How are RNs with Entry-Level MSN degrees received?

[MiahMSN]

Hi there,

I'm a marketing/pr professional, hoping to start an entry-level MSN program in the fall (God willing). I know these types of programs are relatively new. My question is for those of you who have completed such a program or you nurses who have coworkers from these programs, how are the nurses received in the work environment? I guess what I'm trying to see is if there's any type of tension or animosity directed toward those who enter into the field with an entry to nursing MSN degree. I know the "Clinical Nurse Leader" role has yet to fully materialize in hospitals and all of us will start off as entry-level RNs due to he lack of experience, regardless of the degree behind us, but I'm wondering how other nurses view those that have taken this route.

My ultimate goal is to become a neonatal NP, but I know I have to (and I want to) pay my dues first and get all of the experience I can as an RN. Other than allowing me to go back in a few years to get a post-masters certificate in neonatal NP, I have yet to fully comprehend what the MSN Clinical Nurse Leader degree will mean to my career starting off, and how I will be accepted and viewed by other nurses and administrators. But this is the best option available to career changers with ba/bs degrees in other fields, so I'm going with it.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

[MiahMSN, MSN, RN]

To say, "hello, I'm Mya a MSN-RN, pleased to meet you" sounds absurd. However, I do feel that ones academic preparation is important and speaks to the expectations that others, as well as yourself, place on you. Yes, at the end of the day, liscensure is most important. I don't think anyone mentioned that there is a need to make others aware of their academic background and the letters that accompany it. And if that is what most direct-entry RNs are doing, let me apologize on their behalf, as a future member of the group. However, I highly doubt that is the case, yet, I'm sure their are assumptions made that we will enter into the field with a type of "better-than-you-look-at-my-degree" attitude, when truth be told, most of us are just trying to take the best route into the field, and for those who have bachelors and masters degrees in other fields, a MSN seems most logical! Kill 2 birds with one stone in the same amount of time and for the same amount of $$, giving yourself a head-start opportunity, should you want to go on to advance practice, such as a NP or a CNS!!! Who wouldn't go down this road?

[melmarie23, MSN, RN]

personally, when in clinicals, I hate saying what type of program that I am in because I get the side eye and see the skepticism in the other RNs faces. I hate that.

So I've taken habit of saying, I am in my 2nd year. And even that, I hate doing.

Basically, I've grown very tried trying to explain myself. All I want to be is an RN. Does it really matter which route that I take to get there?

[BCgradnurse, MSN, RN, NP]

I'm with you Mel..and frankly, now that I'm working as an NP, no one asks where or when or how I got my degree. I just introduce myself as a nurse practitioner...that's all anyone needs to know and all the patients care about.