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nursing career

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 careersAccording 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):

get a nursing masters from Purdue Global
Accelerated BSN to MSN
MS in Nursing
MS – DNP Path, Doctor of Nursing Practice
View more degree programs

Walden U Nursing Masters
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

Grand Canyon masters degrees in nursing
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.

transferring nursing school creditsLearn about fast track options to nursing with direct entry MSNs.

Filed Under: Nursing Masters Tagged With: masters in nursing, msn nursing, nursing career, online nursing masters programs

Become An Advanced Practice Nurse In Critical Care, Nurse Anesthetist Or Nurse Practitioner

By Paul Mannet

advanced care nurse degrees

For many nurses, the best way to get more job satisfaction and earn a better salary is to get the training to become an advanced practice nurse (often called an “advanced practice registered nurse” or APRN. Here’s an overview of some of the most popular specialties, advanced practice nursing degrees and certificates, and what you can potentially earn in each type of work.

Critical Care Nursing

Work environment & skills: Critical care nurses, sometimes called “intensive care” nurses, deal with patients who are very sick, who are going through difficult surgical treatments or who are experiencing an emergency. They work in intensive care units (including specialized surgical intensive care units) and emergency rooms. In these environments, critically ill patients need a very high degree of attention from a nurse who knows how to operate cutting edge life support technologies such as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation devices and ventricular assist devices.

Critical care nurses handle everything from wound dressing to monitoring vital signs and administering medications. However, they need to be comfortable handling both these basic jobs and the kind of emergencies that can arise frequently in the high-intensity environment of the ICU, Emergency or postoperative care unit, where decisions must often be made rapidly.

Training & Education Requirements: Strictly speaking, there is no certification required to work as a critical care nurse if you are already an RN. But there are several certifications that can make it far easier to gain employment in this specialty, and which can make you a more effective in critical care. The American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN) offers a certification in for critical care nursing in pediatric, neonatal and adult care units. The AACN also offers more specific certifications in cardiac care, cardiac surgery and in clinical nursing for adult or child critical care. The tests for these certificates are tough, but the certification is important if you wish to work in a high-quality facility. Be aware however, that after you get an AACN certificate, you must still contact your state nursing board if you with to officially register in this specialty.

Salary Options: Because good critical care nurses are in short supply, hospitals sometimes often sign on bonuses, reimbursement for relocation or other bonuses. Depending on geographic location, salaries in this specialty range from about $52,000. up to $84,000. (more on APRN salaries here)

Nurse Anesthetist

Work environment & skills: Nurse anesthetists have a unique role in that they administer anesthesia to patients who are being operated on. It’s one of the oldest of all nursing specialties in the U.S., and it’s a very exacting type of practice where certification requires a high level of training. Nurse anesthetists can work not only in hospitals, but in dental offices, obstetrics practices, outpatient surgery centers and other facilities.

As in some other nursing specialties, the rules are not crystal clear in many states on exactly what nurse anesthetists can and cannot do independently. Contrary to popular belief, most states do not actually require nurse anesthetists to work under the supervision of an anesthesiologist. But they are, in most states, required to work with some oversight or “collaboration” with a physician or other licensed healthcare provider.

Given that anesthesia can be dangerous, it would be unusual in the U.S. for a nurse to be independently in charge of keeping a patient “under” on a long, complex operation. Many hospitals do, in fact, have their own requirement that an anesthesiologist oversee the work of a nurse anesthetist.

But a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist can operate with relative independence in a small community hospital, pain clinic or physician’s office. They play a very important role in military medical practice and in many public health organizations. The American Association of Nurse Anesthetists currently has almost 40,000 members, who administer more than 30 million anesthetics in the US each year.

Training & Certification: In order to be a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), you need to be a registered nurse with not just a bachelor’s degree, but also graduate education approved by the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists’ accreditation council. The education requirement for this specialization is that you must be a licensed registered nurse, have completed a four year bachelor degree (usually in nursing or another science-type subject) and then have at least one year of work experience in an intensive care unit or other acute care type environment. You then need to get an accredited master’s degree in anesthesia education, which can take up to 36 months.

Overall, the training and education of a nurse anesthetist can take anywhere from eight to ten years to complete. (Some nurses go even further, obtaining a Ph.D. to move into teaching, administrative or research positions in this specialty). There is currently a move on by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing to require that only Doctor in Nursing Practice or Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice degree holders be allowed to practice as nurse anesthetists. As this would require all practitioners to hold a doctorate level degree, it would make it tougher for new candidates to enter this specialty. The change is tentatively envisioned for 2015, though it is not clear at present if it will be implemented.

Salary Options: Nurse anesthetists often work quite hard, being on call for operations at all times of day and night and working on weekends. But they are well compensated. An average salary in this specialty is approximately $155,000. per year, making it one of the most highly paid medical practices next to being an actual physician. About 40% of all nurse anesthetists in the U.S. are male.

Informatics Nurse

Work environment & skills: Informatics is considered one of the “hottest” areas in nursing, due to the rising pressure on health care providers to be efficient, report outcomes well and handle every increasing information requirements involved in health insurance. The increase in government-paid healthcare that’s expected starting in 2014 due to recent legislation will only increase this pressure.

This is a field where you can get more involved in computers and technology, without completely losing touch with patients. Large health facilities in particular have their own unique needs in terms of computer systems and programs. You can potentially get involved not only in creating those assets, but also in training other nurses and doctors in a hospital to use them correctly.

Research facilities also have a need for informatics nurses who can collect and analyze data from tests, and help make sense of it. The broad range of knowledge you will gain if you go to school in this specialty will include statistics, research methodology, project management and probably some computer courses on health-specific software programs.

Training & certification: Nursing informatics can be pursued either as a full-tilt specialty or as an enhancement to your current job as a nurse or nurse administrator. If you would like to be a dedicated informatics specialist at a large hospital, its probably in your interest to get a masters in nursing informatics, which are available both from campus-based on online schools. If you would prefer to simply add informatics to you overall skill set, you might consider one of the many certificates that are available in the specialty.

Salary options: Nurse informatics specialists can earn in a wide range anywhere from about $57,000. to up to $91,000, though the current U.S. median salary in this specialty is about $74,000.

Oncology Nursing

Work environment & skills: Oncology nurses specialize in helping cancer patients deal with the wide variety of treatments, surgeries, medications and recovery issues that result from the disease. An oncology or “oncology/hematology” nurse, needs first and foremost to have good communication skills and an ability to empathize with patients and their families, who come under tremendous stress when there is a diagnosis of cancer. Pediatric oncology is a large area of practice where a nurse must have a particularly strong emotional makeup in order to deal with very sick children. It is, however, a specialty that is tremendously important today due to the prevalence of many different types of cancers, and one where medical advances are constantly going on.

Nurses in this specialty often spend a good deal of their time working with patients who come into the hospital as outpatients on a regular schedule for chemotherapy, radiation therapy, diagnostic procedures and discussions with the medical team about the course of treatment. Cancer patients who have been admitted to the hospital either for surgery or simply because they have become very sick will have their medications and even protective isolation (for patients with very low white cell counts) managed by specialized oncology nurses and doctors.

Some of the technical sub-specialties with oncology nursing include genetic counseling, radiation oncology, pain management and bone marrow transplantation.

Training & Certification: While it’s not a requirement in most states that a nurse be certified as an oncology specialist to work in an oncology center, the best hospitals and clinics look to hire nurses with specialized oncology training. The leading group in the specialty in the U.S., Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation (ONCC), offers several types of board certification in oncology nursing. There are “basic” certifications offered by ONCC as an oncology certified nurse, a certified pediatric oncology nurse or a certified breast care nurse. Advanced certifications are given as oncology certified nurse, an oncology certified nurse practitioner or an oncology certified clinical nurse care specialist.

To practice as an oncology nurse, an RN needs to get one of these certifications. They are good for four years before a recertification test or a set number of continuing education credits are needed to keep the credential. Two of these advanced certifications, the Advanced Oncology Certified Nurse Practitioner and the Advanced Oncology Certified Clinical Nurse Specialist, require a masters degree in nursing.

Salary Options: The aging of American society has increased demand for oncology nursing specialists, since older people are the ones more frequently diagnosed with cancer. Salaries for oncology nurses vary widely from small local hospitals, where this type of nurse might earn about $61,000., to a very large city hospital where an oncology nurse could get a salary of more than $80,000.

Perioperative Nursing

Work environment & skills: Perioperative nurses help patients through every aspect of being operated on, from the preparation on through the actual surgery and all phases of the recovery. This type of specialized nurse will make sure that all of a patient’s records of diagnostic tests, consent forms and allergies are organized for the surgical team to have easy access to. Some perioperative nurses do not actually participate in the surgery, but focus more on managing the operating room environment – making sure that all equipment is operating properly, providing the surgeon with information on the patient and more. Others, however, do actually “scrub in” for the operation and help the surgeon more directly. Some get certification as a registered “nurse first assistant” to specialize in this type of work.

Perioperative nursing requires good physical stamina, both for standing through long operations and pushing medical equipment around. More importantly, it requires an ability to work well with physicians and other medical specialists in the sometimes stressful environment of the operating room. The perioperative nurse also takes responsibility for handling the patient’s medical care through the recovery process.

Training & Certification: While you need to be a licensed RN to practice perioperative nursing, it is not a specialty driven primarily by certification. Many hospitals have programs designed to develop general practice nurses in this specialty. In larger facilities, you may be better positioned for acceptance into this type of program if you have a bachelor’s degree in nursing. The credentialing institute of the The Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) administers a test that can give you a certificate in perioparative nursing. A bachelor’s degree is not required for this, but it does have a prerequesite of a whopping 2400 hours of operating room nursing. The group also offers a more advanced certification for Registered Nurse First Assistants. Good luck; to our eyes AORN’s website is extremely confusing.

Perioperative nurses frequently specialize in handling a particular type of surgical cases such as cardiac, reconstructive and plastic, urologic, orthopedic, pediatric or dental, to name just a few.

Salary Options: According to AORN’s website, certified perioperative nurses earn significantly more per year more than non-specialized RNs. Their median salary in the U.S. is approximately $82,000. per year.

Nurse Practitioner

Work environment & skills: The nurse practitioner specialty came into being in the US the 1960’s, largely to fill a need for basic patient care in areas where there was no physician available. The specialty has expanded and developed a number of subspecialties. And while nurse practitioners sometimes operate their own free standing practices (unlike a physician’s assistant, they do not need to be associated with a specific doctor in all states), many provide high-end nursing care in hospitals nursing homes and other facilities. Overall, the nurse practitioner is seen as the first touch point for patients coming into the health care system. In many clinics, the nurse practitioner will handle many basic medical issues that don’t require a physician.

The most common jobs done by NPs include prenatal care and planning, diagnosing problems like high blood pressure, interpreting lab tests, assisting in minor surgeries and”giving critical care to patients who come in with acute problems. Some states also allow nurse practitioners to prescribe a limited number of drugs for patients. In addition to clinics, NPs can be found working in many schools, nursing homes and veteran’s administration facilities.

Training & Certification: Certification is fairly standardized on a national basis. The American Nurses Credentialing Center and American Academy of Nurse Practitioners both provide certification for NPs in specialties including pediatrics (and subspecialties such as pediatric critical care), psychiatry and mental care and occupational medicine. This type of certification, which virtually always requires a masters degree and in some cases requires a doctoral degree or post-master’s certificate, is required to practice as a nurse practitioner in every state. A variety of certifications are also available for nurse practitioners who want to specialize in acute care, geriatrics, holistic medicine or other areas.

Licensure is a bit more complicated. Nurse practitioners are generally licensed by individual states to practice. Because NPs often provide a level of care that comes close at times to medical practice, states tend to regulate them very closely. There are significant differences in what various state nursing boards require for an NP to become licensed and wide variations from state to state on what procedures they are allowed to perform.

Salary Options: Nurse practitioners earn an median of about $90,000. per year in the U.S., though some who work in the neonatal or surgical unit of a large hospital can earn over $100,000.
Find out if you would be happier becoming a doctor or a nurse practitioner.

Alternatively, you could consider becoming a gerontology nursing specialist.

Salary estimates are from Salary.com

Filed Under: Nursing Masters Tagged With: advanced nurse training, critical care nursing, intensive care nursing, nurse anesthetist careers, nurse practitioner career, nursing career, perioperative nursing

Starting Your Career With An Associate’s In Nursing

By Paul Mannet

“Online

An associates in nursing or “ADN” degree can be earned in two years at most schools. It’s the leading option for students who want become full fledged RN’s as quickly as possible. Although it doesn’t provide the broad humanities background that a bachelor’s degree will, it offers a solid foundation in nursing and health care management – the kind of skills needed for employment in larger, high quality hospitals and other medical facilities. It also provides the foundation you need to have in pace if you want to move on later to a BSN degree.

Nursing is one of the top growth careers in the U.S. today. And the job pays well — RNs have a median salary of about $64,000 per year in the U.S. (Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Also, particularly in large hospitals, nursing jobs often provide excellent health insurance benefits as well. Salaries, however, run in a wide range depending on the medical facility and the RN’s particular job title.

Considering it’s benefits, the cost of an associates in nursing degree can be seen fairly reasonable. State schools and community colleges across the country offer nursing programs that can cost only a few thousand dollars in total. Because the American health care system keeps getting bigger and more complex, nursing graduates are needed. And because of growing restrictions on how many foreign RNs can come into the U.S., nurses with American citizenship and a degree from a U.S. nursing school are now particularly employable.

The Exam To Become An RN
Graduates of associates in nursing programs need to pass a NCLEX exam (given by state nursing boards) to get the registered nurse (RN) license. This credential is an important factor for those who want to get an an entry level position and start earning a good living. Be aware, however, that in order to qualify for the NCLEX the the RN license, you must attend an accredited nursing school. School accreditation can be checked with your state nursing board. Generally speaking, associates degrees in nursing are taught in a classroom and not an online learning setting.

There are basic prerequisite courses in almost all two year nursing programs, including math, writing, social studies or other humanities subjects. But the bulk of the study will be in more “technical” nursing topics like anatomy, obstetrical nursing, family health, community health, geriatrics, pharmacology, psychology and the like. More here in the courses you’ll take for an associate’s in nursing.

Jobs For Associates In Nursing Graduates
The graduate of an associates in nursing program is generally qualified to be licensed either as an RN or LPN (licensed practical nurse). A few things make the RN license more attractive. First, hospitals are generally cutting down on the number of LPNs (sometimes called “vocational nurses”) they employ, and hiring more RNs wherever possible. Most new LPN jobs are being created in nursing homes, which tend to pay less than hospitals. Second, and RN with an associates in nursing degree has more options to go into travel nursing, which can be a great way to see the world, or into specialized nursing areas that are more interesting and involve higher salaries. And finally, having an RN and ADN nursing degree puts the student in a better position to go back to school and pursue a bachelors nursing degree (sometimes called an rn to bsn “completion” degree) that can lead to management positions in nursing.

Filed Under: Nursing Tagged With: adn nursing, associates in nursing, nursing career, nursing jobs, nursing schools

Becoming a Gerontology Nursing Specialist

By Paul Mannet

why gerontology nurses is a strong career opportunity

The aged population (those aged 65 and older) is growing at an exponential rate. Currently, about 1 in 8 Americans are over the age of 65, and this figure is expected to grow to 19% by 2030, meaning that 1 in 5 people in the U.S. will be seniors. As the number of elderly in our society increases, so does the need for degree-prepared nurses who understand the special circumstances and needs of this population.
Click To List Of Online Gerontology Degree Schools

What is Gerontology?
Gerontology is the study of aging and the elderly population. It’s a specialty that focuses on the physical, cognitive, social and psychological aspects of growing older. Gerontology nurse specialists need to have a broad and expert knowledge of what it means to be elderly in today’s society. The specialist in this category has to focus on not just the physical manifestations of aging, but also the social, legal, cultural and ethical impact that aging has today on individual patients and their families.

Where Can Gerontology Nurse Specialists Work?
Gerontology nurse specialists are in demand in a variety of settings. The most obvious is the healthcare sector, where they may work as managers and front-line leaders in nursing homes, assisted living facilities and long term care facilities. Hospitals also need gerontology nurses who can deal with older patients who spend shorter stretches of time in the hospital than they would in a nursing home.

There’s also opportunity for these specialists to work as managers, nurse educators or researchers in both public and private sector organizations. Public agencies and interest groups, for example, will often hire gerontology specialists for a variety of nursing, management and even public relations jobs.

Bachelor’s or Master’s?
There are many bachelor’s and nursing master’s degree programs available to nurses who wish to further their education in gerontology. Both levels of degree programs will include some study of the following core subjects:

  • Physical, mental and psychosocial development changes in the elderly
  • Social/public policy
  • Legal issues related to aging
  • Ethical issues in aging
  • Financial/economic issues impacting independence
  • Service delivery models
  • Demographics of aging
  • Diversity in aging
  • Impact of aging on families, communities and society as a whole
  • ultural attitudes towards aging

Although their training may be quite similar to a bachelor degree holder in this field, masters-prepared gerontology specialists tend to be more highly sought after in the public sector, as advocates for special interest groups, as government employees or as researchers for various entities. Bachelor-prepared gerontology nurse specialists are more likely to find work as managers or administrators in hospitals or facilities that house the elderly. And while you may feel qualified to teach with a bachelor’s degree in this specialty, many nursing programs prefer their instructors have a masters degree.

Choosing gerontology as your specialization requires a life-long commitment to this special population. It can be an immensely satisfying field, but it is not for the faint of heart. Working with this population means that you will not be able to “save” all of your patients. In gerontology, the focus is less on life-saving measures and more on quality of life.

Schools With Online Degree Programs In Gerontology

The University of Southern California
California’s public university system is a huge institution with thousands of students. It has moved into online teaching in a gradual, selective way. It’s two gerontology-focused programs online are Master of Arts in Gerontology, a treatment focused degree, and a Master of Aging Services Management, a graduate degree that leans a bit more toward management and marketing.
Get info on USC’s online degree programs

Ashford University
Ashford also offers a fully online Bachelor of Arts in Gerontology
Get information on all Ashford’s programs here
(Ashford University is accredited by WASC Senior College and University Commission, 985 Atlantic Avenue, Suite 100, Alameda, CA 94501, 510.748.9001, www.wascsenior.org.) Certain degree programs may not be available in all states. For more information about on-time completion rates, the median loan debt of students who completed each program, and other important information, please visit: http://ashforddisclosures.com.

Click here if you would like to find other online gerontology degree programs

Filed Under: Nursing Masters Tagged With: geriatric nurse, gerontology masters, gerontology nursing, learn to care for aged, nursing career

Top Questions & Answers About A BSN Online Degree

By Paul Mannet

“Nursing

The Bachelor of Science in Nursing or “BSN” may not guarantee that you’ll get a promotion, but especially in larger hospitals or health centers, tends to be a necessary credential if you want to move from 100% direct patient care into any type of supervisory position or a clinical specialty. BSN online degrees have become extremely popular because they’re among the best accepted degrees by employers, and have a good track record in producing career results for nurses.

What exactly is a BSN?
A BSN is, as the name implies, a full bachelor’s degree of about 120 credits. And like virtually all other bachelors degrees, it requires you to study subjects both in and outside the main specialty. A BSN program will include courses in nursing practice, more general science and humanities courses. And while the latter may seem like a waste of time, humanities topics like English and communication can actually be very helpful to your career as you move up. Of course, you also need to have a bachelor’s degree finished if you intend to get a master’s in nursing at some point.

Who is a good candidate to get a BSN online?
Because the first two years of a nurse’s training involve a tons of hands-on clinical study, the associate’s degree component for nurses is usually not delivered online. The second two years that close out the bachelor’s degree can be done mainly online, which is why most BSN online degrees are called “completion” or “bridge” programs. But in just about every case, you need to have your RN license in hand before you can gain admission to a BSN program.

What if I only have an LPN or LVN qualification?
There are few pure online programs for licensed practical nurses or vocational nurses without an RN who want to jump all the way to a nursing bachelor’s degree. One new program of this type that’s gained attention is an online LPN to BSN program from Indiana State University. More here in Indiana State’s LPN to BSN Program Online

Generally, what do I need specifically to get into a BSN online program?
The main qualifications are a nursing associate’s or ADN degree and an RN license in good standing. Most BSN programs also require the student to have already taken approximately 70 credits of science and humanities courses like English, psychology, basic anatomy, and speech, for example. A nurse with an associates degree will usually have these done, while an LPN or LVN may not.

Other typical requirements for admission are one year of acute patient care experience and a minimum grade average in an ADN program. Of course, if you are going to take a BSN online, you’ll need to have a decent computer, online access and a good comfort level in using it.

Can you take all the courses for a BSN online?
Every BSN degree has at least some clinical components involving direct patient care. Online students usually handle this part of their studies under the supervision of a “preceptor” or clinical faculty representative in their own geographic area who is approved by their school. But a bachelor of science degree in nursing leans more toward book learning than an ADN or LPN degree or certificate program. That’s why the BSN is so popular as an online option at this point.

Do BSNs earn more than nurses who have only an ADN or associates degree?
Not automatically. There are hospital settings where a nurse with an associates degree and one with a BSN earn the same salaries. But the BSN tends to make it easier for a nurse to advance into management, nurse education or a specialized area of nursing.

Some nurses are perfectly happy to remain 100% in direct patient care. But let’s face it, nursing is a physically demanding job, and as you get older the idea of spending at least a bit more of their time behind a desk or in supervisory work can become more attractive.

Many nurses report that having the BSN helps make their careers more portable – in other words, it makes it easier to get a new job if they want to move or simply switch employers.

Can a student who gets a BSN online attend graduation?
The answer is yes in many cases, though you need to check with your particular online school.

Do the same professors teach online nursing programs as the campus programs?
The answer is a bit complicated. The truth is that even in the Harvards and Yales of this world, many professors have their on-campus courses taught by adjuncts or student assistants. Generally speaking, most schools have faculty with exactly the same qualifications teach their online and offline nursing courses.

How long does it take to get a BSN online?
Two years is the most standard time, but there are many schools that now offer accelerated programs that take 15 or even 12 months total. It’s important to realize that if you opt into an accelerated bsn program, you’ll have less time for other work or life responsibilities while you are in school.

Filed Under: Nursing Tagged With: affordable nursing degree, bsn degree online, lpn to bsn, nursing career, rn to bsn

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