Healthcare Management is a big new field for professional RNs AND one in which they are direly needed. Never before has there been such an urgency to integrate nurses into upper-level and mid-level management roles. Armed with direct patient care experience and management and business skills to boot, RNs educated in healthcare management are positioned to help sculpt new practice and management paradigms.
Nursing management positions are abundant and available in a wide range of environments. RNs at the Management level may work in:
If your career sights are set on working your way up to management level nursing then start your career with a solid foundation in an undergraduate degree program. Both the Associates in Nursing and the BSN are considered undergraduate and prepare you for the RN license, but you’ll need your BSN for any advanced degrees you choose to pursue, which includes Healthcare Management.
Prerequisites for Nurse Management degree programs:
A variety of Masters level nursing management programs exist so research the various technicalities before you sign on. At the MSN level you’ll be required to complete your core Masters in Nursing courses first—such as Advanced Nursing Theory, Advanced Pharmacology, Pathophysiology, Advanced Statistics and Clinicals. Following successful completion of this core curriculum you are then introduced to the Healthcare Management modules.
Coursework for Healthcare Management RNs could include some of the following:
Learn how to mediate groups, negotiate on behalf of patients, nurses and team members, build efficient development teams, create viable and innovative practice paradigms, resolve conflicts, control finances, and more strategies traditionally the realm of non-nursing healthcare administration.
This has become a hot “joint” degree track that loads RNs with all the core curriculum of a nursing masters AND then loads them with Masters in Business Administration coursework. Talk about a well-armed professional.
Nursing MBA courses could include:
See how this coursework combined with the MSN curriculum could build a crackerjack RN manager?
Many of the MSN Healthcare Systems Management/Leadership degrees are now offered via sophisticated distance teaching environments—carbon copies of the campus-based curriculums, but packaged for online delivery. Any clinical, practicum, or internship requirements can be easily scheduled either on campus or at a facility local to you.