If a nurse’s resumé already shines with a Bachelor’s degree and Registered Nurse licensure, then it surely gleams with a Master of Science in Nursing! With an MSN degree, RNs can pursue nurse leadership jobs that require a higher level of professional training and education. In fact, Nurse Journal reports that the average salary for Connecticut nurse leadership jobs is 15% higher than the national average, and this top-paying state ranks fourth among all fifty of the United States. Apparently, Connecticut is a great place to advance your nursing career.
Master’s programs like Goodwin College’s population health focused MSN degree can help aspiring nurse leaders expand their skills in research, healthcare policy, communications, and especially, management and leadership. Not all MSN degrees will put you at the forefront of nurse leadership in population health, but when you graduate from Goodwin, you will already have that specialized and in-demand focus in place. Feeling confident? Let’s start your search with a simple question: “Which nurse leadership jobs can you land with an MSN degree?”
Nurse Manager
Becoming a manager of other nurses is a job for someone who likes to take charge! Nurse Managers are held accountable for their department’s efficiency. This includes staffing and resource management responsibilities, patient care planning, and specialist coordination. For instance, a Nurse Manager will ensure that the right staff for the job are put on the clinical floor based on their skills, and trained accordingly. Nurse Managers also measure staff performance. This way, they can delegate duties to team members with confidence. Under a successful Nurse Manager’s leadership, equipment and technology are handled appropriately by nurses who know how to use them.
When it comes to population health in particular, Nurse Managers may be asked to uphold the healthcare organization’s bigger strategic plan. This means helping leadership to align goals with needs. It also means developing plans to meet objectives. How do you turn an initiative into a step-by-step process? You involve a Nurse Manager. Nurse Managers must be proficient at establishing priorities and resolving conflicts.
Clinical Nurse Leader
The Clinical Nurse Leader title is a fairly new one, made for an evolving healthcare system. This role was created in 2004 after a series of meetings held by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, when nurses came to a serious conclusion. Nurses felt the need to improve relationships and fix the communication and leadership problems that often arise between administrators and nurses.
The focus of a Clinical Nurse Leader is to guide professional development, continuing education, and to provide a healthy work environment overall. Clinical Nurse Leaders provide an extra step between Nurse Managers and Clinical Nurses, to ensure that all care is consistent and that all staff are “on the same page” regarding patient treatment plans. Clinical Nurse Leaders link the recommendations from upper leadership, to their actual implementation by care-givers. It’s a good thing that Goodwin College asks nurses to take the MSN course, “Leadership Practices in Organizational Communications,” which focuses on persuasive techniques and strategies to get messages across a range of stakeholders.
Nurse Educator
To become a Nurse Educator, you need a mixture of clinical experience, advanced education, and passion for healthcare. In training up-and-coming nurses, you should be excited and able to impart knowledge upon others. Nurse Educators may work at teaching hospitals, in Universities, community healthcare centers, and a variety of other settings. Regardless of the facility, they collaborate with leadership in order to develop and coordinate educational projects and programs for staff, students, faculty, and additional constituents. In short, they facilitate learning, engage in scholarship, and participate in evaluation. Perhaps most exciting is that Nurse Educators have the opportunity to act as a change agent. They have the power to influence others through education and leadership.
In fact, a great example of a successful Nurse Educator career path can be found close to home. The Program Director for Goodwin College’s MSN, Karen Crouse, has worked in the ranks as a Clinical Nurse and a Family Nurse Practitioner, as well as led nursing education departments across Connecticut and beyond. Ms. Crouse Ed.D. shows just how far you can go as a Nurse Educator.
Hopefully just a few nurse leadership job descriptions have gotten your wheels turning. There are so many directions that you can take your nursing career with an MSN from Goodwin College. Let us help you reach the option that is right for you! Call 800-889-3282 or visit us online to request more information.
Goodwin University is a nonprofit institution of higher education and is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE), formerly known as the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). Goodwin University was founded in 1999, with the goal of serving a diverse student population with career-focused degree programs that lead to strong employment outcomes.