Most registered nurses in America have a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing (BSN) and some sort of license to allow them to practice as a nurse in their state. For those nurses who want to master very complex topics of the human body, improve their nursing skills, and acquire more management skills, then a Master of Science degree in Nursing (MSN) is the next step in your career.
Having a graduate degree will open so many doors in your career. Most nurses with an MSN are able to directly treat patients without the supervision of a physician. They conduct research on their own to find groundbreaking innovation in the world of medical technology. Nurses with a graduate degree have an impact on public health policy and communicate with pharmaceutical companies to procure the best medicine. These are the professional benefits of having a Master’s degree, but there are also many monetary benefits as well. Having an MSN will significantly raise the salary of nurses, easily crossing $100,000 per annum. While all of these benefits are indeed very tantalizing, you need guidance on how to acquire a graduate degree. We are here to help you accomplish that dream of being a high-ranking nurse.
An MSN typically lasts two years, much shorter than a BSN, but this time you have the opportunity of specializing in one of many nursing topics. Nurses with a BSN typically conduct various task and have a variety of responsibilities. As the old saying goes, “The jack of all trades is the master of none” is perfectly valid here. Nurses with a BSN are not masters of their craft but with an MSN, they can be. They will be able to hone their talents in a specific field. You do not need to necessarily know what you want to specialize in now, but it certainly helps to have an idea. While studying, you can select from a range of concentrations and master one of them that you want to pursue a career in. The typical areas of specialization offered by many educational institutions are listed below.
Related: 10 Tips for a Successful Nursing Job Interview
Having a graduate degree will open so many doors in your career. Most nurses with an MSN are able to directly treat patients without the supervision of a physician. They conduct research on their own to find groundbreaking innovation in the world of medical technology. Nurses with a graduate degree have an impact on public health policy and communicate with pharmaceutical companies to procure the best medicine. These are the professional benefits of having a Master’s degree, but there are also many monetary benefits as well. Having an MSN will significantly raise the salary of nurses, easily crossing $100,000 per annum. While all of these benefits are indeed very tantalizing, you need guidance on how to acquire a graduate degree. We are here to help you accomplish that dream of being a high-ranking nurse.
An MSN typically lasts two years, much shorter than a BSN, but this time you have the opportunity of specializing in one of many nursing topics. Nurses with a BSN typically conduct various task and have a variety of responsibilities. As the old saying goes, “The jack of all trades is the master of none” is perfectly valid here. Nurses with a BSN are not masters of their craft but with an MSN, they can be. They will be able to hone their talents in a specific field. You do not need to necessarily know what you want to specialize in now, but it certainly helps to have an idea. While studying, you can select from a range of concentrations and master one of them that you want to pursue a career in. The typical areas of specialization offered by many educational institutions are listed below.
Related: 10 Tips for a Successful Nursing Job Interview
- Acute Care Nursing:- Acute care nurses may work in a hospital and be responsible for providing immediate treatment to restore health to individuals who have become medically unstable.
- Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS):- A CNS is an expert in a specialized area of nursing, providing direct patient care and expert consultations within their specialty. They are part of the advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) family.
- Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP):- An FNP is an APRN with a graduate degree.
- Innovation and Entrepreneurship:- For registered nurses who wish to become innovators in advanced practice nursing, this area trains nurses to develop innovations and inventions for the nursing profession in a variety of roles.
- Nurse Administration:- This specialization prepares nurses to serve in a variety of executive, management, and leadership positions within the healthcare industry.
- Nurse Practitioner (NP):- An NP provides health promotion and maintenance through diagnosis and treatment of chronic conditions. They are part of the APRN family.
- Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing:- These nurses treat patients with mood and personality disorders, including dementia and schizophrenia.
Different universities will provide different concentrations, some may not even be on this list, but this list does provide a general outline of what you can expect. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment in the nursing sector will rise by over 30% in the next decade, so it is as good as time as any to be a registered nurse. As you can see from the list above, some of those options are less about medical and technical knowledge and more about management and leadership. This is something that a graduate degree affords nurses – the ability to climb up the corporate ladder and potentially make decisions that influence health policies. If this is something for you, then an MSN is your one-stop ticket to an established career in nursing.
Since you are a working, registered nurse, then odds are that you already have a BSN degree and an RN license. What you now need is to secure a very good GRE score to get admitted into a school of your choice and a certain number of years of experience, again varying from school to school. Make a shortlist of the universities and programs you are targeting and see what needs to be done to fulfill their selection criteria. This is your goal that you need to reach – ticking every check box on that criteria list.
Besides satisfying the technical and academic requirements, you must look deep within yourself and ask, “Is this really for me?” You need to be self-motivated when pursuing an MSN degree that is very rigorous and difficult. If you are up for the challenge and want to reinvigorate your nursing and leadership skills, then a graduate nursing degree will guide you to your destination. Do not forget to check your finances to see if you can actually afford the tuition since a Master’s degree can cost quite a bit. If you are willing to invest in an MSN, then you will certainly reap the benefits, professionally and financially.
It is a wonderful feeling to have more medical knowledge of the human body and interact directly with patients by conducting tests on them without any supervision. Nurses deserve more credit than they get, and having an MSN degree will earn you more respect.
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