Guest Post: The Road to a Master of Science in Nursing
The following is a guest post written by American Nurse, Maryanne Osberg.
Nursing is not just a career; rather, it is a profession that encompasses every aspect of your life because of the nature of your work. When you choose to become a nurse, you dedicate a part of yourself to caring for other people, no matter who they are. This is why nursing provides you with a sense of accomplishment and personal pride, and no matter how demanding a career it is, no matter how many hours you work and how challenging your schedule, you feel it is all worthwhile when your patients express their gratitude and affection for all the care you have bestowed.
Besides this, nursing is a career that is growing by leaps and bounds; it is probably one of the few professions that offer job security and where demand is less than the supply. So if you’re an Registered Nurse (RN) who is considering pursuing an Master of Science in Nursing degree (MSN), there are various ways you could go about it:
Enroll in a traditional school: If you have the money to go back to school full-time and don’t depend on your job for your livelihood, you could take this route to your MSN degree. The main advantage here is that you can be totally focused on your education without having to worry about work-related problems and issues. Your stress level is reduced and you can finish your degree faster. However, you would have to take time off work and you would have to pay more in terms of tuition fees. But if you’re going to a local college and can live at home, you could cut down on costs.
Sign up for an online degree: Gone are the days when online degrees were not accepted by employers – today, they are the choice of every working professional looking to further their careers. Nursing schools in particular offer a variety of online degree options that you could consider. The key benefits that online schools offer include the following - you can continue working even as you earn a degree, you don’t have to shell out an exorbitant amount in terms of tuition fees, and you don’t have to travel to and from college every day. However, you would have to be very disciplined and dedicated to both your job and your education in order to prevent messing up at either one.
As regards pre-requisites, almost any school will accept you if you are an RN with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree (BSN). However, there are a few schools that offer MSN programs for RNs without a BSN. So choose your school according to your qualifications and convenience, and according to the specialization you want to work in. With an MSN degree, you could step into the management side of nursing, enter the academic field, or become an administrator in healthcare settings. Some MSN degree holders choose to stay on in clinical care with specializations in acute care, geriatrics, pediatrics, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, and other areas of medicine.
An MSN degree is also a stepping stone to a doctorate in nursing. So if you’re interested in going into research at any future date, don’t waste time in earning your MSN today.
By-line: This guest post is contributed by Maryanne Osberg, who writes on the topic of RN to MSN Online Degrees. She can be reached at mary.anne579(AT)gmail(DOT)com.
Nursing is not just a career; rather, it is a profession that encompasses every aspect of your life because of the nature of your work. When you choose to become a nurse, you dedicate a part of yourself to caring for other people, no matter who they are. This is why nursing provides you with a sense of accomplishment and personal pride, and no matter how demanding a career it is, no matter how many hours you work and how challenging your schedule, you feel it is all worthwhile when your patients express their gratitude and affection for all the care you have bestowed.
Besides this, nursing is a career that is growing by leaps and bounds; it is probably one of the few professions that offer job security and where demand is less than the supply. So if you’re an Registered Nurse (RN) who is considering pursuing an Master of Science in Nursing degree (MSN), there are various ways you could go about it:
Enroll in a traditional school: If you have the money to go back to school full-time and don’t depend on your job for your livelihood, you could take this route to your MSN degree. The main advantage here is that you can be totally focused on your education without having to worry about work-related problems and issues. Your stress level is reduced and you can finish your degree faster. However, you would have to take time off work and you would have to pay more in terms of tuition fees. But if you’re going to a local college and can live at home, you could cut down on costs.
Sign up for an online degree: Gone are the days when online degrees were not accepted by employers – today, they are the choice of every working professional looking to further their careers. Nursing schools in particular offer a variety of online degree options that you could consider. The key benefits that online schools offer include the following - you can continue working even as you earn a degree, you don’t have to shell out an exorbitant amount in terms of tuition fees, and you don’t have to travel to and from college every day. However, you would have to be very disciplined and dedicated to both your job and your education in order to prevent messing up at either one.
As regards pre-requisites, almost any school will accept you if you are an RN with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree (BSN). However, there are a few schools that offer MSN programs for RNs without a BSN. So choose your school according to your qualifications and convenience, and according to the specialization you want to work in. With an MSN degree, you could step into the management side of nursing, enter the academic field, or become an administrator in healthcare settings. Some MSN degree holders choose to stay on in clinical care with specializations in acute care, geriatrics, pediatrics, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, and other areas of medicine.
An MSN degree is also a stepping stone to a doctorate in nursing. So if you’re interested in going into research at any future date, don’t waste time in earning your MSN today.
By-line: This guest post is contributed by Maryanne Osberg, who writes on the topic of RN to MSN Online Degrees. She can be reached at mary.anne579(AT)gmail(DOT)com.
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5 comments - care to make one?:
Hey Peter,
One useful post: you did well to make use of it.
So, the supply of nurses is short worldwide: why?
Anyway, the first paragraph depicts my exact thoughts on nurses: God Bless them!
Cheers
Hi Maryanne,
Interesting guest post….I have a mischievous question…
You said:
“…you feel it is all worthwhile when your patients express their gratitude and affection for all the care you have bestowed.”
Do you feel it is not worthwhile if the patient does not express themselves in this way? Well I did say it was mischievous ;)
Max,
The shortage of nurses is due to a variety of factors:
1. Nursing programs are labor and research intensive, and they're not perceived as equivalents to degrees in management or finance, so not many people are eager to sign up for them.
2. The number of people requiring medical care is on the rise, and the number of nurses is not enough to provide care for all of them.
3. Bringing in nurses from other countries is an option; however, there are ethical and other considerations that hinder this move.
However, with the changes to the healthcare policy and the incentives that are promised to nurses, let's hope that nursing will become a much sought after profession once again, especially because it is recession-proof and brings in a steady income.
Maryanne
Livingsword,
A little mischief is good for the soul :-)
To answer your question, nurses do their job irrespective of the appreciation they receive or the lack of it. However, nursing is like any other where a word of praise or a token of appreciation gives you that extra burst of energy and puts the verve back in your step. Praise and appreciation motivate like nothing else, and that's what I was trying to say through those lines.
Maryanne
Hi All - Many thanks to Max and Livingsword for their participation in Maryanne's guest post!
Take Care,
Peter
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