Options Other Than NP

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I am feeling the urge to go back to school for my masters. I am interested in research and could also see myself (possibly) going into management. Teaching is another area I have interest in. I toyed with the idea of becoming an NP, but I am realizing that it probably wouldn't be the best fit for me...

Are there any other masters programs in nursing that are relevant? Can anyone who went to school for something other than NP share your story? CNS is an area I may be interested in, but I'm concerned about job availability. I have been an oncology nurse since I became an RN, so I am fairly specialized at this point and not sure what my next step should be.

Thanks, all! I am looking forward to reading your responses.

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

Management/ Leadership

Education (academic)

Education (clinical)

Informatics

Policy

Midwifery

CNS

CRNA

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An MPH with a concentration in epidemiology or biostatistics would be really helpful for research!

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An MPH with a concentration in epidemiology or biostatistics would be really helpful for research!

This is a fantastic idea! I will look into it. I had interest in public health prior to obtaining my nursing degree and working as an RN, so maybe it's time to revisit!

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Unless you KNOW your area is a hot market for CNS, I don't advise it.

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Unless you KNOW your area is a hot market for CNS, I don't advise it.

That's also what I've heard... definitely unfortunate, since the job description really interests me. Ah, well! Plenty of other options, it seems.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

Another option is to look for a fairly "generic" MSN degree ... maybe CNS or CNL or "Leadership" or "Education" and then augment that degree with some continuing education to focus on certain types of jobs. Get certified in the type of job. A certification in a focus are + a fairly general MSN will open a lot of doors. It's only been recently that the academics have tried to link academic degrees to specific job roles (-- and I hate that they have done that). In the past, the MSN's were more generic and a person could get such a degree and then supplement that graduate level education with work experience (and not certification) to focus on specific job areas. But the options vary from one geographic area to another.

Look around in your geographic area to see what types of MSN level jobs interest you. Talk to those folks and find out what types of relevant certifications are available as well as the types of MSN's most people have in those jobs. You might find a surprising fit that way.

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This is a fantastic idea! I will look into it. I had interest in public health prior to obtaining my nursing degree and working as an RN, so maybe it's time to revisit!

There are some great affordable-ish MPH programs out there. I'm in one now! Feel free to PM me if you want to chat.

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I haven't done my APN degree yet but I am currently deciding and I would have loved to do MPH--I actually found a school in Maryland that offers a dual degree program with MPH and MSN and would have loved to jump on it but my kids are in school and we promised them they could finish where we live and it wasn't a distance option. Unfortunately I was unable to find any other dual degree programs of that sort with distance available but I found some MSN nursing programs that were more toward research/education alley and they usually included terms like educator, research, or administrator. I wish you luck, those are hard specialties to find but I had found some. I did ODU distance for my BSN and they have great online programs, very reasonably priced, and have both the administrator MSN and the MPH distance options. I am actually now reconsidering the NP route. Good luck.

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