular
It is a direct lever for reducing documentation burden, improving safety, and making new care models workable at scale.
5) Care Coordinator
Why it’s Hot in 2026
Coordination roles are growing as care becomes more fragmented across settings. In the same nursing leader survey, nurse care coordinators were listed among the roles expected to be in the highest demand.
Who it’s Best Suited For
Nurses who are highly organized, strong advocates, and good at aligning multiple stakeholders around a plan of care.
Why it’s Popular
It directly impacts avoidable ED visits, readmissions, and patient experience, especially for complex chronic populations.
6) Nurse Case Manager
Why it’s Hot in 2026
Case management sits at the intersection of utilization, patient goals, and payer requirements, and this intersection is only getting more complex. Nursing leaders have also flagged nurse case manager roles as among the most in demand.
Who it’s Best Suited For
Nurses who can balance empathy with firmness, navigate insurance and policy constraints, and document with precision.
A Real-world Example
Reuters reported that CVS Health, through Aetna, is expanding a program that assigns nurses to support Medicare members during transitions from hospital care, coordinating follow-up and in-home services to reduce readmissions.
7) Transition-of-Care (ToC) Nurse (Hospital to Home)
Why it’s Hot in 2026
Transition failures drive readmissions, medication errors, and missed follow-up. Programs that place nurses in the transition lane are expanding because they protect patients and reduce costs.
Who it’s Best Suited For
Nurses who excel at discharge planning, medication reconciliation, teach-back, and connecting patients to realistic resources.
Why it’s Popular
It is one of the clearest nursing-to-outcomes lines: fewer bounce-backs and fewer care gaps.
8) Hospital-at-Home (HaH) Nurse (Acute Care at Home)
Why it’s Hot in 2026
Health systems are expanding inpatient-level care at home to relieve capacity pressure and improve the experience. Becker’s reported that multiple systems launched or rolled out hospital-at-home programs in 2025, reflecting momentum heading into 2026.
Who it’s Best Suited For
Strong assessment nurses who are comfortable practicing with autonomy, troubleshooting in a home environment, and coordinating logistics and escalation pathways.
A Concrete Example
Becker’s reported that NewYork-Presbyterian is launching a hospital-at-home program in November 2025 to treat acute care patients at home from two campuses.
9) Home Health Nurse Coordinator or Care Coordinator
Why it’s Hot in 2026
As more care moves home, somebody has to operationalize it. Nursing leaders have listed home health nurse coordinator roles among the most in-demand.
Who it’s Best Suited For
Nurses who can manage schedules, vendors, and multidisciplinary plans, and who can build reliable processes across home visits, virtual touchpoints, and physician orders.
Why it’s Popular
It supports aging populations, chronic disease management, and post-acute care capacity in ways hospitals can sustain.
10) Nurse Educator Focused on Virtual Care and Telehealth
Why it’s Hot in 2026
New models require new competencies. Nursing leaders have identified nurse educators in telehealth and virtual care among the roles expected to be in the highest demand.
Who it’s Best Suited For
Nurses who can teach clearly, coach with empathy, build competency-based training, and translate workflow change into practical steps.
Why it’s Popular
Organizations cannot scale virtual nursing, remote patient monitoring (RPM), or hybrid care without consistent onboarding, standard work, and ongoing competency support.
Nursing is Not Leaving the Bedside; It’s Expanding Beyond It
For nurses considering a pivot, 2026 is not about abandoning clinical identity. It is about applying nursing judgment where the system needs it most. The roles gaining momentum reflect a healthcare reality that is already here: care that is virtual, distributed, data-informed, and deeply dependent on nursing insight to function safely.
What unites every role on this list is not technology or location. It is clinical reasoning, patient advocacy, and accountability. Whether you are guiding a patient through a discharge from miles away, coordinating care across fractured systems, or translating bedside realities into workable digital workflows, the core of nursing remains unchanged.
These roles also offer something many nurses are actively seeking: sustainability. They recognize the physical and emotional limits of traditional models while preserving purpose, impact, and professional growth. They create space for experienced nurses to remain in the profession without burning out or walking away altogether.
If you are feeling the pull to pivot, that instinct is not disloyalty to nursing. It is responsiveness to where nursing leadership is urgently needed next. The future of care is being built now, and nurses who step into these evolving roles will not just adapt to change; they will help shape it. They will define it.
