NP or MHA?

elkpark · Feb 19, 2014

I've been in nursing a long time, and the only people in healthcare I've seen with MHAs are people in other disciplines (disciplines that don't offer a graduate degree with a concentration in leadership/administration). Nurses who want to pursue a management/administration career tend to have MSNs in leadership/management. Is there some reason you don't want to get the MSN?

scarykarrey · Feb 20, 2014

I work for an MHA academic program, and the people coming out of my program are basically being trained to be future CEOs of hospitals and health centers. It's a terminal professional degree, so rather than getting an MSN in leadership/management in order to administrate a nursing staff, you're learning project management, economics, health policy, strategic planning, HR, finance, and a bunch of other topics in order to manage on a much grander scale.

pro-student · Feb 20, 2014

Those are pretty different career directions. I'd recommend spending time soul-searching, job shadowing, and looking at job outlook in the area you intend to work. There's really not much help others can be until you at least have an idea whether you wish to be a clinician or an administrator. That being said, there are certainly NPs who move into more administrative roles but without additional training such as through a DNP or post-masters there would be a big gap in educational preparation. So focus whether you'd like to manage patients or manage practices.

friendlylark · Feb 26, 2014

Thank you for all of the replies! My gut tells me that I would like to be a part of the business and/or patient satisfaction side of things. For example, there is a job at my hospital called, "Patient experience coach." I believe I would love this sort of job, being able to work with facility leadership to improve patient experience. I would also enjoy working with Lean Six Sigma and process improvement. Pro-student, I think you asked a wonderful question, and I believe I would prefer to manage practices. I am also very interested in the economics of health care and changing policies. I would like to be involved in helping a hospital gain Magnet certification (for example) or be involved in a hospital expansion project.

I live in Las Vegas, and UNLV doesn't seem to have MSN/leadership - it is more geared towards Education or Advance practice nurse, so that is the reason I was considering the MHA at UNLV, rather than an MSN program.

friendlylark · Nov 22, 2016

Hi ScaryKarrey :-) I would like to talk with you more about this! It sounds like a very interesting program that you work for. I have a bit of experience with project management and would like to go in to Business Development. Would this be better suited to an MBA program or an MHA, keeping in mind that I am an RN.

PG2018 · Nov 22, 2016

I've been in nursing a long time, and the only people in healthcare I've seen with MHAs are people in other disciplines (disciplines that don't offer a graduate degree with a concentration in leadership/administration). Nurses who want to pursue a management/administration career tend to have MSNs in leadership/management. Is there some reason you don't want to get the MSN?

Elk, what if the nurse doesn't wish to remain limited to nursing operations? If they're vying for CEO, would the MHA with its required residency and opportunity for fellowships be better?

This is of course cot always the case. My favorite nursing instructor/ the only one I liked was a cardiac CNS way back. That lasted about a year for her until she quickly became an administrator becoming CEO in at least two hospital systems.

PG2018 · Nov 22, 2016

I work for an MHA academic program, and the people coming out of my program are basically being trained to be future CEOs of hospitals and health centers. It's a terminal professional degree, so rather than getting an MSN in leadership/management in order to administrate a nursing staff, you're learning project management, economics, health policy, strategic planning, HR, finance, and a bunch of other topics in order to manage on a much grander scale.

Yes. Thank you.

PG2018 · Nov 22, 2016

The roles you're interested in can actually be done by anyone. However, if that's what you want to do, the MHA is targeted specifically to those goals and will somewhat decrease your learning curve.

I perceive the nurse administrator route as somewhat alienating to other executives and believe you'd have greater parity by mirroring the education and experiences. You will definitely have to move a few times to become CEO.

Executives have an interesting career and are somewhat bought and sold based on revenues. This goes for hospital execs as well. My FIL has been VP and CEO of some companies most of us have bought gasoline from. Good stories.