MSN Information please

The degree, institution and program concentration you choose will depend on your specific professional and career goals.

In order not to show any bias for one institution over another I'll just say that there are several excellent on-line MSN (with a focus in NI) programs out there - The University of Maryland, Duke University, Univeristy of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Excelsior College and Loyola University all have excellent reputations, offer on-line course work and are all accredited regionally and nationally.

Program accreditation is confered per the georgraphic region and national accreditation such as ANA-CCNE.

To see if a paricular school is accredited by CCNE:
http://www.aacn.nche.edu/CCNE/reports/accprog.asp

I dropped out of Grad school to go to Europe 5 years ago. 5 countries and 2 continents later my wonderlust has not been satisfied but my grad school advisor continues to check in with me to see if I'm "ready to come back yet?" I admire your educational goals and Good Luck with your search. Let me know if I can be of any assistance as several of my collegues, mentors and friends have either taught, currently teach or have graduated from the above institutions.

Additional information I just learned related to accreditation.

"Regional accreditation is the primary type of institutional accreditation used in the United States. Some institutions hold national accreditation rather than regional accreditation because they are unwilling or unable to meet the rigorous standards of regional accreditation. Prospective students must be aware that many educational institutions holding regional accreditation do not recognize credits or degrees earned at institutions that are nationally accredited. Therefore, regional accreditation may be important for transferring from one institution to another partway through a degree program, or pursuing additional degrees at different colleges."
Quoted from the website of Chicago's Northwestern University, Masters in Medical Informatics Program

www.excelsior.edu

Hi - I am currently at Excelsior College. They have an online MSN in Nursing Informatics. I just finished my first class. My intention is to do the MSN in Education but would like to take additional courses in Informatics as well. Excelsior is a great school and they have been really helpful. They also have a Healthcare Informatics Certificate which is I think 6 courses. I would consider doing a double major MSN with Education and Informatics if they allow it. We'll see how long it would take etc...etc..I would recommmend Excelsior when looking for MSN - Informatics programs. Hope this helps!

Try American Nursing Informatics Association:

http://www.ania.org/Education.htm

Also, I've heard Walden University has an NI program online.

Vanderbilt University also has a Masters' program for Nursing Informatics. Most of the program is online/distance but you do have to go to the school occasionally for one or two classes (completed in about 2 days) and complete 280 hours of a practicum or internship in your area.

Duke University in NC has a Nurse Informatics MSN.

Walden University also has a MSN in NI program.

Does anyone above have any input on the value of the accademic reputation of the school being an important factor in work or not? is is the name just a name and where you got ur MSN not very important?? how do you feel about that? thanks.:-)