Master's considerations

Nurses General Nursing

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So I am an ADN-RN who will be done with my BSN in August. I am weighing my Master's options for two reasons: 1) I would like to increase my income potential, while staying in the clinical setting (i.e. I don't care for management) and 2) I would like to teach in the future.

So I would like to know opinions on Master's options: what are more desirable/ easiest to find jobs? I mean there are several tracks CNS, CRNP, et al, but there are also sub-tracks for these: Family NP, Acute Care NP, etc. Ultimately I could teach with any of these, but what makes me the most marketable going forward?

As a side note, I have worked primarily in Cardiac Stepdown (currently) and general med/surg; I like the cardiac, but I am not married to it. Also, I am NOT considering CRNA as an option at this time.

Thanks in advance,

Mike

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Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.

Cardiac NP.

and a Master's in ED, too.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Mike,

Welcome to my tribe! We need more nurse educators. Keep in mind that those of us who operate in the workplace rather than academia have much better salary and working environments. Academentia is not for me - too rule-bound and heirarchical. I come from a multi-generational family of educators, so I had a basis of comparison even before I had to do my doctoral internship. Most larger healthcare organizations are finally 'seeing the light' by hiring qualified educators rather than just shuffling people around to find a willing body. Our salaries are much better than our academic colleagues, but there is a much greater level of individual accountablility also. For instance, I have to design programs to achieve very specific outcomes - and evaluate to make sure that I did it.

I just want to point out that education is a completely separate discipline with a whole theory base and it's own set of unique skills. It is not something that you can effectively learn on the job. My MSN is in Critical Care with an Education focus, but I still did not get enough education content. I realize that most master's programs are pretty limited - mine was 12 courses - and there just isn't room to cram in anything else. But, the limited amount that was included in the curriculum was focused on Nursing rather than workplace education. I had to find alternate means - that's actually how I started on the doctoral 'thing'.

Just wanted to warn you up front. For sure, go with the MSN because it opens doors you can't kick down with an MEd - but you may have to put forth a lot of extra effort to gain workplace education knowledge & skills. Good Luck!

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Thanks HouTx for the info.

For me, I enjoy teaching and have been told I am good with it when it comes to pt. teaching and peer to peer explanations of information or skills for which I have a solid knowledge base. I think what you have touched on (from a nurse educator perspective) is a challenge, primarily because it is results oriented and some nurses don't want to hear what you have to say (they only want enough info to get them through another day).

Although I am not ruling out a nurse educator on a clinical level, I am more attracted to teaching students. I want to work with those that are open and are trying to learn. I enjoy discussing and breaking down the disease processes, how treatments affect them and building the critical thinking of an individual. I found that while I was in nursing school for my ADN that things were hard for the wrong reasons many times. The best teacher in my ADN program (consensus among my classmates) broke things down on a layman level and built it back up to a nurse perspective. We all left her class that semester thinking, "wow, if only every instructor in this program was THAT good." I would like to be like that.

As I alluded to before, nurses (with more than a few years experience) typically find a nurse educator to be, not a educational resource but, a policy implementer infringing upon their years of "tried and true" practice. I've witnessed this all too often and I'm not sure I want to fight the Nurse Ratcheds of the world with a bevy of fliers and tri-fold posters while being judged on a fluctuating nosocomial infection percentage each month.

Back to my original post, it is two fold: 1) making more money today and 2) teaching in the future. Although expanding my income is a primary consideration for now, it is because I want to push myself so that I am able to coast financially later. When I get to the point where I am ready to make a move to education, money (for the most part) will not be a motivating factor at that point.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Some states dictate what degree you get. For instance, I live in IL, so in order to teach nursing, you must have an MSN, not an MS in education.

I'm an adult health CNS in school for a peds CNS.

My advice: check out multiple options. I've wasted a lot of time deciding what I wanted to do.

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