Experience CNA with BA and MBA Healthcare Management

[vjackso4]

Hello everyone I am new to allnurses.com and would like direction on career choices. A little over a year ago I graduated with BA in Psychology and Sociology. First let me give you a little of my college/career history.

I am a Certified Nurse Assistant and has been a CNA since 2001. I fell in love with the healthcare profession and the environment. I have worked in Physical rehab as a certified rehab technician (hospital certification) catering to the needs of people who suffered traumatic brain injuries, CVAs, over doses, medical malpractice incidences etc. Within the last 4 to 5 years while working as a CNA I was also a college student hoping and working to earn double degree in Nursing (BSN) & Psychology (BA), however after completing all my nursing pre-reqs as a pre-nursing student and submitting my application for admittance to the 2 year clinical portion of the BSN program I received a alternate list letter (i'm sure you know what that is) not once but twice and once I received my second alternate list letter I was down to my last PSYC classes; basically I dropped nursing and declared sociology as a second major.

I graduated last May 2012 and applied and was accepted into a MBA Healthcare Management Program. My main question is do any of you who are experienced in the healthcare field feel as if I have enough clinical experience as a CNA to obtain a job in the healthcare industry with my soon to be graduate degree or should still pursue a degree in nursing or another healthcare field?

I last worked as a Nursing Assistant last August 2012, but since July 2012 I have been working as a social worker for a elementary school pre-k program in which gives me case management experience and still allows me to work within the healthcare arena because there is a health portion of the program that is the social worker responsibility (health record keeping).

What do you think?

[Bruce_Wayne, ASN, RN]

I know that there are some jobs out there where you can work as an office manager, unit director, and other jobs without being a nurse. But for the most part I've seen like 90% of those positions filled by nurses with BSN/MSN's. Having these positions filled by nurses makes sense to me because nurses, most of the time, will have more insights into the medical aspect of things vs somebody that only has a MBA. Also with administration it makes things easier and more flexible when you're administrators are nurses because there are some roles that require RN supervision. So if for example if somebody was the unit director of a medical floor and wasn't a nurse there would still need to be a nurse that's officially in charge of supervising certain nurse duties. So it just makes things easier when those roles can be filled by one person.

So basically what I'm saying is that yes it is possible to get a job like you mentioned without being an RN, but it definitely helps if you are an RN. For example I went to nursing school with somebody that already had a bachelor's degree in "Health Administration" and she was going to nursing school because after a long time she couldn't find a decent job because "they only want to hire nurses".

[vjackso4]

Thanks Bruce_wayne, that's kind of what I was thinking and that's why I felt the need to ask now before I finish the MBA healthcare program because I'm thinking that I may be able to add another post graduate certificate to the MBA healthcare management while I'm currently taking classes. I was thinking possibly a human resource management post grad certificate. I just feel a bit discouraged after investing all that time and energy into the BSN pre-reqs and to still get 2 alternate list letters, well it's just more than discouraging.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Sorry to rain on your parade, but MBAs without a clinical background/profession are not really marketable. The non-clinical degree that qualifies for entry-level positions is an Masters in HealthCare Administration (MHA) - from programs that have include an internship. Healthcare is very different from other industries, including our accounting systems - so the only MBA programs that have value are MBA in Healthcare finance.

Rather than burning through all your tuition resources accumulating degrees with questionable value, I encourage you to focus your efforts on a specific clinical profession. Nursing is not the only one... there are others that are far less competitive.

[vjackso4]

So I should probably get a post graduate certificate in finance to match the MBA healthcare degree. I am definitely going to look into it and the possibility of an internship. And you're right about getting useless degrees, the problem is that I took most of my biological sciences in 2007 and here in Georgia many if the schools with even less competitive clinical degrees require you to retake any biological science that is 5 years or older. So for me that's both anatomy classes and microbiology.