Skip to main content

There Are Other Masters Degrees in Nursing - Part II

With more absurd stories of bad management coming in from the field, it seems only appropriate to talk about the great need for good nurse managers. According to the 2008 US national sample survey of nurses, less than 25% of nurses in management roles have a masters degree in general, nevermind a specialized one with the necessary leadership, finance, and operations management skills and knowledge required for the role. In fact, 40% of nurse managers only have an associate's degree.

Managers continue to impact patient outcomes with how they choose to staff their units, handle patient complaints, and navigate workplace relationships. The quality of their management is reflected in unit turnover rates of staff. Unit level turnover is very costly to the healthcare system. If you interview for a job and you find out there has been a lot of turnover, be wary of bad management practices.

As your career evolves, test out your leadership skills as a charge nurse. Get involved with projects central to how the place works. So, if you are drawn to this type of leadership role, if finance and numbers are something you enjoy, if serving a central role in ensuring that people get good quality care, a nurse management degree is right for you.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

There Are Other Masters Degrees Besides a Nurse Practitioner - Part I

It strikes me that many students and nurses do not seem to know about the "other" masters degree options for nurses.  Everyone seems to want to be a nurse practitioner these days.  Now, that's great news for the primary care provider shortage, but we need nurses with masters degrees who can work in other positions and have other skill sets. Let's review the other masters degrees in nursing.  Nearest and dearest to my own heart is Nursing Education.  Remember that really cool clinical instructor you had in your entry-level nursing program --that could be you!  Do you like precepting new hires?  Are you the person on your unit who unofficially keeps everyone up-to-date on the latest evidence?  Do you really enjoy patient teaching, whether in the hospital or community setting?  Do you just like to teach?  Nursing education is the right masters for you.  Skills learned in a nursing education masters cannot be learned on the job.  Cur...

Is it time to get your PhD in Nursing or Midwifery?

 Over the years, I've written a lot about pursuing a PhD in nursing and I'm including midwives because we need more PhD prepared midwives too.  Getting a PhD is a great way to address the problems you've seen on the frontlines of COVID-19, another way to address the social injustices of racism and discrimination on health outcomes, and to make your voice heard by the decision-makers. A third of the 1% of nurses with PhDs will retire in the next five years so we need people to take their place. We cannot lose our voices in all the places where nurses and midwives with PhDs work. Here's a compilation of the posts I've written about getting a PhD and the things to think about as you figure out where you want to apply. PhD or DNP?   This is where many people start when trying to decide on their doctoral-level career advancement. This post has my two cents on the topic. Should you work as a nurse before getting a PhD?   There's a lot of opinions out there on this sub...

To Post-Doc or Not to Post-Doc, That is a Very Good Question - Part 1

Happy 2019! Much to my surprise, I realized I went all of 2018 without posting anything. I got tenure in 2018 so technically, I should have had more time with that monkey off my back. Yet as a wise colleague told me, tenure usually means more work. Sure enough. Nonetheless, let's start 2019 off fresh with a burning question I get from many of my PhD students: To post-doc or not to post-doc. For those of you not in academia, I post-doctoral fellowship (post-doc) involves additional training. You see, science has evolved so much these days that despite doing a PhD for 4 to 7 years, you might need more training. I went into my post-doc reluctantly. After 5 years of PhD study, I was really hoping to have a just one job and a regular salary that might actually allow me to travel and start paying down my student loans. A post-doc just seemed like more years being poor. It was, however, the best decision I ever made. I was lucky to have a great mentor who passed along many wonderf...

Translate