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Kandace Jackson and the Rise of the Nurse Practitioner Next Door

Nurse practitioner jobs are growing much faster than most. In Miami, Kandace Jackson shows what the role looks like at work and at home.

20262 min read

Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Kandace Jackson, Jackson Memorial Hospital — Photo: Kandace Jackson, KayAllysee

The clinician who walks into the exam room is more and more likely to be a nurse practitioner. The profession has been growing for years, and in 2025 it passed a milestone: more than 461,000 licensed nurse practitioners across the United States, about 30,000 more than a year earlier, a 7% jump in a single count.

The federal government expects more of the same. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that employment of nurse practitioners, nurse anesthetists and nurse midwives will grow 36% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations. Behind the numbers is a familiar path: a registered nurse who spends years at the bedside, goes back to school, and comes out licensed for advanced practice.

One Miami career, start to finish

Kandace Jackson's career follows that path almost exactly. She studied nursing at Barry University, with clinical rotations that took her from a medical-surgical floor in Coral Gables to Jackson Memorial's burn and trauma unit and, for her final semester, the intensive care pods at Baptist Health's Kendall hospital.

Florida licensed her as a registered nurse in 2015. A decade later, in 2025, she earned her advanced practice license as a nurse practitioner. She now works as a pediatric nurse practitioner in intensive care at Jackson Memorial Hospital, the same hospital where she once trained as a student, and she is working toward her doctorate on top of it.

Intensive care, for the youngest patients

Pediatric intensive care is the most acute end of children's medicine. At Jackson Memorial, children who need it are cared for at Holtz Children's Hospital, which runs a 30-bed pediatric intensive care unit on the campus near downtown Miami. The work asks for a clinician's precision and a parent's patience, often in the same hour.

Then home, and the other shift

Jackson is also a wife and a mom of two, and that is the part of her life she shares. As @KayAllysee on Instagram, where nearly 4,000 people follow along, she posts what she calls unserious mom humor, wellness and real life: short videos about flu season from someone who sees it up close, a CPR joke only a clinician would make, and the small, universal comedy of getting two children through a day.

The tone is the point. Health care can feel far away when it arrives in a waiting room, and a little closer when the person explaining it is also juggling bedtimes and a near-empty gas tank. Her Linktree files it all under motherhood, wellness, beauty and lifestyle.

The numbers say there will be many more nurse practitioners in the years ahead. Jackson is a reminder of who they are when the shift ends: neighbors and parents, with a sense of humor about both jobs.

Highlights

How many nurse practitioners are licensed in the United States?

More than 461,000 in 2025, about 7% more than the year before.

Who is Kandace Jackson?

Kandace Jackson is a pediatric nurse practitioner in Miami who works in intensive care at Jackson Memorial Hospital, a registered nurse since 2015, and a mom of two who shares working-mom life on Instagram as @KayAllysee.