Paul Mannet

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

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

By Paul Mannet

nurse patient advocate Young 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

By Paul Mannet

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 jobs RNs 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.
Click 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:

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

A Masters Degree In Nursing: Best Reasons To Consider Getting One

By Paul Mannet

a master's degree in nursing It takes a real commitment of time and effort to earn an masters degree in nursing. But the rewards can be considerable. Here are some key reasons to consider that graduate degree in nursing.

Nursing Job Growth

Demand is expected to be strong in the coming years for candidates who have a nursing master’s degree. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,
jobs for advanced care nurses, including nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives and nurse practitioners, will grow 31% in the U.S. between 2014 and 2024 – a rate much higher than what’s expected for most careers in the nation.

Master Of Science In Nursing Salaries

Nurse practitioners offer a good example of the kind of salaries that can be achieved by advanced care nurses. According to the American Associate of Nurse Practitioners, a survey shows that base salaries for nurse practitioners averaged over $108,000 in 2015. That compares with the $68,450. median annual pay estimated for RNs in 2016 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

More Varied Career With A Masters Degree In Nursing

There’s a wider variety of things you can do with a masters in nursing. Holders of a nursing master’s degree can work in all sorts of different leadership roles in health care or even in business. With the health sector, they may get involved in everything from research or administration to jobs in education where they may stop doing clinical care and focus 100% training other nurses. The MSN Nursing is often seen as a good qualification in industries other than healthcare.

Financial Security

The strong long-term job outlook for nurses with an MSN reduces the changes of ever experiencing a layoff or having to look for a job. Generally speaking, nurses who complete a masters of science in nursing program are among those most likely to benefit from the ongoing shortage of nurses in the U.S.

Does a Master’s in Nursing Administration Qualify You To Be A Director of Nursing?

By Paul Mannet

msn to be director of nursing If you have already worked as a nurse for several years, you may be looking for a new horizon with a nursing director job that puts your clinical knowledge to work but involves some new and challenging tasks.

Experienced RNs often look to a Master’s in Nursing degree as a way to become qualified for a more senior position. If becoming a director of nursing is the career path that interests you, there are several different degrees that might help you. It’s not necessarily easy to choose which type of MSN to pursue.

Although nurses without master’s degrees are often given administrative responsibilities, most who are appointed to the position of nursing director have an MSN nursing. It may seem obvious that a nursing management degree would the key qualification for a director of nursing job, there are other degrees with names like clinical leadership, executive leadership or nurse leadership that offer some of the same knowledge. Just to complicate things more, it’s not unusual for a nursing director to be appointed who has a master’s in health care administration or, a bit more rarely, an MBA.

The Nursing Director Job Description

There can be a real distinction between nursing director positions in large and small health facilities. At a very large hospital or long-term care setting, the nursing director may be responsible for several different departments and spend most of his or her time working on financial, HR or health policy issues. The job may also involve a great deal of time in meetings and writing out business plans and directives. The director, sometimes called the “Chief Nurse Executive,” may be occupied almost all the time interfacing with business and management people rather than other nurses. Senior nurse managers generally stop providing any direct patient care to focus on leadership functions.

In smaller facilities, the shift from bedside nursing to management may be very gradual. Nurse managers are salaried, so they’re not paid overtime like most RNs. As a result, a nurse who has recently moved into management may actually see a drop in salary for a period, until his or her salary rises to a point where it counterbalances the loss in overtime. Middle management can also be stressful, since the nurse manager tends to receive work pressure both from the senior management above and the nursing staff below.

Test Run

Some RNs try to get a “taste” of nursing management before they start an MSN program by simply working their way up into jobs like “head nurse” or “assistant unit manager.” It can be a good way to improve skills at working with many different nurses, doctors and managers before focusing on a truly senior nursing management job. Other skills like writing work schedules, coordinating meetings and making personnel decisions can be honed while working in middle management.

It If you believe you have leadership qualities, you may consider an MSN in nurse leadership that will sharpen your skills in areas like staff management, budgeting, treatment planning, case management, discharge planning and scheduling. Two additional areas of important skills are finance and informatics, which will generally require you to learn how to use several.

Nursing Director Salaries

Salaries for nursing directors: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that medical and health service managers earn a median salary (figure for 2016) of $96,540 per year. The number of jobs in this specialty is expected to grow 17%, between 2014 and 2024, much faster than the average for most U.S. jobs. According to U.S.B.L.S., medical and health services managers work in office settings at healthcare facilities, nursing homes and group medical practices, and must know how to direct changes that conform to new regulations, healthcare laws and technologies.