Higher Education - MSN, NP, CRNA, or MBA?

I’m one of those people who always swear away from school “once I finish”. I never thought of myself as someone who enjoys school, but I’ve come to the realization that I do enjoy learning new things and challenging myself. I never last too long after completing a program that I begin to think about “what’s next?”.

It was not long after I completed my BSN that I began thinking about returning to graduate school. One of the main reasons the topic of grad school was brought up relatively soon after I completed my BSN was that my husband and I already had two children and were deciding if we would be trying for a third child. My husband and I both agreed that it may be easier to attend grad school now before our kids got older and we had more extracurriculars to fit into our schedule. It was like a “let’s just get it out of the way now and if I decide to do something later with it, I’ll already be prepared” type of thing.

So, that left the question of what path to choose. We outlined the four possibilities as MSN, NP, CRNA, and MBA. You might be thinking, why not PA? Well, a BSN is not required for a PA and I feel as though I would have been starting over to pursue this route. Plus, the schooling for PA didn’t fit in with our home life. So, I excluded the path of a PA from my list. At this point I had worked in the OR now for several years, I was familiar with the role of the CRNA (from a colleague’s perspective). I have several close friends who have pursued this career and I was able to discuss with them their feelings towards this path. I also felt somewhat encouraged that the university I attended for my BSN has a very well respected CRNA program. They also work closely with and conduct a large majority of their clinicals at the hospital which I am employed. This would obviously be a big benefit if I could get accepted into the program at a university I have already attended, am familiar with (most of) the professors, and then conduct the clinicals in a hospital I am familiar with. There is also the high compensation and flexible work schedule (at certain hospitals) that the CRNAs receive which was a motivating factor towards this career path.

Next, I looked into the role of the nurse practitioner. I was a little less motivated towards this career path as I had not, in my experience, observed many NPs working alongside the surgeons in the OR. There are a few, but it seemed to be few and far between. I talked with many of the surgeons who I have come to enjoy working with and even a few NPs who I know. I received a lot of the same feedback. While it would be possible to work in the OR as a NP, the chances of this happening, especially at a larger teaching hospital, would be more difficult to obtain. I also really wanted to stay working in the OR since that is where I call home and what I enjoy most about my career. Overall, I was hesitant to pursue this path, but did not rule it out entirely as I still see it as a rewarding and challenging path that would provide many options.

MSN was next up. I felt like the MSN path was a little easier to work towards as I could attend either a hybrid or a fully online program. I felt like I would enjoy the coursework within the MSN curriculum and be able to apply it to my everyday career. There were a few downsides though, like most nursing programs, there is little focus on the operating room within the curriculum.  I felt a little discouraged about attending school for another two years to learn more about clinical nursing in areas which I did not have an interest in working in the future. Although the MSN courses would be beneficial to my overall nursing knowledge, I began to lean away from this option. A few of the universities I was looking at offered a dual MSN/MBA combination. After looking at the class schedules for the MSN/MBA programs, my husband began trying to guide me more towards just an MBA program.

While I can admit that the MBA sounded the least thrilling to me, my husband had a good viewpoint on how this would broaden my knowledge as a nurse. Fortunately, we came across an MBA program with a focus in Healthcare Administration. The entire completion was around 12-24 months depending on how much I wanted to load up my class schedule and completely online. It was also a reputable business school that was AACSB accredited. This was a benefit to me as I did not want to waste my time and money on just any unaccredited MBA program. I wanted to make sure that what I was putting my efforts into education that would be rewarding and provide knowledge beneficial to my future.

So why the MBA? Well, a few different reasons. A huge factor was that I could attend it completely online and this would allow me to stay working full time and be present with my family. I was pregnant when I applied to the program, so an online only curriculum was very enticing. Our third child was born 5 months into me starting the program. Having three children all under the age of five makes home life a little hectic, but full of fun. I also thought that it would help broaden my knowledge outside of clinical healthcare settings. I determined that if I was going to pursue an MBA or an MSN, I felt like the expanded knowledge I would gain from an MBA would help me more in the future rather than an MSN. While I may not use balance sheets, macroeconomics, or statistics while working in the OR, having the knowledge of what goes on behind the scenes of running a hospital will help me become a more well-rounded nurse as well as become an asset to the hospital I work at. This also will put me in a great position for a future career advancement. For now, I don’t have any intentions leaving OR nursing but, this education path will allow me to be a candidate for a director of surgical services which is now my end goal. And who knows, I can always go back and get another degree if I change my mind.