Thinking about RN--->MSN, what your input??

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Hello all

Another forum to consume my midnight surfing sessions.. I recently have been thinking of furthering my nursing education and expanding my pocketbook. Rather than countless hours spent surfing at night I could be doing something more constructive with my time. I have a few questions for people enrolled or for people who have completed an RN-MSN program.

What is your basic week like during one of these programs (please be very descriptive)? We (my wife and I, both working RN's) have two young children and somewhat of an active lifestyle. Is there much of any travel required?? What are the clinicals like and how time consuming are they. I have 10+ yrs experience in emergency medicine and would love to stay in the field but with a typical nurses back I cant do what Im doing until I retire ( in 150 or so years). Simple car rescues are killing me. Also what do you plan to do with your newly acquired degree?

Im sure more questions will come along so thanks in advance for your comments and look forward to chatten with ya!!

CF:pumpiron:

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Hi and welcome. A lot depends on what you want to do? Have you narrowed your focus to what kind of MSN you want? Advanced practice? NP or CNS? Management? Education?

Once you have a focus, then see what type of schools are available. Are you pretty disciplined? Then maybe online is for you. If you have to "see" the instructor to learn, than a brick and mortar school might be best.

I too worked for 10 years in a level one ER and yes indeed I truly loved it (and still miss it to this day). However, like you, at 48 and with probably another 20 years to work, I gotta move on! (Ain't getting old great!?) NOT

Anyway - when I decided that I needed more education (I was an ADN), I really didn't have a clear cut idea of what I wanted to do. So...I did a BSN via University of Phoenix, then did an MSN with them also (concentration of management and leadership). Then...ooops, realized I didn't like management! (Okay, now what to do??)

So..with loads of student debt from this little adventure, I decided that I wanted to do an APN. I would have done an NP program but again, the debt thing. So...I went ahead and did a CNS program in adult health and have been happy with that decision - I did a post-MSN certificate at my hospital's college of nursing.

Now...I have more opportunities. Right now, I work for a large nephrology group and am fairly compensated, the work isn't physically demanding and for the most part, I like it.

I want to wish you luck...

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Thank you for the reply... You mentioned a CNS program. Is this clinical Nurse specialist?? What fills your days?? What did this training entail??How much time per day/week would you say you spent working on these degrees?? It seems that I cant get a clear answer from any school on how much will it cost (soup to nuts). About how much have you spent so far?? It seems a range of 20,000-30,000 is about the average. Is there any reason to picking one school (cheaper) over another (closer). Also if I was interested in NP wouldn't I have to travel a bit to complete requirements? Most of the research I've done so far is on the teaching/management side.Thanks againCF

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