I completed my MSN Ed last year, and because of budget cutbacks and all, have not been able to get into staff development as planned. I dabbled in academia for a while, but it's not really my thing.
So, I continue to work at the bedside. I LOVE patient care, and love teaching as well. So I serve a preceptor, do research and present inservices.
Our hospital's clinical ladder program last year added a level 5 for MSN-prepared bedside nurses. I was the only nurse to achieve this level. (800+ bed tertiary care facility in an urban area)
The more I consider it, the more I am convinced that there IS a place at the bedside for the MSN-prepared RN to do direct patient care.
It's good that you like being a bedside nurse, but most who go on for an MSN want something more out of life. Also probably looking for a regular schedule no weekends, no holidays and having a job free of the physical strain of bedside nursing. Your experience is typical that education jobs are few and far between and it is the first place hospitals will cut. Also becoming a college instructor is no promotion either! In most instances college educators are untenured, paid by class, thereby less than even minimum wage with no benefits, unless there is a college union in place to fight for benefits. This reality has lead other MSN's to go back to school and get their NP so they can get a decent non-bedside job. You are lucky they are willing to compensate and recognize your MSN, although $5,000 more is a pretty small financial payback for the cost of an MSN! It doesn't make sense financially. Maybe some day you will be able to get an education job, only time will tell.
I'm a realist and wouldn't go back to school myself because time isn't on my side and I need to save money for retirement and paying off my house, not to mention a car payment, so taking out student loan debt is the last thing I'm interested in. Dreams are great if you can afford them! In the end, it's not what you know, it's who you know that determines whether your education will pay off! But regardless the student loans still have to be paid off!
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
I completed my MSN Ed last year, and because of budget cutbacks and all, have not been able to get into staff development as planned. I dabbled in academia for a while, but it's not really my thing.
So, I continue to work at the bedside. I LOVE patient care, and love teaching as well. So I serve a preceptor, do research and present inservices.
Our hospital's clinical ladder program last year added a level 5 for MSN-prepared bedside nurses. I was the only nurse to achieve this level. (800+ bed tertiary care facility in an urban area)
The more I consider it, the more I am convinced that there IS a place at the bedside for the MSN-prepared RN to do direct patient care.
Thoughts?
*** Good for you. My hospital has dozens of bedside nurses with MSNs. Every hospital I have worked at in the last few years has had a few. This hospital, because of it's fantastic education benifits, has tons of them. They don't get paid any more than ADN or BSN RNs but their MSN was (in many cases) at no cost to them.
I don't consider it unusual in any way to have RNs with an MSN working as a bedside nurse.
I make more working at the bedside with my BSN, than I do teaching with my MSN. I put it like that because I don't get any extra pay for having a masters in my staff position. I did my master's for me (and felt led to it by God, but that's a different thread, lol).
It counts for a little in my clinical ladder, but not for much, and the ladder points are more easily gotten in other ways.
There are several of us in my dept. with a masters or close to it, at the bedside.
I completed my MSN-Nursing Education in May, and I work at the bedside. This is for a number of reasons, the largest being that I just started at this facility one year ago (I went from four years experience in subacute rehab to a total switch to transplant/medsurg) and felt it most benefitted me to stay at the bedside. Additionally, with just five years experience as a nurse I don't feel ready to step into a full time educator role. I currently serve as a preceptor for a nursing student in the last semester, and serve as my unit's geriatric resource nurse as part of the NICHE program, which so far is satisfying my itch to teach. I can see myself down the line working as a clinical instructor (maybe as soon as next semester) or teaching at a nursing program. I am only 27 years old, so I am simply happy to have the degree completed, and I can use it when I want to use it.
Was just about to made a thread about how a large hospital system in my area recently changed their requirements from "ADN required, BSN Preferred" to "BSN required, MSN preferred". Are they serious with this education inflation?? How ridiculous to get all these degrees and then be paid what a Diploma could get you 10 years ago. I'm truly speechless.
Healthcare is becoming more and more complex. Smart organizations have realized that they need to encourage higher education & are creating direct care positions designed to enable MSNs to apply their knowledge & skill at the bedside. Everyone benefits from this.
I worked bedside with my MN for several years and found that my increased knowledge was a definite benefit to patient care. It also gave me a lot of credibility when I took a staff educator job because I was still very proficient in the psychomotor tasks and other skills in my field.
Why not? You will certainly get paid more than you would in academia or, often, in management (I hate doing management anyway, not my forte); if you are personally and professionally satisfied, go for it.
I also note that the OP's facility offers a differential for better education. Brava.
Specializes in Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Surgical.
I had a clinical instructor that had her MSN- she taught students and worked at the bedside then and was an excellent clinical nurse. She had done management but went back to the bedside. Last I heard she was on her way to a DNP so she could teach at a school.
I see many MSN nurses in bedside. Many of them teach on the side. I agree with the OP, why leave a great paying bedside nursing job for less pay and more days a week??? Give me my three 12's and my paycheck and I'm good to go.
Was just about to made a thread about how a large hospital system in my area recently changed their requirements from "ADN required, BSN Preferred" to "BSN required, MSN preferred". Are they serious with this education inflation?? How ridiculous to get all these degrees and then be paid what a Diploma could get you 10 years ago. I'm truly speechless.
That is exactly what scares me about this. I love night shift now, but you can bet that once I have my MSN or DNP, I will not be working 12 hour nights and holidays. I'll be in my NP office, and sleeping at night time.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
My comment has consistently been - - who wants to spend 40-100,00 bucks on an education to work weekends, nights and holidays, ad infinitum? If you do, then so be it. But is there compensation for your education?
Best wishes!
I got my Master's because I was interested in the education. I stayed at the bedside because I'm an adrenalin junkie. I don't regret either decision. But then, I didn't spend that much on my education, and I paid as I went -- no loans. And I LOVE having weekdays off when everyone else is at work. DH and I have a great time recreating when the lines are short (or nonexistent) and working on the weekends when everyone else is out trying to have a good time!
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brandy1017, ASN, RN
2,910 Posts
It's good that you like being a bedside nurse, but most who go on for an MSN want something more out of life. Also probably looking for a regular schedule no weekends, no holidays and having a job free of the physical strain of bedside nursing. Your experience is typical that education jobs are few and far between and it is the first place hospitals will cut. Also becoming a college instructor is no promotion either! In most instances college educators are untenured, paid by class, thereby less than even minimum wage with no benefits, unless there is a college union in place to fight for benefits. This reality has lead other MSN's to go back to school and get their NP so they can get a decent non-bedside job. You are lucky they are willing to compensate and recognize your MSN, although $5,000 more is a pretty small financial payback for the cost of an MSN! It doesn't make sense financially. Maybe some day you will be able to get an education job, only time will tell.
I'm a realist and wouldn't go back to school myself because time isn't on my side and I need to save money for retirement and paying off my house, not to mention a car payment, so taking out student loan debt is the last thing I'm interested in. Dreams are great if you can afford them! In the end, it's not what you know, it's who you know that determines whether your education will pay off! But regardless the student loans still have to be paid off!