Considering healthcare administration!!

[sqwigl]

Hello everyone! I am considering of going into healthcare administration. Currently i am a new grad registered nurse about to hit my one year in a few months. I already know I want to leave the bedside and do administrative work later in my career. I spoke already with an advisor for University of Phoenix and had an extensive conversation and based on the conversation the masters of healthcare administration program seemed like the perfect fit for me. I have a couple of questions about going into this profession before making the leap.

my background: BSN new grad with 8 months of bedside experience

ultimate goal: administrative position for a big hospital such as UCLA, Cedars, Kaiser

1) Because I am a new grad, what is the minimum amount of experience to make myself marketable after I get my masters degree?

2) Is one year of bedside experience enough and should I immediately do administrative work to gain that administrative experience while I'm in school finishing up on my degree?

OR should I stay at the bedside until I finish my masters of healthcare administration program?

3) I know this is also a stressful career as well. My question is... is nursing more stressful than healthcare administration?

Response would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

OK - I know that U of P (like all other commercial schools) pulls out all the stops when they are trying to recruit someone... please be very skeptical about any information they they provide you. Their goal is to increase tuition payments (AKA, corporate revenue).

If your career goal is to move into clinical management, you will be much better off with an MSN and following a strategy to move ahead with progressive 'jumps' in responsibility.. e.g., charge nurse, supervisor, manager, director, etc. The vast majority of MHA-prepared healthcare administrators come from finance or ancillary clinical backgrounds because an MSN is entry level for nursing management. If you have a nursing background, you won't be taken seriously as a candidate for non-nursing management positions until you have a track record of success in nursing leadership. In my experience, the MHA "high flyers" are graduates from a (very) few well known MHA programs that include well-structured fellowships... and extremely strong alumni ties that constitute a very real 'old boy network'. None of those programs are based in commercial schools.

We need talented Nursing leaders to lead us into the future! Best of luck on your journey.

[elkpark]

OK - I know that U of P (like all other commercial schools) pulls out all the stops when they are trying to recruit someone... please be very skeptical about any information they they provide you. Their goal is to increase tuition payments (AKA, corporate revenue).

If your career goal is to move into clinical management, you will be much better off with an MSN and following a strategy to move ahead with progressive 'jumps' in responsibility.. e.g., charge nurse, supervisor, manager, director, etc. The vast majority of MHA-prepared healthcare administrators come from finance or ancillary clinical backgrounds because an MSN is entry level for nursing management. If you have a nursing background, you won't be taken seriously as a candidate for non-nursing management positions until you have a track record of success in nursing leadership. In my experience, the MHA "high flyers" are graduates from a (very) few well known MHA programs that include well-structured fellowships... and extremely strong alumni ties that constitute a very real 'old boy network'. None of those programs are based in commercial schools.

We need talented Nursing leaders to lead us into the future! Best of luck on your journey.

This is what I was going to say, also. The people I've encountered with MHAs are people who don't have a clinical specialty that offers a graduate degree with leadership/management focus, which nursing does. You will be much better off with an MSN in leadership/management than an MHA -- unless your intention is to get out of nursing entirely.

[sqwigl]

Thank you for your responses. I apologize but I forgot to clarify in my post a few things.

The first is that I do not see myself working in the bedside for very long. I would like to get out of the bedside as soon as possible.

With that being said, I dont see myself going through the route of a nurse manager/DON in that aspect. Due to the fact that it requires a good amount of clinical experience. I was hoping to use my nursing background as a stepping stone as healthcare experience prior to applying for an administrative position.

The second thing is I am more interested in the different career pathways of a healthcare administrator with an MHA. I dont see myself becoming an NP and would like to step out of the clinical side. I would like to be very versatile clinical wise and administrator wise overall. And I was wondering by having a nursing background can help make me very marketable in that retrospect.

I hope this provides more clarification. Thanks!!