WHCNP VS. MSN in Maternity with Role Specialty in Public Health

[MrsSchefe]

I am currently an ADN student and will graduate this December. I have all the pre reqs for my Bachelor's and will obtain that in a year. I am trying to plan where I want to attend graduate school. I was originally planning on becoming a Women's Health Care Nurse Practitioner through Frontier, but would love love love to attend the University of Texas-Austin. They have an MSN in Maternity with Role Specialty in Public Health. What is the difference between the two degrees??! I have tried to research but have just confused myself. I don't want to attend graduate school for the wrong degree! I am passionate about women's health and currently work in Labor & Delivery. I want to be an NP and someday work in a clinic alongside a doctor. Is the MSN in Maternity the same thing? Would I still test to be an NP?? HELP!

[cat_lady_jr]

I have that exact degree from UT Austin (Maternity MSN w/ public health). You will not get NP certification with that degree or prescriptive authority. If you do want those things then it takes about a year doing a post masters to add it on. The UT MSN prepares you to work more with vulnerable populations and create health improvement plans, do admin. work, etc. If you want to be an NP, then do the program with Frontier or look at ECU in North Carolina. I felt like I need more time in the maternity field before I got my NP, so I went with the MSN. I hope to become a CNM soon.