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Master of Science in Nursing (MSN degrees) programs enable Bachelor of Science Nursing (BSN) graduates and Registered Nurses (RNs) to progress in their careers. They help nursing students specialize in different areas while further building their skills and knowledge through intense theoretical and practical classes.
A master’s in nursing has many benefits, including better earnings, specialization opportunities, career stability, personal fulfillment, a competitive edge in the job market, and scholarship opportunities. It also means multiple career options in the nursing field. This article discusses ten career options with a master’s in nursing.
- Family nurse practitioner (FNP)
If you are wondering what to do with a Masters in Nursing, becoming a family nurse practitioner is one of your best career options. As an FNP, you’re trained to provide primary care to all patients, regardless of age. You can maintain and monitor chronic health issues, such as diabetes and cirrhosis, and do regular checkups to identify problems before they occur.
FNPs are trusted, expert nursing professionals who can handle all patient populations and deal with anything brought to them. They examine patients, make diagnoses, build treatment plans, and communicate with providers and patients throughout the care process. While most FNPs work in doctor’s offices or primary care clinics, sub-specializing allows them to work in outpatient surgery centers, emergency rooms, and other areas.
- Clinical nurse leader
A clinical nurse leader (CNL) is a registered nurse with an advanced degree, usually a masters specializing in CNL. They oversee patient care under their control. They achieve this by collaborating with different caregivers who directly relate to patients. The aim is to enhance communication between healthcare professionals, minimize the risk of medical errors, ascertain that patients are getting quality care, and boost patient outcomes.
As a CNL, it’s your duty to ensure healthcare structures, systems, internal policies, research, and patient care are appropriately managed. You also serve as a resource for team members who require clarifications or have questions.
- Nurse educator
A nurse educator is a registered nurse with an advanced nursing degree that qualifies them to teach nursing curricula in universities and colleges. As a nurse educator, you can be a faculty member in teaching hospitals and nursing schools, transferring your valuable skills, experience, and knowledge to nursing students. Besides teaching, you can also work in a clinical setting.
An excellent nursing educator has outstanding leadership qualities, great communication skills, and extensive knowledge and understanding of their area. Nurse educators also design, evaluate, update, and implement current and new nursing education curricula.
- Certified nurse midwife
Certified nurse midwives (CNMs) are primary healthcare providers for women. They concentrate on family planning and gynecologic services, newborn care, postpartum, childbirth, pregnancy, and preconception. They also conduct annual medical tests, provide standard nutrition counseling, and write prescriptions. As a certified nurse midwife, you can work in hospitals, private homes, birthing centers, health clinics, and midwifery practices.
- Nursing informatics specialist
Nursing informatics specialists take medical knowledge in the information technology world. These nursing professionals are skilled in healthcare delivery and developing and using healthcare technology. A nursing informatics specialist or nursing informaticist manages the transition from paperwork to digital records and develops information systems depending on the current care evidence-based standards while ensuring systems are up-to-date. They also develop EHR interfaces and analyze EHR data to spot areas that require improvement and better cost management.
- Clinical research nurse
Clinical research programs allow medical practitioners and scientists to develop new treatments, understand disease prevention better, and create life-saving vaccines. Clinical research nurses are an essential part of these processes. A clinical research nurse works primarily in a dedicated clinical research setting and acts as a link between patient volunteers and researchers. Their core function is ascertaining that patient volunteers are treated safely and ethically throughout the research process.
Since clinical research procedures adhere to clearly outlined patient safety guidelines, a clinical research nurse ascertains compliance with these guidelines. They also talk to volunteers to explain their participation in the research program and get their permission for any personal data collected and treatments administered.
- Nurse consultant
A nurse consultant is a nurse who specializes in a specific medical area. Their work involves:
- General nursing practice
- Providing professional data on patients and their healthcare issues
- Training other team members.
- Liaising with patients’ families and friends regarding their medical issues in a supportive and informative way
As a nurse consultant, you can become a clinical nurse consultant, legal nurse consultant, or an operations nurse consultant. You can work in various medical settings, including hospitals, urgent care clinics, nursing homes, or physician offices.
- Nurse anesthetist
A nurse anesthetist is an advanced nurse who offers anesthesia (pain medication) care to patients after, during, and before surgical procedures. They give medications to keep patients pain-free or asleep during surgery while continually monitoring all their biological functions. As a nurse anesthetist, you can work with surgeons, doctors, or anesthesiologists to give anesthetics to patients no matter their age. Your duties include:
- Preparing patients for pain medication through preoperative training and physical examination
- Maintaining anesthesia throughout the surgery
- Managing anesthesia recovery
A nurse anesthetist can work in surgical clinics, hospitals, psychiatric institutions, emergency rooms, outpatient care centers, the military, and the respiratory therapy section/ department.
- Nurse entrepreneur
A nurse entrepreneur combines their business abilities and medical knowledge to create successful ventures centered around delivering optimal care. Their business focus can be on multiple health-related categories, including patient data storage, medical devices, healthcare services, or information technology.
A nurse entrepreneur can work independently to create systematic industry advancements and new, innovative tools, laying the foundation to take the care delivery concept forward in various ways. These may include cost-effective care delivery, more effective patient treatments, and more. As a nurse entrepreneur, you can empower patients to control their health and medical costs better, helping them improve their quality of life.
- Public health nurse practitioner
Public health nurses are usually involved in public health advocacy, prevention, assessment, activism, and evaluation. They play a crucial role in disease prevention while helping promote community safety and health.
As a public health nurse, you can work in government agencies, community health centers, non-profit organizations, and other institutions focusing on community health improvement. Besides working for communities, public health nurse practitioners also work behind the scenes assessing public health programs’ effectiveness, managing budgets, and planning activities.
Endnote
A master’s in nursing offers many career opportunities. Familiarize yourself with the different career options for professionals with master’s in nursing to determine what suits you best.