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Are Online Degrees Worth It?

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It’s definitely smart to ask if online degrees are any good before you sign up for a program and invest your time and money in going to college. In fact, the truth is that it’s smart to question the real value of any degree, online or on campus before committing to a big new step in your education. Click To List Of Well-Known Online Colleges & Universities

Why Online Degrees Keep Growing in Popularity

All online programs tend to offer key benefits:

  • Affordability: Studying online can save you a good deal of money because they eliminate the need for you to pay for a dormitory room on campus. That’s big, because room and board can account for as much as half the cost of attending a traditional university.
  • Career-Focused: Online degree programs tend to be aimed very much at career development. If you look at the degree programs offered online by older ground-based schools like the University of Southern New Hampshire or by schools without campuses like Northcentral University, they all tend to focus on teaching you skills to get you hired. Although some people do get online degrees in English or Art History, the vast majority of online programs are in Business, Psychology, Nursing, Technology or other career-oriented specialties. That’s one of the big reasons that online degree programs have continued to get more and more popular over recent decades.

According to a report from the Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics, the number of students taking online courses is rising in spite of the fact that overall college enrollments are going down to due demographic changes. According to the study, over 2.9 million college students are now enrolled in exclusively online programs and another 3.3 million students are doing at least some online study toward their degree.

That should put your mind at least a bit at ease when you go into a job interview. If you’re unsure that your online degree is credible and respected, keep in mind that there’s a strong chance that the person interviewing you has taken at least some online courses themselves toward a degree or certification, and that they don’t consider it unusual at all. A study by Western Governors University professor Calvin D. Fogle concluded that “Respondents’ (hiring managers interviewed in the study) attitudes towards online education are significantly more positive if the respondent has had experience with online education.”

On top of that, you should be aware that many companies today are actually insisting that their employees take online training of some type as part of their job function. Everything from a tech platform update to some type of corporate sensitivity training may involve employees being informed that they have to attend an online seminar or complete a test on the Internet to prove that they’ve learned a new skill.

Online Credential Standard In Some Careers

It’s also true that in some specialties – nursing is probably the strongest example – online bachelor degrees are actually becoming more the norm than the exception. Another example of a field where an online degree can be the best for getting a job is technology. If you choose to study anything from coding to web development through an online-only school, there’s a good likelihood that tech companies will think it’s totally normal that you attended college online. As a June 2019 article in Investopedia states: “If you’re in an Internet/new media field, studies show that 70% of online degrees are seen as legitimate.”

If you fear that your online degree has an automatic stigma attached to it, or that the people you encounter in the job market will doubt that it’s valid, make sure you choose a college with some key criteria in mind:

Top Issue Determining if An Online Degree Is Credible

A key question any company will want to know about before hiring you is whether or not your degree came from an accredited college. You want to make sure your school is recognized by the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) or the United States Department of Education. The accreditation that most companies will be aware of is that of CHEA, which gives regional accreditation. There are several national accreditation agencies with varying levels of respectability as well as professional groups like CCNE and ACEN, which give accreditation to nursing school programs. It’s worth taking the time to find out which accreditations other than the regional type may or may not be looked on favorably in your job category.

School Reputation Versus Your Particular Degree

For most job interviewers, figuring out whether your online degree is credible starts with looking at the particular degree you have. According to a study by Silva, Lourtie and Aires, higher learning “should not be judged based on where it was received but the skills received.” That’s why it’s critical – before you start your studies – to identify a degree that will make it possible to get the kind of job that will pay a salary that justifies several years of college study. Many prospective students have trouble looking at this issue clearly when they’re shopping for colleges. And while there’s nothing wrong with getting an online degree in social studies or philosophy, you need to go in with your eyes wide open about the fact that those degrees probably won’t put you in the kind of earning position you’ll get from a business degree.

Thinking very specifically can help you get that first job after college. If you’re looking at online business degrees, find out if your school offers a business degree with a sub specialty in supply chain logistics, technology leadership, data analytics or another valued competency. Try to learn about what companies exist in the area where you want to live and what kind of specific expertise they hire for. The more you look before leaping into a degree program, the more chance it’s going to produce real value for you over the long run.

Is an Online Degree From a Local School a Good Idea?

Getting your online degree from a school with a campus in your region can be beneficial in some cases. The University of Massachusetts, for example, has a vast number of online students spread out over the world. But if you live in Massachusetts, you may get an added benefit from the fact that the hiring manager who interviews you will have a basic comfort level with the school simply because he or she has heard about it for years. It’s also true that local alumni networks can be very powerful. If you interview with a company near your college – even if you took an online degree there – there’s always a chance that other alumni of your school work at the company and like to help out new graduates. (Keep in mind, by the way, that many of the schools people normally associate with pure online education like University of Phoenix and Walden University do actually operate campuses in addition to their distance learning programs.) In fact, it doesn’t hurt to do a little research before your interview to find out if anyone in the company did attend your school.

Name recognition for a school can also work at a national level, where older, traditional American colleges can sometimes have a leg up in terms of reputation over newer for-profit or 100% distance learning schools. Hiring managers across the country are likely to have some familiarity, for example, with an old name like Purdue, which now operates all of Kaplan’s former programs. They may be aware of a Catholic school like Benedictine, which has a big online offering and has been around since 1887, even if they’re not located anywhere near it.

If Your Online School is 400 Miles Away

Some education websites say that an hiring interviewer will probably figure out that you got your degree online if your school is a long way from where you live. While that’s possible, it doesn’t really jibe with the reality of most higher education today. Students routinely travel to colleges and universities far from their homes, and it’s not at all a sure thing that having a distant school on your resume will tip anyone off that you were an online student.

Handling Tough Questions About Your Online Degree

To begin with, you are generally under no obligation to reveal on a job application or a cover letter that you got your degree online. But if it comes up, it’s important to realize that you can make a big difference in an interviewer’s perception of your degree if you learn to talk about your school, your motivation and your career goals in a way that makes you look like a smart candidate.There are some typical objections you should be ready to “bat back” in order to get a job with your online degree. Studies have shown that some hiring managers think online degrees don’t give students the best problem-solving skills and don’t develop social skills because students never actually sit in a room with their teachers or with each other.

Develop a “pitch” to tell them why you believed that an online degree was an excellent choice and the unique skills it’s given you. Some key points can help you make the case that your online degree was worth it:

Are Online Degrees Too Easy?

This is a question someone may not ask directly, even though he or she may have it in the back of their mind. But you should be well qualified to deal with this issue. After all, you learned in classrooms during high school and may have taken some classroom-based college courses before starting your online program. You can compare your own experiences of online and traditional learning and let the company know that you feel your online degree program was rigorous and taught you what you need to succeed in the job world. Showing a positive attitude about your degree can have a real impact on the attitude of the person interviewing you.

  1. Your Technology Advantage as an Online Degree Grad: Many companies struggle to find job candidates who are comfortable using a variety of computer and online applications. Emphasize that your online degree program has made you comfortable not only with the internet, but with using digital forums, online video and complex learning applications. That can help telegraph that you’ll be able to quickly pick up programs like Salesforce, Google Docs, Powerpoint or other applications that track everything from company website traffic to product delivery and customer satisfaction. Make the point that getting a college degree online has made you tech-savvy.
  2. Collaboration Platforms: Project management has become a big part of many jobs as companies in all businesses scramble to compete with each other to have the best websites, deal with customer complaints and deliver quality products online. Collaborative work platforms like Basecamp, WorkZone, Trello and others are used on a regular basis to help the various departments of a company stay organized in the development or improvement of company digital products. The familiarity you gain digital collaboration through an online degree program in working with other students and with professors should be portrayed as making you more comfortable than many other job candidates with participating in group projects online.
  3. Learning Discipline and Time Management in An Online Program: According to the National Center for Education Statistics, only about sixty percent of American college students who start a bachelor’s degree finish it – and that’s within six years, at residential or online schools. If you were able to complete a degree online, it shows you have a good deal of self-discipline and time management skill. After all, when you take a degree program online, there’s nobody standing over you to make sure you pay attention or get to your classes. And if you’re an adult with a job and children, as many online learners are, your degree can offer strong proof that you know how to manage your work and life commitments effectively. A potential boss may like to hear, for example, that you’re used to handling work issues that come up outside normal business hours when the need arises.

Picking the Online Degree a Hiring Company Will Respect

Hopefully you have obtained a degree that’s targeted at the career path you’re interviewing for. That will be an advantage whether you got a campus or online degree. Managers with jobs to offer frequently have to interview job candidates that didn’t think very clearly about what they wanted to do in life before they started school. As a result, they have a tough time connecting the dots between a candidate’s educational background and the job they’re hiring for. If you come in as a graduate who has carefully planned your career direction and obtained a degree that prepares you for it very specifically, you can come out looking smart with an online or a traditional degree in hand.

Self-Motivation: In order to pass your school tests without face-to-face training by a professor, it’s necessary to be good at studying and preparing all on your own. Being self-motivated like that – rather than being someone who simply takes orders effectively, is something that many companies place a value on. With employees working virtually from home or traveling constantly, the company can have a real need to hire people who can motivate themselves to get the job done all on their own. You can help make the point about your personal drive with a quote by online degree graduate Maureen Johnson in U.S. News “I had to be self-sufficient…There was no hand-holding.”

Career Re-Start: If you’re an adult learner, there’s a good chance that you went and got your online degree to make a career change or move your current career to a new level. Many managers will recognize that this is a far more valid reason to get a degree than many young students have. who simply go to college because their families can pay for it and it’s the typical thing to do at their age. Millennials who have come out of traditional colleges in recent years have a very mixed reputation among major corporations. Many companies consider them, frankly, a bit spoiled. You should feel confident the point that you went after your online degree with a very specific career goal in mind and now you’re ready to work towards that goal.

Key Points on the Quality of Online Degrees

In 2010 The U.S. Department of Education released a study of online learning. Among it’s most interesting conclusions are that courses that are taught either partly or completely online result in better student learning that those delivered strictly through traditional in-classroom teaching with a live professor. Amazingly, this study also concluded that among face-to-face learning, blending online and classroom study and pure online learning, face to face learning appears to be the least effective.

To make your case that your online degree was worth it, be aware of these key factors:

Online degrees are certainly credible in general, as even famous colleges like Cornell and Harvard are not offering them. Your particular degree will appear credible if it’s from a school with accreditation, your major was well targeted at your career path and your school has a name that’s recognized either regionally or nationally.
There generally not at all easier than traditional degrees – which often comes as a surprise to the students. Colleges make a big effort in most cases to make the curriculum in an online course match the classroom version of the same class, so the student’s effort to learn has to be about the same either way. A key thing that actually makes online degrees tougher is that they require a high degree of discipline and self-motivation to complete.
It’s always possible that a particular job interviewer will have a negative attitude toward online degrees. But the presence of more and more people in major companies who have studied online has gradually broken down much of this resistance. Categories like education, technology and nursing tend to be the most receptive to online degrees at the moment.
The quality and reputation of your college will determine the answer to this question. Make sure to confirm your school’s accreditation status before you commit to a degree program, and try to research other factors like how many notable alumni have graduated from the school. You need to search for schools with a solid “buyer beware” mentality, because there are still a number of low quality schools and outright “diploma mills” promoting themselves on the web.
The hard question is usually a simple one: why did you pick an online university to study at? Fortunately, this question also presents a strong opportunity to sell yourself. Explain that wanted to continue working while you study, that you had family or other life commitments you wanted to maintain during your time in school or other factors that influenced your choice. Saying you wanted a degree that allowed you to make more money doesn’t necessarily hurt. Try to express that you had a sold reason for choosing an online school and you’re still happy with the choice.
This sounds like a crazy question, but at the end of the day, employers are looking for people who can complete certain tasks. Almost every big company has, at one time or another, hired an Ivy League graduate who did not live up to expectations and hired other people from far less respected schools who turned out to be very successful. Having a school with a recognizable name on your resume can help get in for an interview in many cases. But from there on in, it’s about skills more than credentials.
State university systems now have over 70% of their students taking at least some online degree classes, which tells you that state governments believe strongly that they are a strong investment. An employer’s view of your online degree may depend largely on the kind of experience they have had in hiring other grads from your school.
You’ll have your best chance of success in an interview if you present a positive attitude, have specific learning experiences to talk about including, if possible, projects you can show on a computer, and prepare to talk about all the benefits your degree has given you including a high comfort with technology and the ability to work independently.
Certainly a big advantage you can have if you manage your finances will in school is that you will have less school debt than you would have accumulated by stopping work to attend classes for several years. Beyond that, the best news is that more and more hiring managers say they don’t see a significant different between traditional and online degrees.
For-profit schools such as the University of Phoenix have received a good deal of negative publicity in recent years due to recruiting practices. On the other side of the coin, University of Phoenix also works directly with some employers who are anxious to hire their graduates. In general, the older private colleges and universities tend to be the most respected. But as a student you pay a very high price for that respect in terms of private school tuition. Other colleges, from public to private, Christian or even for-profit, are often respected for a particular degree program they offer. Again, it’s key to research the reputation of a particular school as deeply as possible before starting an online degree program there.

Quality, Most Affordable Nursing Masters Programs Online

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low cost nursing masters degrees

Click To A Select List Of Most Affordable Online Nursing Master’s Degree Schools

Nursing master’s degrees are for RNs who want to become qualified to move into more senior positions as hospital administrators or nurse educators, or who want to work in advanced clinical areas like informatics, nurse practitioner or nurse midwifery.

More Than A BSN

More and more hospitals across the U.S. have moved to a policy of hiring only nurses with BSN degrees (read here about the ANCC’s “Magnet Recognition Program”. While that’s expected to improve the quality of care, it’s also meant that the BSN degree on it’s own is less of a distinguishing factor for a nurse who wants to move beyond “floor” nursing in a hospital unit. Hence the growing popularity of nursing master’s degrees.

Some of the least expensive online nursing master’s programs are offered by state universities. One caveat, however, is that many of them charge out-of-state students a far higher tuition rate than students who live within the state. Online degree programs from the better-known distance learning schools like Kaplan, Grand Canyon and others may be a bit more expensive than the state schools, but they generally don’t charge more for out-of-state learners, and are extremely focused on catering to working nurses who may need to take breaks from their degree programs to attend to family needs, and who may need significant help in the area of financial aid. Many of the larger schools also offer “accelerated” degree options that allow you to complete an MSN more quickly, while some offer RN to MSN “bridge” degrees that allow you to go directly from RN to master’s without taking several years to complete a nursing bachelor’s degree.

Filling A Need For Affordable Care

Demand for advanced practice nurses with master’s degrees is likely to grow over the long run as our society ages, more complex treatment regimens are developed, and hospitals and clinics look for practitioners who can deliver high quality care at a lower cost than what physicians can do (BLS). Salaries vary widely from nurse educators to nurse practitioners, but virtually all jobs that require a nursing masters pay more than those that require only a BSN.

The listing below of affordable online nursing master’s degree programs is based primarily on our research of cost per credit. Your net cost at any nursing graduate school will vary greatly depending on offers of financial aid, any credit transfer you may be able to do for previous schoolwork, and length of program. It pays to shop around and ask lots of questions before committing to a degree program.

Good, Reasonably Priced Online RN to BSN Programs

Sponsored Schools

Liberty University
Founded in 1971 by Reverend Jerry Falwell, Liberty is a private Christian school that has grown into the largest Evangelical university in the world, with 13,000 undergraduate students and 5,800 post grads on it’s campus in Lynchburg, Virginia. But it’s the online learning program at Liberty that’s truly massive. The school currently educates over 50,000 students every year through distance learning, with over 70 different academic specialties and degrees at the associates, bachelor and masters levels. It’s master’s programs in nursing are not at the bottom of the spectrum, but are in a moderate range.
Master of Science, Nursing Administration
Master of Science, Nursing Educator

University of Texas at Arlington
UT Arlington is a very large school with over 41,000 students. It’s nursing school says that “With low tuition rates and financial aid, our goal is to keep your costs low and your debt manageable.” The school offers an option to pay by the course as you go. Online degrees offered include:
– MSN Nurse Educator
– MSN Family Practitioner
– MSN Nursing Administration
Get free info on UT Artlington’s RN to BSN program

Would You Be Happier as A Doctor or A Nurse Practitioner? Surprising Trends

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Once, there was little doubt that becoming an MD was an amazingly attractive career choice. Physicians were paid well, highly respected and, for the most part, acted as their own bosses.

But times have changed.

College counselors report that as pre-med students finish their undergraduate degrees, a small but growing number of them are making a surprising choice. Rather than going on to medical school to become doctors, they’re heading to nursing graduate schools that will train them to become nurse practitioners. Financial and lifestyle issues in the healthcare industry are feeding the trend.

Doctors Under Stress

Doctors still earn handsome salaries – if they’re in the right specialty. According to a 2017 Medscape survey, MD salaries run in a wide range from about $158,000 per year for pediatricians to almost $500,000 for plastic surgeons. Nurse practitioners, by comparison, generally earn $73,951 to $122,007 according to payscale.com, though some top nurse anesthetists earning over $240,000 in certain states according to Beckers Hospital Review.

But while doctors may earn more over their lifetimes, they’re now feeling a ton of stress from America’s relentless drive to contain health costs and make care more efficient. A 2018 survey by Medscape showed that 42% of physicians interviewed felt burned out and 15% were downright depressed. Women doctors, who have grown in numbers over the past 20 years, are even more burned out than their male counterparts. Forty-eight per cent of female doctors told Medscape they were burned out, compared with 38% of male MDs.

Why isn’t being a doctor the kind of “golden parachute” it once was? MDs in the Medscape survey said they were sick and tired of spending too little time with patients and too much time on paperwork. Four out of ten said they were working too many hours and 26% said they did not feel respected by employers or coworkers.

The New Nurse Practitioners

Some see the nurse practitioner career path as more attractive because it involves a far lower cost of training and more appealing work conditions than what doctors deal with. “You can become a nurse practitioner for…typically around $50,000 to $60,000,” says Ora Strickland, Dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Florida International University in an interview with U.S. News & World Report. Newly minted doctors, on the other hand, often emerge from medical school with over $160,000 in student debt.

Tough Early Years for MDs
Physicians must also do residencies after they finish medical school, which pay an average of about $55,000 per year (source: Medscape). The long hours and stress of medical residency are legendary. And when physicians emerge from residency and start out in hospital or private practice, they may be 30 years old and just beginning to earn the kind of money that can help them pay down their medical school debts. They may ultimately reach a high salary level, but getting there is a long, tough road.

NPs May Do Better
As a result, some nurse practitioners actually earn a higher salary early in their careers than the typical physician. They can also get out into full clinical practice at an early age and avoid the stress of residency.

NPs have gradually gained more power and autonomy. Although they are unlikely to ever handle the kind of top level decisions doctors make on treatment of complex cases, most NPs are now authorized to diagnose a wide range of conditions and prescribe treatments for them. If you wish to become a nurse practitioner, it pays to research what the practice parameters for NPs are in your state.

Nurse Patient Advocacy Can Improve Your Nursing Career

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nurse patient advocateYoung nurses are all taught the concept of nurse patient advocacy. But when they get out into the real world of hospital practice, they’re often given little or no help in figuring out how to actually practice it.

Advocating for patients can boost your professional image and enhance the personal satisfaction you get from nursing. But it can also put you in a position of conflict with doctors or other nurses involved in the care of your patients. Being successful at it requires the careful use of your “people management” skills.

A Job Only a Nurse Can Do

Nurses spend more time in direct care of the patient than anyone else on the clinical team. In that capacity, the American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics specifies that you re expected to make sure that:

  • The privacy rights of the patient are observed.
  • Regardless of social or economic position, every patient is treated with the same level of dignity.
  • Your patient is educated to make informed choices on possible tests and procedures, and that he or she receives strong emotional support while they are being cared for.

A somewhat more complicated ethics rule of the ANA specifies that you must take action against an illegal, impaired or incompetent practice you observe by any other member of the staff that puts the patient in danger. What action you should take as a nurse in this type of situation is left a bit unclear, however.

Difficult Decisions

Taking on the role of nurse as patient advocate can mean that you’ve got to stand your ground even when it isn’t easy. When a patient does not want to take a medication the doctor has prescribed, for example, your role should be to ensure that the patient is making an informed decision and support it. Doctor’s often don’t respond well to that.

Decisions made at the end of life can also put you on the spot as a nurse patient advocate. Family members frequently disagree with each other about prolonging life in terminal illness situations. It’s important for you as an advocate to make sure that the patient’s wishes are followed, whether the family agrees with them or not and whether or not they make sense to you as a professional.

But despite the challenges, becoming a patient advocate nurse can ultimately gain you more respect from other members of the clinical team and enhance the personal satisfaction you get from nursing. Patients are often confused in today’s complex healthcare environment, and your role as an advocate can make you their most important adviser. And taking that kind of leading role can help you better accomplish the goal you probably went into nursing for: to reduce patients’ physical and emotional suffering, and to protect the dignity of those under your care.

Key Facts You Should Know Before Applying For A Nursing Graduate Degree Program

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Nursing Job Titles  |  Graduate Degree Scholarships  |  Ethnic Diversity In Master’s Programs  |  Salaries For Nursing Master’s Degree Holders  |  Nursing Leadership Advice

nursing graduate degree jobsRNs who’ve built up solid work experience often start to think about ways they can get their nursing career to a higher level. A route most consider is getting a graduate nursing degree.
transferring nursing school creditsClick to a list of nursing master’s degree schools.

Advanced Nursing Career Paths

Nurses who go for a masters are generally interested in one of the career paths below:
First, a class of jobs that fall under the heading of “Advanced Practice Registered Nursing” (APRN). Four types of APRNs are:

  • Nurse Practitioner: A specialty that incorporates many of the basic diagnostic jobs and treatment once performed only by MDs. Nurse practitioners are now often the first medical specialist seen by patients coming into clinics, hospitals or private medical offices. In many states, they are allowed to prescribe drugs.
  • Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist: Nurses who administer anesthetics. This is an old specialty, but one where practice parameters vary tremendously from one state to another.
  • Clinical Nurse Specialist: A broad category of advanced nursing practice that can involve treating mental and physical health issues, administration, research and consultation.
  • Certified Nurse Midwife: These specialists help women with low-risk obstetrical and gynecological care in birth centers, hospitals and sometimes even homes.

Two other types of careers MSN holders often pursue that are not considered Advance Practice Registered Nursing are:

  • Nurse Educator: A job that involves teaching younger or newer nurses a wide variety of skills, generally in a hospital or other larger clinical treatment facility. Some nurse practitioners also teach in a college or university setting.
  • Public Health Nurse: A job that involves working in a medical center, a community organization or even the government to help develop better policies on treating and working with patients in the community.

Interesting Facts To Know About Career Paths With An MSN Nursing:

Increasing Ethnic Diversity in Nursing Master’s Degree Programs

The population enrolling in master’s nursing programs in the U.S. is becoming more diverse. According to data from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing:

  • About 14.7% of all nursing masters degree students were African-American, up from 11.8% in 2007.
  • The percentage of Latino / Hispanic masters students rose more sharply during the same period, from 4.9% in 2007 to 14.7% in 2017.
  • That’s all against a background where the number of nursing masters students has risen dramatically. There were fewer than 55,000 students in U.S. nursing masters programs in 2007. By 2017, that number had shot up to more than 116,000.

Scholarships for Graduate Nursing Students

There’s a widespread misconception that scholarships only exist for bachelor’s degree students in nursing. In fact, there’s a wide range of top scholarship programs for nursing master’s students as well.

It’s important to do your research when it comes to scholarships. Application deadlines vary a great deal from one to another, and many scholarships are not offered every single year. A few scholarships to consider:

Oncology Nursing Foundation: $5,000. scholarships to RNs in a master’s program who are committed to oncology nursing. May be awarded to nursing master’s students who possess a BSN degree or those with a bachelor’s degree in another subject. For more information click here.

March of Dimes Dr. Margaret C. Freda Graduate Nursing Scholarship Award: $5,000. scholarships to RNs who are enrolled in graduate programs focused on maternal-child nursing. Applicant must be a member of The Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses, The American College of Nurse-Midwives or the National Association of Neonatal Nurses. Click for more information.

American Cancer Society Scholarship: $10,000 scholarship for a student pursuing a master’s degree in cancer nursing or a doctorate degree in nursing practice. The award is $10,000 per year, and may be given for two years. More information here.

Dean Hayden Student Research Scholarship – Nurse Anesthetists: Up to $5,000 to a student of nursing anesthesia who is a member of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA). Applicant must write an essay on how his or her research in school will benefit nurse anesthetists. Click to download information.

Nurses Educational Funds Scholarship: $2,500 to $10,000 to full or part time registered nurses pursing a master’s or doctoral degree from an accredited school. Must have completed at least 12 credit hours of the program and have a minimum 3.6 GPA. More info here

For a listing of many other scholarships open to graduation nursing degree students, click here.

Salaries for Advanced Care Nurses

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks career opportunities and salaries for Nurse Anesthetists, Nurse Midwives, and Nurse Practitioners. It’s most recent (2016) statistics show a positive outlook for these advanced practitioners with a master’s degree in nursing.

  • Median pay: $107,460 per year  / $51.67 per hour.
  • Number of Jobs (2014): 170,400.
  • Job Outlook 2014 – 2014: 31%, much faster than average. The highest job growth rate projected for this period is for nurse practitioners, at 35%.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Leadership Advice For Nurses With Graduate Degrees

Most advanced nursing jobs involve a greater element of leadership than jobs held by BSN’s – leadership of a clinic, of the nurse education program for a hospital or, in some cases, simply being the top person in charge of a critical task, as in the case of nurse anesthetists. We looked at a variety of interviews with Nursing School deans, and some of the key pieces of advice they gave for nursing leadership include:

  • Take time to build your credibility with your staff nurses.
  • Learn to be a better public speaker
  • Listen to other nurses when they want to give you their opinions.
  • Stay committed to leadership, ever when it’s difficult.
  • Remember that leadership is truly a form of service.

More leadership advice on this video from the Graduate Nursing Student Academy:

transferring nursing school creditsMore about requirements for nursing master’s degrees, RN to MSN degrees and nurse practitioner specialty degrees here.