Opinions on degree options for practice administration

[JanieRN728]

Hi Nurses!

Thank you for taking the time to read my post and any/all opinions are valued!

Im an ADN nurse with 7 years of experience. I have 2 years of experience in acute care/critical care with occasional team lead/charge responsibilities. I'm also the chair of our unit based council. My other 5 years was based in cardiology as a staff/charge nurse in a very fast paced clinic. I loved that job but not much room for advancement as the owners wife was the administrator and she is a young nurse. (She has many more years of work and enjoyed her job).

My goal is to be a practice administrator but I'm torn on what education I should go for. I've researched jobs around my area and most require a bachelors in healthcare administration and billing/revenue, supervisory experience ; not many BSN requirements, unless it's only a nurse manager position. I don't want to sell myself short on a BSN however and I know my clinical experience will help with being an administrator. I'm interested in more of the business side of healthcare. I plan to get my coding certification through AAPC as that only takes a few months.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

WGU has a master's level Healthcare Leadership and a healthcare-specific MBA. Sounds like the MBA might be more in line with what you're looking for. Neither requires a BSN per se, but a BSN is probably going to open the most doors down the road as the underpinning of a masters.