NP and masters in business administration

Dranger · Oct 15, 2015

I don't think an MBA or MHA is necessary, they are a dime a dozen really. Focus on NP although that field will be glutted soon enough. Half the people on these boards want to be NPs and many current floor nurses at most hospitals are in online programs.

Your salary question is too vague and it depends on specialty and location.

llg, PhD, RN · Oct 15, 2015

Having 2 degrees in different fields doesn't always increase your salary significantly. They just give you a broader foundation of knowledge that might help you get a specific job. But the salary for that job would be about the same as it would be for other people who held that job who had only 1 degree.

Salaries are mostly determined by the job that you are doing, not by the degrees you have. But sometimes, having additional degrees gets you noticed and you might have an advantage getting certain jobs.

For example: A nurse with an PhD who is a faculty member who likes to work a couple of shifts per month as a staff nurse to keep her skills up is going to earn a staff nurse salary for those work hours -- even though the V.P. for Nursing (who only has a MSN) makes a whole lot more. They are each being paid based on the job role, not their educational level. And if the janitor has an MBA, he is going to be making even less -- because that's what janitors make, regardless of their education.

If you work as an NP, you'll earn what NP's make at that particular job. If you work as a healthcare administrator, you'll earn what administrators make.

xcayy · Oct 15, 2015

@ Dranger,

Thank you for your response. What do you mean by the field will be glutted too soon? Should I look into other work? Would it be hard to find a job once when graduate and become an NP?

xcayy · Oct 15, 2015

@ llg,

Thank you for the information, it was helpful and makes a lot of sense! Hopefully I'll figure out something, I have a bit of time!

llg, PhD, RN · Oct 15, 2015

@ llg,
Thank you for the information, it was helpful and makes a lot of sense! Hopefully I'll figure out something, I have a bit of time!

Exactly. If you know you want to be a nurse, then finish nursing school, pass NCLEX and get a job as a nurse -- in a field of nursing that interests you. Do that for a year or two and THEN start looking at graduate possibilities. That will be at least 4 years from now -- and the world will certainly move on between now and then.

No one can predict what the job market will be in 5 - 7 years. (That's how long it will be before you would graduate with your NP if you decide to go that route.) So don't choose your career path based mostly on that. Find out what type of work satisfies you -- what you're good at -- etc. Then take a hard look at that field and figure out how to make a living at it.

No matter what you choose, you can count on encountering challenges, bad days, etc. So be sure you have picked a career path in which you truly like that work itself -- don't pick a pathway because someone said it would lead to a paycheck.

As other posters have said ... an enormous number of young nurses are planning to become NP's over the next 5 years or so. Will that flood the job market and make finding a good job harder for NP's? Maybe. Maybe not. So if being an NP is truly important to you ... then go that route. But if your only choosing that route because you think there will be a lot of demand for NP's in 5-10 years, think again. That might not be true. With the aging baby boomers, there might be a greater need for specialists in geriatrics (running LTC's and other programs, such as home care) ... or there might be a greater need for Nursing Informatics specialists .... or quality specialists ... or whatever. So don't commit to long-term plans until you get some experience and know what type of work suits you the best.