What is MSN - leadership and management track

Specialties Management

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I'm exploring graduate degrees and I'd like to know if anyone has done the MSN leadership and management track and what areas will a degree like this help me in my career? Management? most manager/DON I see have Nurse executive degrees so I don't know where the MSN in management falls in the hierarchy . Do nursing with these degrees get higher paying jobs? do any choose to remain on floors? any clinical aspects at all to this degree or only management stuff. Why choose this as opposed to an MBA? I mean how marketable will I be and is demand high in your area?

Uh Mark Zukerburg owner of facebook...oh and Bill Gates, Steve jobs, and Michael dell the owner of Dell.. Just to name a few Well none even had management degrees in fact no degrees all college drop outs

Those people all started small start-up companies that grew over time, and the individuals grew with the companies. Your statement was that "some college grads can come right out of school and successfully lead the biggest co®porations." Do you have any examples of any college graduates successfully leading large corporations fresh out of school?

Specializes in Med Surg, PCU, Travel.

Nope Not yet

Let me first dispel the myth that you must have a vast amount of experience to be a charge nurse or manager. While this is true at some organizations, it's not true of all. It really depends on what the organization is looking for out of those positions. I was in charge about 2 months after becoming an RN. Granted I had been a PCT on that unit for years but they were looking for organizational savvy. We had experience in other RNs. I became an assistant manager about 18 months after becoming an RN. I became a manager after about 5 years total. I am very good at what I do and command a lot of respect from my staff and colleagues. It's true that the old days nurse managers were annointed based on being a "great nurse". Great nurses do not always make great managers. Healthcare discovered this as the belt gets tighter and tighter and the bar on quality gets higher and higher. With that said. You can't just assume you will become CEO by getting an education. That's an important first step but to be at an executive level you are looking at years and years of proven leadership at the lower levels. You should probably set your own bar a little lower. Take the first step and become a charge nurse if you feel you are ready. Your manager will let you know if you are ready.

Specializes in Corrections, neurology, dialysis.

This topic is interesting to me.

I was was hired at a hospital that has magnet status on the contingency that I obtain a BSN within a few years. Meanwhile many of my coworkers approached me about taking the nurse manager position that had been vacant for 3 years. I never thought of myself as being management material, but I decided to pursue that path. I talked to the director abiut it and she said that once I had my degree and was enrolled in an MSN program I could apply for the position. No guarantee of getting it. Then within a month of graduating and being enrolled in the MSN program somebody else applied for it and got it. I was a little sad but she has been here longer and she's probably more qualified anyway.

Meanwhile I have watched what she has been going through to learn the job and it looks absolutely awful. She is on the job around the clock, has had to deal with a staffing shortage with very little support. Now I'm having second thoughts about getting my MSN but my coworkers are adamant that I should still pursue it because even if this job isn't open anymore there will be others. I'm flattered that they have confidence in my ability to learn leadership, but I don't know if this is the path I should take.

i think a higher degree would be useful for something, but what? If I don't going into management, what else can I do with a higher degree? People ask me what I want to do, and i honestly don't know. Maybe there are things I could do that I haven't though of and don't know it's there. I enjoy administrative work, teaching, writing and research. Would having an MSN be useful for these things?

Before you get an MSN degree research what is out there. There are a variety of degrees available for MSN. There is the leadership track, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Nurse Practitioner (multiple specialities), Education, Informatics, Clinical Leader, Generalist. If you decided to be a manager one day and you had a nurse practitioner masters or an education masters it really doesn't matter usually. Many of the managers I have worked with are NPs or CNS. There are also CNS and NPs working in educator roles. There are always options. If you are wanting to do research there are also PhD programs.

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