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I am currently in a master's program in healthcare administration. My career goal post graduation is to obtain an administrative fellowship at a hospital, however, they are very competitive and without experience, it's hard to obtain a decent job if I don't get a fellowship. That said, I need a fallback plan and it seems like nurses are always in demand. I have absolutely no passion for clinical/patient care but I need a solid career. I'm thinking that once I become an RN, I can move into administration. It'll only take one extra year for me to become certified as an RN (my university has a fast track program for those with a bachelor's) as opposed to an MD program, which takes 4 years.
I'm a very studious person and tend to excel in most classes, so at this point I'm just thinking of any in demand careers that will not take too much time. I want to stick to the healthcare field, as ultimately, it's what I'm passionate about learning, clinical or administrative.
Should I go with nursing? I'm turning 24 soon and feel like I'm running out of time - I just want to start a career (not job) asap. I will eventually go back for a PhD as I'm interested in being a professor possibly a few decades down the road. Not sure of what to do at this point
I am currently in a master's program in healthcare administration. My career goal post graduation is to obtain an administrative fellowship at a hospital, however, they are very competitive and without experience, it's hard to obtain a decent job if I don't get a fellowship. That said, I need a fallback plan and it seems like nurses are always in demand. I have absolutely no passion for clinical/patient care but I need a solid career.
I am currently in a master's program in healthcare administration. My career goal post graduation is to obtain an administrative fellowship at a hospital, however, they are very competitive and without experience, it's hard to obtain a decent job if I don't get a fellowship. That said, I need a fallback plan and it seems like nurses are always in demand. I have absolutely no passion for clinical/patient care but I need a solid career. I'm thinking that once I become an RN, I can move into administration. It'll only take one extra year for me to become certified as an RN (my university has a fast track program for those with a bachelor's) as opposed to an MD program, which takes 4 years.
I have an MHA and I opted to go that route after spending my entire High School career at a specialized magnet school for the Health Professions thinking I wanted to be a doctor, only to find out that my temperament and level of empathy is completely ill suited for clinical work. To that end, I find your statement in bold a bit concerning. You will be very unhappy in a nursing career, as will your patients, if this is how you feel.
You are right about how competitive getting an Administrative fellowship is, and how much of a leg up it gives you to progress very quickly through the Admin ranks, but I am not sure I agree that it is difficult to get a decent job without one. It depends on how you define "decent". I think you also raise a valid point about having the RN and using it as a springboard into administration. In virtually every hospital I've worked at, Managers and Directors of Service lines started out as licensed RN's or Ancillary staff, but usually they do clinical work for quite a few years. You need it for street cred, so to speak. But, I still don't think that's a good enough reason to become an RN.
Do you have an advisor at your program you can talk to about looking at fellowships that are outside the box of the typical Hospital Operations? Are you potentially interested in policy work, hospital associations etc? Those might be options.
Edit to Add: Pitt Chick and I both simultaneously highlighted the same statement from your entire post; take that as a sign.
24 and running out of time...lol. Just like a 24 yr old to think that. I started my career in healthcare (data and admin) over 10 yrs ago, when I was in my very early 30's. I don't have a clinical degree. I'm doing well.
Healthcare has been very squeezed for the past few years and it's getting worse. Admin people are at bare bones and even orgs that have a lot of resources are cutting. Clinical staff isn't on the chopping block nearly as much. Then again, admin and non clinical support staff has increased over the years due to reporting and regulatory requirements, as well as consolidation of organizations with a system level model.
An MHA alone isn't really all that great - just being honest here. I mean what can you do? Did it give you any important technical skill or something else that the market would find valuable enough to pay for? I guess an important question this brings up is what do you mean by "administration"? What area of healthcare do you want to administer? Do you want to be a practice mgr or something? Or work in compliance or reporting or finance or what? Wanting to work in "healthcare administration" is way too broad.
All that said, I personally would not discount the RN. It can be very valuable. First, it can help you get a job in a non-clinical role even if you never did clinical work. Second, I assume that even if you don't enjoy patient care, you can do it (and do it well) for a couple of years. If that's the case (and it should be), you can do that, gain some clinical experience and then transition out. But you should be working on that transition with learning a marketable skill or getting to know people who are doing non clinical work and showing interest, etc. There are those who transition out of clinical care into nursing admin - that's not what you want to do. And then there are people who transition out into non-clinical roles - that is what you want to do. But you need to define what non-clinical role you want to pursue (revenue cycle, coding and billing, audit, informatics, etc.) so you can work towards that.
Point is that an RN certificate will broaden the options and can act as a tool towards a career in an admin role rather than being a career itself.
Another thing to add: I'm currently pursuing a second bachelor's in healthcare informatics and information management - I will be certified as a RHIA by the end of spring next year. I'm hoping that it will set me apart from all the graduates with only an MHA. The reason I ask is because I'm currently taking classes towards my second bachelor's but have been wondering if I should take classes towards nursing and do the extra year to be an RN instead (which I would not enjoy, I'm sure).
Just wanted to also say how interesting its been to see so many people flood towards an MHA over the last few years. I don't know, to me, it's just blah.
I wanted to build a career utilizing my talent within a certain knowledge area of work. I happen to have ended up and am doing well in healthcare because that industry found my talent useful and I found the orgs and work life balance and pay and other things more amenable than other industries. I've come to appreciate and enjoy the fact that my work is used for a greater good but let me be clear - the important part is pursing a field of study/work that an employer or industry finds valuable. That's the better way to enter an industry rather than getting a degree with the word "healthcare" in it.
So OP, use some of those academic smarts to think about how to get into the career that you want. If you want to work doing something in the revenue cycle for example, learn about finance and then how it works in healthcare, or if you want to build or support systems, learn about programming or software development. I was good at a skill - that skill brought me into healthcare. Do some learning on what the industry needs and where its headed so you can acquire what it considers valuable. A general admin degree is fine, but a solid, in demand skill should come first.
Forget nursing, even as a stepping stone. If you lack empathy, compassion and have no interest in patient care, then you will quickly grow to hate your job and those you are supposed to be caring for. Stick with the MHA and make it your mission to get a fellowship. Don't waste time on a second Bachelor's of ANY kind, either.
Really think about that, because you will laugh at yourself.
Go with what your heart wants to do. In the long run, you'll have a lot less heartache than investing years into something you don't really want to do. Imagine doing something you dislike day after day, year after year. Eventually, you'll want out and it will be harder to get out.
I am currently in a master's program in healthcare administration. My career goal post graduation is to obtain an administrative fellowship at a hospital, however, they are very competitive and without experience, it's hard to obtain a decent job if I don't get a fellowship. That said, I need a fallback plan and it seems like nurses are always in demand. I have absolutely no passion for clinical/patient care but I need a solid career. I'm thinking that once I become an RN, I can move into administration. It'll only take one extra year for me to become certified as an RN (my university has a fast track program for those with a bachelor's) as opposed to an MD program, which takes 4 years.
I'm a very studious person and tend to excel in most classes, so at this point I'm just thinking of any in demand careers that will not take too much time. I want to stick to the healthcare field, as ultimately, it's what I'm passionate about learning, clinical or administrative.
Should I go with nursing? I'm turning 24 soon and feel like I'm running out of time - I just want to start a career (not job) asap. I will eventually go back for a PhD as I'm interested in being a professor possibly a few decades down the road. Not sure of what to do at this point
No, please don't.
It is hard enough to have a nurse who does care about their patients and who actually wants to be a nurse.
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