Online Masters in Nursing Degree Career Options

·         Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist

·         Clinical Nurse Educator

·         Clinical Nurse Leader

·         Hematology Nurse

·         HIV/AIDS Nurse

·         Legal Nurse Consultant

·         Managed Care Nurse

·         Nurse Administrator

·         Nurse Researcher

·         Occupational Health Nurse

·         Pain Management Nurse

The most prolific positions for nurses with their Online Masters in Nursing degree are with Magnet hospitals. Magnet designation requires any nurses in management positions have their MSN, or be working toward masters in nursing degree. Many other health care organizations such as home care and hospice, are also  looking for MSN prepared nurse leaders. The challenges of nursing leadership provide a never ending supply of potential rewarding experiences.  For those who love people,  and thrive on change, nursing leadership is a very good career option.

For those who are interested in teaching, the best way to gain much requested experience is to begin with clinical adjunct teaching positions. These positions are also begging for candidates, esp. in nursing specialties such as maternal/child health, community health and mental health areas. The advantages of nursing education in the clinical area is that you remain “hands on” with patient care. Two options for clinical nurse educators are proprietary schools who have faculty working year round, and traditional universities where faculty typically work 9 months of the year.

Whichever path you choose, it is a very good idea to meet with someone who has the job you think you may want and ask them about the things they like, and the things they do not care for regarding their job.  this way you can at least have a sense of what you are taking on with whatever job you decide to pursue with your Masters in nursing degree.

Dr. Maggie

Dealing With Family, School, and Work Life Balance as an Online Masters in Nursing Student

Balancing family, masters in nursing program work, and a job. is no easy feat.  The balancing act can be done with some planning and organization.  First, make sure you have a good electronic file system.  Create a file for each course using the number and abbreviation for the name.  You can file material by week or topic (recommended).  Second, determine which social activities are priorities. Birthdays and anniversaries are probably more important than that book club where you haven’t even read the book. Third, and most importantly WORK AHEAD!  

There is always going to be a crisis at work, or at home, it is a matter of when not “if”.  By working ahead, this allows for the unexpected without putting you terribly behind in your masters in nursing course work. Working ahead means take a look at what is coming due in the week ahead, and doing that work on your computer to submit later when it is actually due in the online MSN class.  If you feel you are miraculously “caught up” with class work, find one small additional item to do ahead, such as the next week’s discussion.  Again, save the work on your computer, and post when the work is due.  This concept of working ahead will alleviate much of the stress that can be associated with an online masters in nursing program.

Dr. Maggie

How to Get the Most Out of Online Masters in Nursing Faculty

The facilitation styles of online faculty vary greatly.  Some faculty are in the online masters in nursing course daily, others only a few times a week.  You will be able to tell what type of faculty you have in the first week of a class.  Look at the pattern of dates for faculty posts in the introduction area of the course and the first week of discussions.  If the dates of posting appear daily, then you know the pattern of the faculty to plan how far in advance you need to post questions or send emails.  Think about the timing of faculty being in the course and time your questions appropriately. 

Many online faculty do not go into their course during the weekend when course assignments are due, so be sure to ask any assignment questions by mid week.  If you are anticipating a difficult week, be sure to request any needed extensions at least 24-48 hours before the work is due.  This good communication will go a long way to working well with the online masters in nursing faculty.

Dr. Maggie

One Day at a Time for Masters in Nursing Online Students

In online MSN programs, students can get overwhelmed, especially at the beginning of a term in looking at all the reading and work which lies ahead.  Keep in mind that all online MSN courses run week to week and often content builds on itself from week to week.  You know the saying: “the way to eat a big elephant is one bite at a time”.  Plan your week’s activities for school/work and then take each day as it comes.  Be aware of big projects due toward the end of a course and spread the work out over several weeks.

For example, a research paper can be broken out into parts:

a) decide on a topic and write an introduction to that topic
b) do a literature search and save potential articles based on their abstracts
c) read and summarize key articles
d) Create an outline of the paper using headings (create headings based on the rubric or grading criteria; remember you are writing to show what you have learned).

There may be times when you need to work ahead in anticipation of a big event at home or at work; however, more on that in another blog (smile).

Look well to this day. Yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore to this day. – Francis Gray   

Dr. Maggie

Writing Academically in an Online MSN Program

Writing academically is the opposite of nursing charting.  We as nurses -are used to providing the facts, nothing more, nothing less :-)  In scholarly or academic writing, the repetition or redundancy is desired (it may be because of the volumes of reading a professor does, the repetition ensures that the professor does not miss any important points.

So if you feel you are being repetitive, you are writing in a scholarly manner.  Keep the nouns related to your main topic the same and switch up the verbs, and adjectives when writing.  Make sure each paragraph has a minimum of four sentences (MEAL method) where:  M= Main Point; E= Evidence (citation) and/or example; A= your analysis of why this is important or the advantages/disadvantages, compare and contrast or implications of your E-sentence; L= Link to the next paragraph.

If you get stuck writing one of the four sentences, just type in blue font "NEED A " for need an analysis sentence and then go back later and fill that aspect in your paper.  Most nurses find the "A" and the "L" the most difficult for the reasons I stated earlier.

Keep the thesaurus function open in MS word (found under “Tools>Language”) to help use a variety of verbs.  Remember to keep the nouns related to your main topic the same throughout the paper, using various verbs and adjectives in the writing. All of this will soon become second nature with practice.

The video below tells how to set MS Word (2010) to default APA formatting for a paper.  On the right side of the screen you will also find numerous videos explaining many other aspects of using MS Word to create APA formatted papers such as a title page and abstract.  You tube is an excellent source of help for APA and  using MS Word.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pbUoNa5tyY

Dr. Maggie

Dealing with Online MSN Program Course Work

One of the challenges in an online MSN program is dealing with volumes of reading material.  Online discussions need to be read, and numerous journal articles, and text book chapters all need to be read in order to learn in the online classroom.  One time-saving way to deal with the reading is to prioritize what has to be done. 

1) Reading assigned articles and text book chapters for the week should be done first. 

2) Read any instructor posted information related to the week.

3) Read peer information in discussions to help you understand difficult areas of the course that week. 

Sometimes reading  the information aloud to yourself can help the auditory learner who finds themselves in an online program.  By reading peer information in discussions, you can avoid redundancy in your own posts PLUS have course concepts explained (possibly better) in a different way compared to the assigned readings.

The key with getting through the readings is to look at the learning objectives for the week and the assignments for the week and focus reading efforts on those areas.  Often times there is “nice to know information” and “need to know” information in the reading.  Focus on the need to know information when reading by having assignments and discussion questions in front of you so that you can highlight or use a 2x2 post it note to annotate while you read.  This way of annotation allows you to quickly go back to the “need to know” information when you sit down to do your assignments/discussions.

I hope this helps any online  MSN students  out there reading the blog…………..

Dr. Maggie

Taking Care of Yourself in an Online MSN Program

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kggTuLcjxiA&list=UU65BIQo-edupOQHEnU-liNw&index=1 

(2min. 47 sec)

The link above is a good reminder that nurses, especially nurses in graduate school,  need to take care of themselves (smile).

Dr. Maggie