MSN- Leadership: will I survive?

Nursing Students Western Governors

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Hello friends!

I am thinking about starting on my MSN- Leadership soon from WGU but I'm very nervous! I'm excited about the opportunity to work at my own pace, but I'm not the strongest writer which is what's holding me back from starting already. I've been reading that it's very writing intensive, but I wanted to get some feedback from people. How many papers did you write? What were your writing topics about? What exactly does the capstone project entail?

Background on me- I received my BSN in June 2016 and have been working on an acute care floor at Seattle Children's Hospital for the past 9 months. I live with my boyfriend but we don't have kids or pets or anything so I feel like this is a good time to work on my degree! I know that nothing is going to stop me from getting my masters, but I like to mentally prepare myself! thanks for any and all feedback!

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Specializes in Outpatient/Clinic, ClinDoc.

I did informatics and not leadership, so keep that in mind. I am not a strong writer either, but WGU does have resources to help you with that.

I am thankful that with the help of technology (grammarly and perrla for APA) I have never had a paper returned for any sort of articulation error - use addins for Word if you think you might need them!

Join the facebook groups for your degree- they are VERY helpful.

I didn't find the writing to be horrible - my longest paper was under 20 pages. A large percentage of them were about changes and how you would implement the change.

The capstone for leadership and education is MUCH different than informatics, so I will leave that to others. I think that again, you are proposing a change at your current workplace, researching it, and writing a paper/doing a presentation about said change. But I won't swear to it. :)

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I did the MSN leadership/management program, and my program was pretty writing intensive. My capstone paper was nearly 50 pages, including cover page and reference pages.

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Do you feel like you're a strong writer in general? Did you feel like you had good resources to improve your writing? How many papers do you think you wrote?

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Specializes in Outpatient/Clinic, ClinDoc.
I did the MSN leadership/management program, and my program was pretty writing intensive. My capstone paper was nearly 50 pages, including cover page and reference pages.

Fortunately for me, the capstone for informatics is currently paper-free (it's a powerpoint).. My papers tend to be on the briefer side - no excellence awards here, but they make it through. :)

WGU does have a writing center that can help with articulation problems - have never used them but others have said they are extremely helpful.

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On a scale of 0-10, my writing is probably a 7 or 8. I did my MSN immediately after my BSN, so that greatly helped with my writing abilities, APA formatting, etc. The rubrics and exactly what they wanted in each paper seemed clear enough to me when I did the program back in 2013, so as long as you're good at following directions and answering what they ask, you'll do fine :-). My only regret is that I didn't go to WGU for my BSN as well.

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Specializes in LTC Management, Community Nursing, HHC.
On a scale of 0-10, my writing is probably a 7 or 8. I did my MSN immediately after my BSN, so that greatly helped with my writing abilities, APA formatting, etc. The rubrics and exactly what they wanted in each paper seemed clear enough to me when I did the program back in 2013, so as long as you're good at following directions and answering what they ask, you'll do fine :-). My only regret is that I didn't go to WGU for my BSN as well.

RNRy, would you mind sharing the type of assessment methods used in the MSN Leadership / Management program? For example, were there any exams (on camera or at a test center) or were all your assessments done through writing or some other format?

Thank you.

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I completed my MSN under the "old curriculum" which from what I understand, has changed quite a bit. During my prgroam, all of my assessments were papers except for 1 proctored exam. I don't think that aspect of the program has changed tremendously.

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I have applied to this program at WGU and I am trying to decide between University of MD and WGU. WGU would take half the time to complete and cost about 1/5 of the what MD would cost. I guess I am just mildly nervous about the "big name" of MD when compared to the lesser known WGU. Did you find it difficult to obtain a job concentrating in your MSN degree from WGU? That is my only fear.

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Hi There! I start in 3/2020..also a fellow peds nurse here in CA ? ... Was wondering how it's going for you and also if you were able to find those facebook help groups ... would love some support and community along the way!

On 5/1/2017 at 11:52 PM, featherzRN said:

I did informatics and not leadership, so keep that in mind. I am not a strong writer either, but WGU does have resources to help you with that.

I am thankful that with the help of technology (grammarly and perrla for APA) I have never had a paper returned for any sort of articulation error - use addins for Word if you think you might need them!

Join the facebook groups for your degree- they are VERY helpful.

I didn't find the writing to be horrible - my longest paper was under 20 pages. A large percentage of them were about changes and how you would implement the change.

The capstone for leadership and education is MUCH different than informatics, so I will leave that to others. I think that again, you are proposing a change at your current workplace, researching it, and writing a paper/doing a presentation about said change. But I won't swear to it. ?

Hi there! How can we find these facebook support groups? Thanks!

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Specializes in Peds.

I’m inquiring about the MSN program for Nursing Leadership at WGU. Is there anyone currently enrolled or recently finished? I would love to ask you some questions. Do you recommend the program? How many papers per class (an estimate is fine). Any information is appreciated! Thanks! 

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Specializes in LTC Management, Community Nursing, HHC.
On 7/25/2021 at 4:59 PM, Evea said:

I’m inquiring about the MSN program for Nursing Leadership at WGU. Is there anyone currently enrolled or recently finished? I would love to ask you some questions. Do you recommend the program? How many papers per class (an estimate is fine). Any information is appreciated! Thanks! 

Hi Evea, did you sign up for the WGU program? If you did, do you like it? 

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