MSN Educator to CNS or NP

[radoncnurse]

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum and welcome any and all reponses to my questions. I enjoy reading the posts and find this forum very helpful. I am currently an oncology nurse and am considering pursuing my MSN. I am definitely not the teacher type as far as a classroom, but love teaching my patients. My question is if I decided to pursue the MSN educator route could I later go into Nurse Practitioner or Clinical Nurse Specialist or is this even possible. I thought the educator route because I found a 100% online program which would help me since I must continue working fulltime. I am kinda confused with all the info I am getting. Could the MSN educator route be used for patient teaching? Any insight would be helpful. I would love to become a NP for oncology, but not sure if my clinic will support that, but I want t advance my career. Just trying to get more insight on my options.

Thanks for your help,

Shan:confused:

[llg, PhD, RN]

I think it would be a big mistake to get your MSN in nursing education if you are not interested in being a teacher. The program you are considering is probably geared totally towards being a faculty member in a school of nursing. If that's not what you want, then it would be foolish to invest your time and money on that credential. But you should easily be able to check that by examining the courses provided in that program and/or communicating with the school itself.

There are plenty of online MSN programs-- that offer a wide variety of options. Keep looking at programs until you find one that better suits your actual career interests.

[DistrictNurse19]

I think you should go for the NP degree as NP's can always teach, but a nurse educator cannot be a NP. Besides, chances are you will earn more salary with NP credentials than with educator credentials. Nurse educators more often focus teaching to other nurses, not patients. Best of luck to you!