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

By Paul Mannet

a master's degree in nursingIt 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.

Filed Under: Nursing Masters Tagged With: msn nursing jobs, nursing masters job security, nursing masters salary, online nursing masters programs

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

Review of Career Options with Masters in Nursing Education Degree

By Paul Mannet

nursing education masters online

What can you do with a master’s in nursing education degree?

If you want to move into one of the current jobs where you use your experience not just to manage other nurses, but also to teach them how to be more effective health care professionals, a MSN in education can be a strong option to consider.

Click To A Select List Of Online Masters in Nursing Education Programs

MSN Nursing Educator Skills Taught

A post graduate degree specialized in this specialty will provide you with advanced knowledge in instruction, curriculum development and other teaching skills, as well as study of broader topics like leadership, advanced administration and health policy. And while some of these subjects may be covered in a masters program with a more general heading like “healthcare administration,” the MS in nursing education will, among other things, communicate to employers that you have a strong interest and ability in teaching. Advanced nursing degree programs that are education-specific may also go under headings like MSN Healthcare Education, MSN in Contemporary Nursing Faculty or MSN Clinical Nurse Leadership.

Best Career Paths

Graduates with a will be prepared to teach the next generation of nurses and nursing candidates in a variety of settings, from educational institutions to hospitals and other health care facilities that hire significant numbers of nurses. (more discussion here on career benefits of a nursing in education masters.)

How Many Course Are Requireed To Earn A Nurse Educator Degree?

Some of the key subjects usually covered in the masters in nursing education curriculum include:

  • Advanced nursing practice
  • Fundamentals of research
  • Role development, policy, and financing
  • Educational techniques and trends
  • School law and classroom technology
  • Theories in educational instruction
  • Curriculum development

What Jobs Can I Get With An MSN Nursing Education?

Those who graduate with a master’s degree in nursing education should be able to find teaching positions in colleges, as well as public and private schools. They will also have the option of using their degree in such areas as creating nursing curriculum, becoming a department chair, or overseeing schools and programs in a variety of nursing education settings.

A variety of graduate and post graduate programs for a prospective nurse educator are offered online through established universities, as well as on-campus. Programs can usually be completed within two years of study, and most schools offer some form of tuition, scholarships and financial-aid assistance. (Read more here about increases in scholarships for nurses across all specialties) If you wish to continue your education even further, many nursing schools also now offer a post master’s certificate in nursing education. While there are some “RN to MSN” programs out there, the vast majority of nursing masters programs require a bachelor’s degree for admission.

Click for more on the value of a master’s degree in nurse educator specialty.

How Much Does A Nurse Educator Make A Year?

Clinical nurse educators can earn over $100,000 per year according to Indeed.com. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the median annual salary for nursing instructors and teachers is $71,260. In terms of job responsibilities, the MSN in nursing education can give you an opportunity to increase your salary and do new things, without necessarily leaving nursing practice to become a pure administrator. If you would like the get the credentials to move in this direction, your best start will be to gather information from several universities, to compare program offerings and find one that meets your specific needs.

Master of Nursing Education Online Programs

Purdue University Global
A very large and well-known school with over 40,000 students on 11 campuses and in a large online degree program, and quality accreditation. Kaplan has kept its tuition fees in a relatively moderate range, and it accepts credit transfer for previous schoolwork:
Get free info on Purdue’s Master’s in Nurse Education program

Grand Canyon University
A large private school offering online degrees at  a relatively moderate price for a school with strong name recognition across the country. Grand Canyon offers bachelors and masters degrees in varied nursing specialties.
Get info on Grand Canyon University’s MSN Nurse Education program

Sacred Heart University: Master of Science in Nursing, Nursing Education

Click to search all Nursing Masters programs online.

Liberty University
Liberty is a large, well-known school that offers a variety of online degree programs at all levels in business, education, criminal justice, health care, psychology and more.
Get information on Liberty’s MSN: Nurse Educator Track program

Filed Under: Nursing Masters Tagged With: masters in in nursing education, ms nurse educator, nurse educator degree, online nursing masters programs

An Upbeat Job Outlook In Nursing Informatics

By Paul Mannet

best online nursing informatics programs

Nursing informatics is about using information to improve the quality of care and patient outcomes. As health care has, like just about every other specialty on earth, become more dependent on computers and information systems, nursing informatics experts have become more in demand. A nurse with training in this specialty can consider some interesting career paths that require knowledge of both technology and patient care.

Online Schools Offering Master’s Degrees In Nurse Informatics:
Walden University RN to MSN Informatics
Purdue University Global MSN Nurse Informatics
South University MS Informatics

Is Nursing Informatics In Demand?

Keeping track of patient care involves a ton of information today, and not keeping that information well organized can create serious problems. Computerized charting, online medication reconciliation and electronic health records present great opportunities, but they also create the need for specialized nurses who can help design better information procedures and train floor nurses in how to use them properly. Most recently, the increased use of mobile devices to collect clinical patient info has made it even more important to understand how to organize much larger and more complex patient records. Informatics hardly existed a decade ago, but it’s rising importance has prompted many online schools to create graduate and post master’s certificate programs in it.

What Do You Do In An Informatics Career?

As a nursing informatics specialist, you can expect work on improving methods of analyzing nursing and health care data, safeguarding the security of patient data and potentially training your colleagues in the use of new technology. In truth, that doesn’t even cover all the things you can get involved in as an informatics specialist. You might, for example, work on implementing an electronic health records program in the emergency room that tracks ER wait times, frequency of narcotic administration and staffing/patient ratios. Virtually every different area in a health care facility has different information issues that an informatics nurse could potentially be in charge of improving

If you like doing research, this specialty can give you lots of chances to indulge it. Nurses with a masters in informatics often do research on issues in quality assurance and treatment. They can also be sought-after in the private sector by employers in hospitals, private clinics, governmental agencies, businesses that design and sell health care information technology systems.

Nursing Informatics Education Requirements

Some of the courses you are likely to take in a master’s program in nursing informatics include:

  • Statistics for Health Informatics
  • Health Information Systems
  • Networks for Health Informatics
  • Knowledge Management
  • Research Methods
  • Project Management

Are You Suited to Informatics?

People who gravitate towards an informatics degree generally enjoy working with computers and want to focus on how information systems can be used to improve patient care. If you’re allergic to your computer, this career path is not for you! A high level of curiosity, a love of technology, an exacting nature and the ability to understand relationships among data types can all help take you far in nursing informatics.

What Degree Do You Need For Nursing Informatics?

Informatics masters programs are available online or on campus, and generally require 18 credit hours on average. Most programs have at least one practicum that must be completed successfully in order to graduate. As with most nursing master’s programs, you virtually always need to have a bachelor’s degree to qualify.

How Do I Get Certified In Nurse Informatics?

You should be aware that certificates, which are shorter and less expensive than a masters degree, are also available in this field. Nursing informatics certification programs tend to be designed for professionals who want to expand and update their knowledge of the field, but not necessarily work 100% in the informatics field. If you work in a small to mid sized health facility, this may be the best option for you, since there may not be a full time position in informatics available there. The informatics degree can help you into a new specialty where you focus more on technology, but don’t lose the need to keep interacting with other nurses and helping to improve patient outcomes. Keep in mind that some schools offer so-called “bridge” rn to msn programs that can help you get you advanced qualifications without stopping to spend several years getting a nursing bachelor degree.

Over the long run, there’s little doubt that the informatics field will keep creating new opportunities. Here’s an interesting view from the AMA on what health practitioners need to know about informatics today.

Filed Under: Nursing Tagged With: Nursing Informatics Degree, online nursing masters programs

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