If you are a registered nurse and currently hold a BSN degree, then you may be ready to take the next steps in advancing your career. An MSN degree can help prepare you to work in more advanced areas of nursing, and is a rigorous yet rewarding qualification to gain. There is the option to complete these courses online, mixing distance learning with practical placements, teaching and internships, which can help make the courses more flexible and achievable. If you are considering boosting your nursing career, or are just planning out your educational journey toward achieving your dream nursing job, then an online MSN degree could help you achieve these goals.
What is an MSN degree?
An MSN is a Master’s of Science in Nursing, and is a valuable qualification to gain as a nurse, as it helps prepare you to work in more advanced nursing roles, such as a Family Nurse Practitioner or a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. Nurses undergo many years of training in order to build the skills and experience necessary so they can provide a high level of healthcare and personal support to their patients. The MSN degrees are for registered nurses who already hold a BSN, but they are an important step in the BSN to NP journey.
The online courses are flexible and designed to be completed around your current role and shifts, which means that you can continue to practice and earn money while you study. There are many different career outcomes, and you may even choose to take your education a step further by pursuing more qualifications, such as a DSN.
What are the career outcomes?
There is plenty of room for career advancement in the nursing industry, and an online MSN can help you achieve your nursing career goals. An MSN degree is the minimum requirement for many nurse practitioner roles, as these are specialized nursing jobs. An NP is a mid-level practitioner whose main function is to promote wellness via patient health education. NPs are nonphysician clinicians, which means that they take on many of the diagnostic and clinical functions of a medical doctor even though they are not trained as one. Another main distinction between RNs and NPs is that NPs can practice independently, without the supervision of a physician in certain states.
Some of the types of NP roles that you could take an MSN degree for include:
- Family Nurse Practitioner
FNPs are nurse practitioners that provide health care services to patients of all ages, genders, diseases and body systems. As an FNP, your responsibilities will include educating patients with the aim of maintaining their health and wellness, assessing patients and prescribing medication, and you could also find yourself working in a range of settings including clinics, hospitals, community centers and areas that have historically long waiting lists for physicians, such as rural locations.
- Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
PMHNPs are trained to provide a range of mental health services to many different people, and you will also have the choice to generalize or specialize in an area such as forensics or geriatrics. You could work in many different settings, such as substance abuse programs, schools, correctional facilities, military facilities, prisons or trauma centers. Your responsibilities as a PMHNP may include prescribing and managing medication, assessing and diagnosing patients, providing counseling, acting as a consultant, managing patient care, educating families and staff and providing emergency mental health services.
- Adult-Gerontology, Primary Care, Nurse Practitioner
When it comes to AGNPs, there are two different roles you could work in. One focuses on acute care and the other on primary care, and there are separate MSN courses for each. Gerontology is the study of old age and aging, and AGNPs treat patients from the young adult stage and upwards. AGNPs that provide primary care deliver health care services to those who are not usually ill, and normally work with the patient on a regular basis throughout their lives. Primary care AGNPs will focus on the prevention of illness, and in promoting and encouraging healthy lifestyle choices in order to maintain their health. Acute care AGNPs provide urgent and emergency healthcare services to patients, and the treatment is usually episodic.
Why study online?
There are numerous benefits to studying online and working towards a professional qualification that can help you advance your nursing career. Online MSN degrees use a blended learning approach, which refers to a combination of teaching methods. A lot of the coursework is done online, with practical placement, classes and internships taking place to allow you to put your new knowledge into practice in a work place environment.
Soft Skills
Online learning has plenty of unique challenges, and you will need to use a combination of technical and personal skills to overcome them. Soft skills are a set of personal, transferable non-technical skills that are useful in any work place or job. If you are already an RN then it is likely you will already have many of these skills, but they can always be developed and adapted to fit the new situations you will find yourself in. They include skills such as communication, creativity, problem solving, time management and teamwork, of which many are beneficial for nurses.
When you are taking an online MSN degree you will have the chance to develop these skills without even realizing it. For example, you will to incredibly organized with good time management skills, in order to complete the degree alongside your job. Organization is an important skill for nurses as you will often have multiple patients to treat at any one time. When you take an online MSN degree you will have practical examples of times when you have used these skills, which you can provide to an employer during an interview.
Cost
Studying can be expensive, and the costs involved can put a lot of people off. When you study online, the common costs that come with being a student, such as travel, living expenses and accommodation, can be reduced or even removed. You may also be eligible for financial support from your university, as well as other benefits like student discounts. Furthermore, the ability to continue working while you study means that you are able to keep earning money while you complete your degree, making this a flexible study option. Learning mostly from home means that you can save time and money not having to commute to classes every day, or worry as much about renting campus-based accommodation.
There are plenty of ways in which an online MSN degree can benefit you, both personally and professionally, and they are a great way to gain the qualifications you need to advance your career in a way that is flexible and works for you.
