Whether you’ve recently qualified as a nurse or have been working on the wards for a while, you might be considering advancing your career with a master’s degree in nursing. Getting a master’s degree can be an ideal way to advance your nursing career as it is a sure way to open up several opportunities for yourself. Many advanced nursing positions will require a master’s degree as a minimum, and the good news is that there are several options for studying available including programs both on-campus and online. With so much choice available, picking the right one for you can be tricky. Keep these tips in mind to help you figure out the right type of master’s degree for your career.
What Do You Enjoy the Most?
For most nurses, one of the most important things to consider when choosing a nursing master’s is what they enjoy the most about their careers. If you’re not sure where you want your career to take you, considering the parts of your career that you genuinely like is a good place to start. Perhaps you enjoy the caring aspect of the job, or maybe you would rather get away from the bedside and want to pursue a leadership-based nursing profession that allows for more responsibility and management. Think about what you have done with your work so far and which parts of it you enjoyed compared to the parts you’d rather not do again.
Consider Your Ultimate Career Goal
Where do you want your nursing career to take you? If you have a specific career in mind, you can find master’s degrees that focus on certain concentrations or specialties, or general master’s degrees that are an ideal choice if you have a few ideas in mind or aren’t sure what exactly you want to do with your nursing career just yet. A master’s degree in nursing can take you in various career directions whether you want to work closely with patients or are considering a career in nursing management or leadership. Consider the Wilkes Online Nursing Program, designed to help nurses achieve a range of career goals. With fully online programs available, Wilkes programs are the ideal choice for nurses who would like to fit studying around work.
Think About How You’d Like to Study
Along with a wide range of specialties available to choose from when studying for nursing masters, there are various options to choose from when it comes to how you get your qualification. You could choose to study traditionally on-campus, get your degree entirely online, or opt for a degree that blends the two types of study. More and more nurses are choosing to get their master’s online due to the high flexibility of this option that allows them to continue working as normal.
With a number of different nursing master’s degrees to choose from, picking the one that will help you achieve your career goals is not always easy. Consider these important factors to help you decide where you want your career to go and the degree program that will help you get there.
