Thoughts on Samuel Merritt direct entry case management program

SummerGarden, BSN, MSN, RN · Apr 25, 2011

are your administrators telling you that you will be hired as a nurse case manager upon graduation? i know that degrees outside of nursing allow for direct case management jobs without clincial work experience. however, those jobs are non-nursing jobs and they are veyr very low paying (i, know because i worked them prior to nursing)!

in my job search i see that nursing jobs in case management require clinical work experience. also, i have never ever seen a degree in case management as a requirement for nurses. in fact, the jobs i have seen require or prefer a bsn plus years of clinical work experience. therefore, i think you may find the answer to your questions in reading job descriptions posted by the facilities near where you plan to live when you graduate.

plus, keep in mind that schools tend to create degrees that do not necessarily correspond with the job market. academia creates degrees that correspond with student interest. so, a degree in case management may be helpful for nurses, but it may not necessarily get you a job over nurses who do not have that degree, but have a bsn with way more clincial work experience. gl!

RHIA, RN · Apr 30, 2011

MBARNBSN, I want to thank you for this explanation. I will be graduating with a BS in Health Information Management next Saturday and the most enjoyable parts of my clinicals have been in UM, QI, IDI Specialist type roles . . . where nearly all of the people I followed were RNs. My instructor keeps telling me that I don't need to get my RN because I can work in these fields with an RHIA. I have only met two people that do work in UM with RHIAs, lovely ladies but I saw plain as day where a lack of clinical knowledge hinders them.

Maybe I am drawn to these fields because of my experience as a LPN, I don't know, but I still feel like I need to get my RN to be able to make a living at it.

SummerGarden, BSN, MSN, RN · May 1, 2011

mbarnbsn, i want to thank you for this explanation.

no problem.

i will be graduating with a bs in health information management next saturday and the most enjoyable parts of my clinicals have been in um, qi, idi specialist type roles . . . where nearly all of the people i followed were rns. my instructor keeps telling me that i don't need to get my rn because i can work in these fields with an rhia. i have only met two people that do work in um with rhias, lovely ladies but i saw plain as day where a lack of clinical knowledge hinders them.
maybe i am drawn to these fields because of my experience as a lpn, i don't know, but i still feel like i need to get my rn to be able to make a living at it.

i know how you feel about many of the business nursing jobs being attractive. as a non-nurse my original bachelor's degree allowed me the opportunity to work in qm/qa and case management, but i was unable to break into umr for the obvious reason that i was not a nurse. i also worked in community nursing as a non-nurse and saw the career expansion of nurses vs. non-nurses. thus, i agree that nursing + anything in healthcare is the way to go!

in fact, you noticed that the non-nurses lacked clinical understanding. well believe me his/her nursing colleagues notice it too. this is why the non-nursing jobs receive very little respect, have next to no opportunity for career growth, and again are poor paying.

you may be correct about needing to be a rn depending on the area in which you plan to work. i worked with lpn case managers but they were limited in their scope compared with the rns and i was working in the south. here is a thread addressing lpns and case management that might be of interest:

https://allnurses.com/case-management-nursing/lpn-case-manager-280779.html

good luck and congrats on a new degree!!! :yeah:

RHIA, RN · May 2, 2011

Thank you!