Nurses who have earned dual master’s degrees, including an MSN and an MHA, typically have a wealth of exciting career options available to them as they begin to put these unique skills to work. The Master of Science in Nursing degree is perhaps the best one to get for patient-centered, expert-level care. The Master of Health Administration, meanwhile, gives nurses the skills they need to be qualified hospital administrators, department managers, and even high-ranking executives within a large healthcare organization. As graduates of these two programs begin to consider how they might leverage their advanced education to take advantage of new and more lucrative opportunities, consider the professions with the best fit for these two programs.
Nursing Manager or Department Coordinator
The key to a great patient experience is an efficient healthcare organization that offers a strong nursing team. With a practical background in nursing, a master’s degree in the field, and extensive knowledge of healthcare administration and management, graduates of these two programs almost always advance into nursing management programs that give them departmental oversight. This allows them to create teams of skilled nurses, manage schedules for the team, and focus on higher levels of productivity that will see more patients get the treatment they needed while waiting less time. Nursing managers also serve to motivate and educate their subordinates, helping them to deliver better care as they mature in their roles.
Nursing Care Consultants
Many hospitals need to be advised on the changing nature of the nursing profession. Nursing itself is subject to quickly changing regulations and best practices, and often requires changes to staff levels, procedures, and even technological tools, in order to offer patients top-notch care in compliance with federal standards, insurance company rules, efficiency mandates, and affordability concerns. Nurses with an MSN and MHA are able to advise their superiors when implementing new tools, hiring new nursing staff members, or implementing revised procedures designed to better accommodate patient needs. While some nurses provide these services exclusively to one hospital, others work for consulting firms that allow them to work with many facilities within a given geographic region.
Hospital Administrators and Executives
Hospitals aren’t run exactly like a business, but they still have many of the same concerns when it comes to profits and costs, ethics, management, and executive-level leadership. Those nurses who have a wealth of professional experience and advanced education can often advance into some of the most senior roles within a large hospital. As an executive, they’ll consider the nursing profession’s challenges and changes, its many expenses, and how their leadership might deliver better care while lowering the cost of delivery. They’ll also work with nursing managers, hire nursing consultants, and perhaps even provide care to patients in more challenging scenarios when their MSN degree helps them take charge of the situation more effectively.
Dual Degrees Mean Many Opportunities for Today’s Nurses
Very few nurses today have pursued an advanced degree, let alone two degrees that offer the right combination of practical experience and managerial knowledge. The industry increasingly needs the right blend of professional experience and management education, and those who have worked hard on their MSN and MHA degrees will find very few barriers to advancing into top-level and executive management within hospitals and clinics. Today’s nurses with an MSN and an MHA really do have an unlimited number of ways that they can help patients and improve care.