Attaining a leadership career in nursing, such as becoming a nurse manager, is achievable with an MSN in leadership. Not all MSN programs are leadership and management-focused, but those that are will teach you how to become a successful coordinator. This means you’ll make fellow nurses’ jobs more enjoyable and patients’ experiences safer. An MSN in leadership can help you foster a winning environment for your healthcare center and, most importantly, for everyone involved.

Goodwin University’s MSN program is designed to help prospective nurses attain clinical and theoretical knowledge, as well as hands-on experience, in addition to providing leadership and management lessons. The program is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, which means the curriculum has been tested and is certifiably rigorous and comprehensive, meeting the high standards set forth by the commission. If you intend on becoming a nurse manager or nurse administrator, the first step towards choosing an MSN program is to make sure that it is accredited. With an accreditation, your degree will work for you while you seek to obtain the professional growth it promises.

Nurses in RN positions often decide to earn an MSN for personal reasons, such as challenging themselves or meeting new goals. With increased education comes more advanced responsibilities, which is exciting and validating. MSN nurses may seek to mold their leadership style to the situation at hand in their healthcare facility, adapting a more visionary approach, perfect for a learning environment, a democratic style, which works well for an experienced team, or even an autocratic or transactional approach, which is useful in high-pressure or emergency scenarios. An MSN in leadership and management includes not just the usual pharmacology, physical assessment, and pathophysiology courses, but also policy, politics, communication, informatics, and advanced nursing leadership. A leadership-focused curriculum like this trains for adaptability, and helps nurses stock many secret weapons in their tool belt, no matter the circumstances or debacle at hand.

In turn, an MSN in leadership prepares aspiring nurse managers to take on responsibilities such as:

• Onboarding, training, and retaining nursing staff
• Performing budget evaluations, reports, and adjustments for their department
• Intervening when a colleague requires support while assisting a patient or patient’s family
• Overseeing front-desk and back-office staff responsible for scheduling, billing, and insurance
• Implementing education programs for nursing staff around new technologies or methodologies
• Ensuring that the center meets state and federal industry compliance and policy standards
• Allocating resources appropriately

As you can see, nurse managers with a leadership mindset wear many hats. Some principle skills they must utilize to get the job done include:

• Effectively communicating
• Successfully managing time and priorities
• Thinking logically
• Making decisions swiftly
• Strategically planning
• Serving as a mentor
• Being flexible and comfortable with change
• Having compassion and always acting with respect and equitability

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the U.S., nurse managers make an average of $104,830 annually, though some environments such as hospitals offer even more; $125,280 annually. As current nurse managers retire over the next decade, many jobs will be created for new nurse managers, and employment of medical and health services managers is anticipated to grow by 28%. This rate is much faster than the 3% that represents growth by all other occupations.

One reason to get into an MSN leadership career right now is to learn from the retiring generation and benefit from their lifetimes’ worth of experience. Meanwhile, you can anticipate room to grow for yourself in due time. Connecticut falls within the second-highest job concentration tier and the highest bracket of the annual mean salary range, or $135,890 to $171,620. A career-focused MSN offers excellent opportunities to those lucky enough to pursue their nursing licensure in Connecticut.

Nurse managers are paramount to their community because, thanks to their position, they exude influence. They can use their analytical and strategic thinking capabilities to appeal to upper leadership. For example, the hospital board or president, physicians at a private practice, or fellow managers at a nursing home will listen to an exemplary nurse manager’s big ideas for improvements. Nurse leaders have the power to improve results at their place of work just by being observant, results-driven, and focused, and by having a vision for what a better institution could look like. A great nurse manager also has the power to motivate and inspire their team and develop and improve a better workplace culture.

To earn an MSN and launch a career you love, begin by perusing Goodwin University’s admission requirements. For an MSN, you’ll need to have a bachelor’s degree in nursing with a GPA of 3.0 or higher and a current RN license. Application requirements include a personal essay of career goals, a transcript, a resume, and an interview. GRE scores are never required, and courses are offered fully online so that you can seamlessly fit your MSN education into your life. To learn more about Goodwin University’s high-quality education and your MSN in leadership career options, contact our team by visiting us online, or calling 800-889-3282.