While some health care professionals, such as physicians, are required to complete graduate-level coursework before they can begin their careers, nursing school graduates have the option either to work immediately after college or to pursue further education. Alternatively, nurses can spend several years in the workforce before deciding to go back to school for graduate-level education. Graduate programs and employers are often flexible enough to allow nurses to continue working while pursuing an advanced degree. Consider the reasons listed below for attending graduate school. It is usually faster and more cost effective to attend a BSN program instead of an associate degree program in nursing if your goal is to pursue an advanced degree in nursing.
As with other professions, more opportunities and higher pay are usually available to nurses with advanced degrees. Additionally, there are generally four reasons why nurses choose to attend graduate school:
- To be better equipped to help solve problems facing the nursing profession as a whole. One of the factors contributing to the nursing shortage is a lack of educators. Some nurses attend graduate school in order to join the teaching workforce at nursing schools. Other nurses go to graduate school so that they can become workplace administrators. In this role, they are able to enact policies that make their subordinates' work easier and more satisfying.
- To be better equipped to help solve problems inherent in today's health care system. Some nurses go to graduate school in order to become more knowledgeable about the challenges facing our health care system as it is currently structured. These nurses work with other experts to find ways to improve the system, which can result in lowered costs and better care for millions of Americans.
- To become an expert in a particular field. Nurses who are passionate about a certain area of care, such as diabetes, would care, or mental health, can go to graduate school to further their knowledge of that subject. Many of these professionals conduct groundbreaking research on their subjects of interest, and some have such extensive training in the subject that they are considered leading experts in their field.
- To be able to provide care to people who would otherwise have inadequate care. There are certain populations that do not have enough physicians to meet their health care needs, due to geographical isolation, poverty, and ethnic and cultural barriers. While each state makes its own rules about the practice of medicine within its borders, many states are turning to advanced practice nurses, specifically nurse practitioners, to help meet the needs of their underserved populations.
In addition to newspapers and magazines, there are job listings at the following web sites:
- Nursing web sites:
- General job web sites:
Continue to What Will it Cost? >>
