Paul Mannet

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

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.

Does Getting A Nursing MSN Mean You’ll Never Again Work At Bedside Nursing?

By Paul Mannet

Click To List Of MSN Degree Programs

A master’s degree in nursing can open the door to more senior nursing, education or management jobs that are less focused on direct bedside care nursing. But job descriptions for MSN holders vary a great deal from one hospital to another. There’s often a lot of flexibility based on what an individual nurse wants to do. Many, after all, don’t necessarily want to completely stop with bedside nursing as their careers advance. Some key points on the subject of MSN’s and bedside nursing:

Jobs Vary From One Hospital To Another

If you earn an MSN and keep on working at a hospital you were at previously – a scenario that’s very likely if the hospital helped pay for your MSN program – there may not be a nurse educator or manager position open right away, you can step into on a full-time basis. Hospitals have all kinds of budgetary ups and downs, and it’s not unusual for them to ask an MSN holder to remain in bedside care nursing on a part-time or even full-time basis until a completely non-clinical position opens.

Do You Really Want To Stop All Bedside Nursing?

A key attraction of advanced nursing positions is that they may involve less physical stress – a big consideration as a nurse ages – as well as a regular schedule involving less work on weekends, holidays or on night shifts. That said, some MSN holders like to keep a hand in bedside nurses to keep their skills sharp, and because they simply find the human contact with patients to be rewarding. Some MSN holders actually hold a few part-time jobs, some of which involve direct patient care and some of which don’t. Finally, some hospitals may require MSN nurses to spend some part of each day in bedside care either to maintain patient care skills, or to simply provide RNs with someone who can offer clinical leadership at the bedside.

Which MSN Specialties Involve Less Bedside Nursing?

It’s not unusual for nurse educators to do significant bedside nursing. Nurse Practitioners, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists and Certified Nurse Midwives tend to become less involved in it. Some nurses also go for an MSN or even a DNP because their goal is to get out of direct care nursing entirely and work 100% as a teacher in an academic setting.

Is It Possible To Get Out Of Bedside Nurses Without Getting a Masters?

There are a variety of jobs where a nurse will either spend less time in bedside care, or in some cases stop doing it entirely. They include: Case Manager, Patient Advocate, Patient-Facing Clinical Nurse Educator, Preceptor and Risk Manager.

Are Nursing Salaries Better In Bedside Care Or Management Positions That Require An MSN?

Conversations with nurses and a review of key nursing forums make it clear that the answer to this question is all over the map. Some nurses report that they actually earn more doing bedside care that requires a BSN than they do educating nurses in a job that requires an MSN.

Clinical leaders are in interesting case. In hospitals that use them, getting a master’s degree may be rewarded with a small increase in salary. But there are often other ways to add points to a nurses’s clinical ladder, and some of them are far easier than getting an MSN. They can include development of a more advanced work role, continuing education or pure experienced, based on an individual hospital’s nursing ladder program.

Article Sources
AllNurses Forum, Nurse Journal, Monster.com, Mastersinnursing.com

Best Kinds of MSN Degrees For Your Nursing Career Goals

By Paul Mannet

What are the best types of masters degree in nursing? Not all MSN specializations are not all created equal. Here’s a look at the pros and cons of taking particular kinds of MSN programs, both in terms of how tough the study program is and how hard it’s likely to be to reach your personal goals in a nursing career.

nursing masters careers According to government statistics (BLS.gov), the job growth outlook for registered nurses between now and 2024 will be 16% — much higher than average for U.S. careers. Employment growth for “advanced” practice nurses such as nurse anesthetists, forensic nurse specialists, nurse educators is expected to be even greater – 31% by 2024 (BLS.gov).

List of schools offering advanced nursing degrees (Sponsored Schools):

Accelerated BSN to MSN
MS in Nursing
MS – DNP Path, Doctor of Nursing Practice
View more degree programs

MSN Nursing – Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
Master of Science in Nursing – Informatics
Master of Science in Nursing – Leadership & Management
View more Walden degree programs

MS Nursing – Public Health
DNP Doctor of Nursing Practice
MS Nursing – Leadership Health Care Systems, Bridge Degree
MS Nursing – Nursing Education
Doctor of Nursing Practice – Educational Leadership
View more Grand Canyon degree programs

Types of Nursing Master’s Degrees By Difficulty and Benefits

Here’s our ranking of popular types MSNs, based on a look at the difficulty of finishing the degree program, the number and type of career opportunitues each can bring, and the potential salary benefits.

1) Nurse Practitioner Degrees:

Choosing a exact NP degree you want is critical, because different types of nurse practitioners do very different things. Degree types:

- Nurse Practitioner (NP)
- Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP)
- Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner
- Neonatal Nurse Practitioner
- Nurse Midwifery & Women’s Health

Nurse Anesthetist

Difficulty: High
Nurse practitioner degree programs are relatively demanding, in part because an NP has a high level of responsibility for the patient’s well-being, often without a great deal of supervision by a doctor. Clinical hours requirements tend to be higher than in some other nursing programs, which can make it hard for the student to keep up with homework, and hard to continue working even part time during parts of the degree program. For all these reasons, nurse practitioner degree programs, either online or in a campus setting, can take anywhere from 2 – 4 years to complete.

Benefits: High
Nurse practitioners are generally the highest paid specialists in the nursing profession. According to Ziprecrecruiter, the average NP today earns over $108,000. But they also enjoy some unique career benefits. They can operate their own clinics in most states (only a few states require NPs to have some level of supervision by a doctor) and they can prescribe medications. As a result, they have opportunities to view patient’s holistically and develop stronger relationships with the people they treat than typical bedside nurses.

Although NPs can earn strong salaries, there are expenses involved in their practice. In many states they’re required to buy their own professional insurance, which can cost thousands of dollars per year. Nurse anesthetist may be required to buy malpractice insurance, which is so costly it can counterbalance the high earnings potential in the specialty.

If you aspire to be a nurse anesthetist, be aware that in the long term, you will likely be required to have a doctorate degree to practice in most states. The Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs, has stated that any by 2022, any student accepted into an accredited Nurse Anesthesia Doctor of Nursing Practice program must earn a doctorate degree

2) Nurse Educator Degrees

Types of degrees: Masters in Nursing Education, General Master’s In Nursing

Difficulty: Moderate to High
A degree that can qualify you for a variety of management positions, but which is broadly focused on developing your ability to mentor and teach other nurses. Some nurses with this degree may move out of patient care completely to teach at nursing schools. Typically, an MSN in nursing education takes two years to complete.

Benefits: Low at first; Moderate over long run
Virtually every hospital in America has a need for nurse educators to train young RNs and LPNs in patient care procedures. That means the chances that you will find employement with a degree of this type are relatively high. The average salary they earn, according to Ziprecruiter, is just above $75,000. A key benefit of this career is that it can land you in a job where you have more regular work hours and a floor nurse. You might even get some opportunities to work from home. But the challenge is that your move into education may be a slow on. Many hospitals will expect you to continue doing regular nursing as you gradually transition into education, and it may take a long time for you to realize a significant increase in salary.

3) Nursing Leadership MSN

Difficulty: High
Although the length of MSN programs in administration and/or leadership is the same as other master’s degrees, this specialty requires you to expand your knowledge base into many areas far removed from your nursing expertise and experience. To become a nurse administrator, you need to study finance, compliance, human resources, corporate reporting and a host of other skills that may be very new and challenging to you.

Benefit: Potentially High
Nurse administrators earn an average salary of about $72,000. According to Ziprecruiter, but the highest achievers in the specialty can earn over $160,000 or even more according to the American Organization of Nurse Executives

Note: Be aware that, because nursing administration is an executive function, many employers require that you have at least five years of nursing experience, and have worked for at least a year in a management job before they’ll hire you.
Nurse leaders manage everything from staff scheduling to organization of computer records and medical data processing. Additionally, a degree in this specialty can lead to a management position in the drug industry or other type of business connected to health care. It’s one of the broader masters of arts or science in nursing degrees, and can help enable a wonderfully wide range of career possibilities.

Nursing Administration MSNs prepare you to do somewhat similar jobs to nursing leaders. For grads who choose to remain in the hospital setting, an administration or leadership to leadership degree can lead to a job as director of nursing administration, a job that’s likely to involve little direct patient care but which requires a great deal of organizational work that may include creating business plans and working to solve problems with the business managers of a hospital. The most senior position one can usually aim for this type of training is “chief nurse executive.”

4) Nursing Informatics

Difficulty: Moderate
Nursing informatics is a relatively new specialty that involves working with information systems, electronic patient records, computer interfaces for doctors and nurses and other IT and tech fields. You need to have an aptitude for working with computers, and familiarity with coding helps. If you fit that profile. informatics it can be an interesting and ever-evolving career that will take you almost completely out of direct patient care. The specialty that can provide opportunities everywhere from a part time side job entering codes for insurance coverage from a home computer to helping a large hospital create a new data management system to administer patient care, drug administration and more. The intensive growth in electronic medical records has boosted the demand for informatics specialists who can help organize information and get it into a format that’s understandable to clinicians, insurors and business people in the health field.

Benefit: High
Because data and computer systems are so important to hospitals today, the experts who know how to work on them can be well paid, According to the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, the average salary for a Nurse Informaticists was an impressive $100,717 in 2014

5) Public Health Nursing

Difficulty: Low
While the academic component of this type of degree is on a par with other nursing msn’s, there’s a key advantage in most programs. Public health masters programs often have no clinical hours requirement because this is not, strictly speaking, a direct patient care specialty.

Public health nurse specialists tend to work outside of hospitals in settings where they can affect, or in some cases run, programs that affect the community. It’s a unique specialty that can result in you working in a public health department, community center, a school, clinic or even a correctional facility. Postgrad degrees in this specialty generally include more training in social sciences than other master of arts degrees in nursing. Public health specialists also focus on coming up with ways to prevent diseases in the community, rather and only treating them after they have arisen.

Benefit: Moderate
Public health nurse salaries in the U.S. average about $62,000 per year — on the low end of what nursing master’s holders can hope to earn. But there are most subtle benefits to this specialty. Public health nurses work to solve big problems that can have a major effect on everyone. They do research and set up progams to help vulnerable populations improve their health, and may work with government officials on finding the best ways to control epidemics such as the current coronavirus outbreak. This work can provide a level of job satisfaction that’s unique in nursing.

Can You Get Your MSN Without A BSN?

A number of schools now offer “bridge” degrees that do, in fact allow an experienced RN to get a master’s degree without stopping to spend two full years in a bachelor’s program. These RN to MSN degrees can be extremely helpful to RNs who haven’t taken a nursing bachelor degree program, but who would like to find the quickest path possible to a advanced nursing.

Acceptance requirements vary a great deal from one school to another for RN to MSN Programs. Most schools offering the degree will insist that you have at least two years field experience in nursing and at least an associate’s degree. Other degree programs are designed for nurses who have a bachelor degree in an non-nursing specialty.

An RN to MSN degree can help the RN enter the same fields as any other MSN holder (These programs are also sometimes called simply “BSN to Masters in Nursing” online degrees). Career options can include becoming a nurse practitioner, nurse educator, nurse manager or nurse midwife. A very few schools also over ADN to Masters Programs online that can allow you to make the leap from an associate’s to a post grad degree without going to school for a bachelors degree in between.

Here are some nursing career and salary statistics by specialty:

Nursing Job	Median Salary	Jobs U.S.	Growth Thru 2024
Nurse Anesthetists, Nurse Practitioners & Nurse Midwives	$107,460	170,400	31%
RNs	$68,450	2,751,000	16%
LPNs and Licensed Vocational Nurses	$44,090	719,900	16%
Nursing Assistants & Orderlies	$26,590	1,545,200	17%

Sources: BLS.gov – RNs, BLS.gov – advanced care nurses , BLS.gov – LPNs, BLS.gov – nursing assistants

Requirements to Apply to Online Nursing Masters Programs

Nurses who want to move into advanced practice or nursing administration generally get a master of science in nursing (MSN) degree. To qualify for this type of postgraduate degree, you generally need to have completed an undergraduate degree in nursing or a field that relates to nursing. In some cases, it’s possible to be admitted to a master’s program in nursing if you are in the process of getting your undergrad nursing degree.

Master degree nursing programs and doctorate degrees are available in many specialties.

Learn about fast track options to nursing with direct entry MSNs.

Why A BSN Degree Is Even More Important Today

By Paul Mannet

If you wish to be a nurse at a high quality hospital, a BSN nursing degree has become considerably more important due to a program created by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).

hospital jobs require bsn The ANCC began to develop a “Magnet Recognition Program” back in the late 1980’s, which focused on hospitals that had certain qualities that had the highest ability to attract and retain nurses. In 2014, the program was given a major boost by a research study in The Lancet, an old and respected medical journal, that showed that hospitals with a higher percentage of BSN-degree nurses had lower rates of patient mortality. The ANCC then began to award a “Magnet Hospital” credential to the institutions that achieved the highest nursing standards.

Small But Growing

Today there are 389 Magnet Hospitals in the U.S. That represents just 6% of all hospitals in the country. But because the designation means they must offer certain benefits and job opportunities to nurses, they represent some of the most attractive employers for an RN.

The price of admission to work at a Magnet hospital today is almost always a BSN. In the 1990’s, a hospital could get the Magnet credential if 75% of its nurses had BSNs. For a hospital to apply for Magnet status today, however, it must have a staff of 100% nurses with a BSN bachelor degree.

Hospitals Compete

The hospital industry has become vastly more competitive in the past two decades. As a result, hospitals want to get anything that can be seen as a distinguishing honor. The Magnet credential has become a highly sought-after certification, which will only encourage more and more hospitals to increase the percentage of nurses on staff with BSNs.

There are still many hospitals, clinics and other medical facilities across the country where a nurse can work with an RN earned through an associate’s program. But the drive by more and more hospitals to get ANCC’s blessing as a Magnet institution means that more and more of the best hospitals will be looking only at nurses with BSN’s.