46 // Do I Really Need a Master’s Degree to Grow My Nursing Career? (Replay)

This podcast was one of the top 10 podcast episodes of 2024. I am bringing it back as a replay for your enjoyment as I work on new episodes for 2025. 

Ever wondered how an advanced degree could help your nursing career? With 17.4% of registered nurses holding a master’s degree, Bonnie explores the transformative benefits of higher education in nursing. 

She breaks down the advantages, from enhanced job opportunities to flexible work schedules, and shares personal anecdotes on how further education broadened her perspective, reinforcing the vital role of nurses in healthcare. Whether you're contemplating further education or seeking to leverage your current qualifications, this episode is filled with valuable advice and real-world examples to fuel your career growth and maximize your potential. 

Tune in for an inspirational and practical guide to purposeful career development in nursing.

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Transcript

2:07

And 2020 to a 17.4% of the nations registered nurses held a master's degree and 2.7. Percent held a doctorate degree. As their highest educational preparation. There is a current demand for masters and doctorally prepared nurses. For advanced practice. And advanced practice being clinical nurse specialist. Certified nurse midwife. Nurse practitioner. And our favorites, the nurse and ethicists. Clinical specialties. Teaching of course, because we have a. Decreased supply of nursing faculty. And research roles. The demand far out. Outweighs the supply. Meaning they're just not enough. So, if you feel like wherever you are, whatever you're looking for. The market is saturated. It's probably just because of where you are. It's not necessarily because the demand isn't there. And more than likely it's, you know, It's not saturated. Are you feeling stuck in your current clinical environment? Do you want to make a change in your nursing career but not sure what to do next? Exhausted, burnt out, and maybe even ready for different leadership? I'm Bonnie Meadows, a Board Certified Nurse. Clinical Nurse Specialist, Influential Leader, Career Coach, and Well Being Coach. Being in the nursing and healthcare profession since 2004, I have felt stuck and unsure about what was next for me. I wanted to be fulfilled in my purpose, to have a voice at the table. And to be a resource for others, I kept telling myself I wanted more, but didn't have the direction I needed until I found clarity and career growth strategies for experienced nurses like me. In this podcast, you will find. Simple tactical steps that allow you to gain the clarity you need, solutions for how to grow even without supportive leadership, and guidelines for setting boundaries at work so that you can grow purposefully in your career as a nurse with a graduate degree who makes a huge impact in the profession. So get ready to trade your scrubs for yoga pants. Pop in those earbuds and let's chat. In this podcast episode, you're going to find a few key reasons why you should consider getting a master's degree. For some, this may remind you of why you got the master's degree or the doctorate degree and why you need to use it. When pivoting from my quality job. I narrowed my focus to four key areas. I call this my professional brand. They are nursing. Mentoring. Nurses. Quality and leadership. Those were the four key areas that I was focused on when I was then looking for a new job. I spoke last week of the past couple of weeks about how my quality job was my dream job, but it was actually the worst job that I'd ever had. But that was definitely a setup for calm up because. It led me straight into my, it, it forced me to go into, into re evaluate what are my passions? What is it that I love to do? And I was bound and determined to make sure that my career trajectory followed that path. And I always did. Uh, reassessment. If you hear any of my episodes, some shape, form, or fashion, I will mention doing, having self-awareness and doing a self assessment. Every time I get an itch to do something different. As I start that process all over again. So it's not a one and done because things change. Life's shifts or you get more exposure to more things and you think, huh? I think I'd like to do that. So the job I wanted to pivot to required those four key areas anywhere I. Well, anywhere I went, whatever I was doing next, it had to encompass at least those four areas. And I will tell you, I veered from that at times. And realized, oh, Maybe like there are times when I can shift out of it. Like right now, I'm not in the quality piece, but I'm, I have all the other three elements. Um, and it's not necessarily that I don't enjoy quality because I do. I incorporate it in everything that I do and the mindset of it. But I'm just not working with the numbers of it. And, you know, going through and whole implementation process. Do I do that in my current job and in my everyday work I do because I work on projects all the time. Um, but I have narrowed focus. Because I already had a master's degree in nursing. That lower the barrier of entry that I needed to overcome in order to move on very quickly. And that master's degree allowed more options of what I was qualified to do and could apply for. I have two master's degrees. Both of them in nursing. So one is a post-master's certificate and the other one is a master's degree and I'm definitely not opposed to going back and get an, and got a doctorate degree. It just, all it is just a matter of how does it line up with what I'm currently doing, where I'm currently going. Um, and current plans right now. I am president elect for my state's nursing association, and I will be in that role for at least. Four years, four or five years. And I'm currently building this business, this coaching business. Which is really my passion. Like that work is my passion too. So I'm, I'm. I'm in the sweet spot of working in my passion and, and doing things that are within my passion. There's a growing passion of, uh, of a subject area of advocacy, um, that I'm growing in, in my precedent and elect to roll. I'm a firm believer. That more degrees give you more options. Now you definitely have to weigh the options. Like I was in a space where I was like, I'm an advocate for a doctorate degree, but. I'm still trying to figure out. Where that fits for my life because getting a doctorate degree doesn't necessarily mean that it's more money. And that leads me to my number one reason to not get a graduate degree. Or I kind of got to, but the number one reason is that you want to make more money. Because it's not necessarily a guarantee. It could lead to that, but it's not automatic. You probably, you get a, you get a better jump. If you're going from bachelor's degree to master's degree, but when you're going from master's degree to doctorate degree, and you're in a hospital setting, and I'm mainly talking to nurses who are in a hospital setting. As a nursing profession, we are just coming around to the doctorate of nursing practice and nursing practice. And there are more and more nurses who were like that is the fastest growing doctorate degree. Yeah, the PhD is actually on a decline or very stagnant, and they are actually trying to increase enrollment in PhD programs. But. The options were the doctorate degree in nursing practice is opening up, especially If you're in an. And a somewhat not, and not necessarily admin role in nursing support, but you're in a more of a nursing support role. Um, Jobs that require a doctorate of nursing practice. Hospital systems are still trying to figure out how to create that. I will say for me, Lord, I'm going on a tangent, but I feel like this is important. My, degree in the clinical nurse specialist is a master's degree. Um, I just heard the other day that our national association has decided not to make the, the DNP, the actual, like you have to go back and get a DNP. If you're going back to PR. Clunk on our specialist. But I've heard from many of my colleagues that. The work that we do in our clinical nurse specialist programs. Somewhat of a repeat in your doctoral program, except it just gives you the space and time to really use those tools into, to expand on them and to grow them. I said all of that to say, Back to my number one, my number one thing. The number one reason not to get a graduate degree is to make more money. Is because you want more money. Cause you could get the degree, but not. Have the skills or not have the exposure and you're still not able to move. Do you have more options of jobs to apply for? Absolutely. But what have you done around that work? That is important. And the other reason to not get a graduate degree is you don't see the value. So I believe every person should get a graduate degree by going back to school to grow their career. Now can you grow your career without. Uh, graduate degree. I mean, I never say never. And I'm sure there are people I've seen. I read Becker's review and I've seen many of those articles and I've seen VPs with a, with a, with a bachelor's degree in nursing. I mean, it just happens. So I'm not going to say, never say, I'm not going to say you'll never, but you will increase your chances of career growth if you go back and get a graduate degree. So I am here to. Help you. To understand the reasons for going back and getting a graduate degree. If you're on the fence about it. There are many of you who are like, I want to grow my career. And I want to make money if you're just looking to make money and that's it. You could do something else. And not go back and get a graduate degree. So that leads me to my number one point. The number one reason to go and get a graduate degree is to make money. Now, I know I just contradicted myself, but stay with me here. When you are at the bedside, working in the hospital. You will hit a ceiling and how much you can make at the bedside. There's a range. Like we're not w we, you negotiate within the range, but there's a range. And that the hospital has about thousands of nurses. So they're not going to adjust it just for you, unless you're coming from like they'll consider cost of living. They'll consider where you're coming from. If you came from California and you're here in North Carolina, the pay. Is much different. So they're going to make those adjustments, but it's still going to be within the range. Some of, you may have even topped out at your salary. They'll give you a bonus, but that's it. You can travel and make more money traveling. But if that's not your thing, And you decide to stay within one company and move around. Then making more money requires getting another degree period. Point blank. It increases your ceiling. Two. Making more money. And then the other piece to it is, is that clinical advancement programs. Require higher degrees to make more money. So, if you have an associates degree, they require a bachelor's degree in order for you to get that extra percentage. If you have a bachelor's degree, if you want. A certain percentage you can go. I know within my hospital system, you can go as high as getting a dud. A doctorate degree. We're working at the bedside. And then that's when you get about a 20% increase. Which is substantial. Required to another degree. Okay. All right. So next next point..Getting a graduate degree, provides more nursing job opportunities. So I said, when I was leaving. My quality job and going into going back into nursing, because that was my desire. My options were very wide open. And specifically. A master's degree in nursing. So what you can apply for with a bachelor's degree in nursing versus a master's degree in nursing is drastically different. And even when a job requires a bachelor's degree in nursing, but prefers. If it says prefers a master's degree. Then the person with the master's degree is likely to get the job before you. Because of the higher level of education, even if they have. Less qualifications than you. I said likely. It's not an absolute. And this is something that you should consider you need to consider. You want to lower the barrier for them to say. No, you're just not the right fit right now. Now sometimes you're just not the right fit and you're not the right fit for them. And they're not the right fit for you. But some jobs that profile that provide more flexibility require a master's degree. So if you're looking for flexibility, In your work. Although it may be five days a week. There's an opportunity for flexibility there. If you're applying for that job that has a master's degree. Your opportunities open up. For more flexible work schedule. Okay. Lastly. For career growth. I mean in that, what we're here for. This is also not an absolute or end all be all, but having a master's degree certainly makes it easier for you to grow your career. But the master's degree is master's degree is just the start. You also have to look the part. It is not enough to have the degree, but it makes it easier for you to grow in your career. And let's face it much of what we do is about perception. Is how people perceive us. The degree many times puts you in rooms, you would not have thought about being in about going to, or being a part of. So it's important to get the degree to help you to grow. Because even during that time during doing during, even that time during getting your degree. It helps to expose you to different areas of nursing that you would not have been exposed to. In a bachelor's degree program, they can't cover that even when you're going back to, as some people say, get the BS part of the degree. You're just not exposed to it. And what you really need for career growth of the many things that I talk about is exposure. And going back and getting the master's degree. In those programs. You get a good robust program and you'll get some exposure to different areas of healthcare and nursing. That really helped you to think about, huh? I like that. When I was getting my first master's degree, which is a master's degree in nursing, our master's of science in nursing. Um, health systems management was my, my track. It's the same thing as nursing leadership, but they just kind of changed the words. It might be changed to something different now, but it's the same thing. And we took classes with the MBA program. They actually had a dual MSN, an MBA. Um, and I thought about going back to get my MBA, but I was like, nah. Ah, I'm not going to do that. That's not necessarily off the table either, but that's, that's another conversation for another day. I love school. Y'all. But, um, I took a class in economics. Economic shell. That was hands down. I will say probably out of my entire nursing. Out of my master's degree program. The most impactful. Where. My nursing theory class and it's my first masters, my nursing theory class. And economics. It opened my eyes to the possibilities and the way to apply economics to healthcare. Mindblowing. Which is why I'm so passionate about the value of neuro of the nurse. And so lastly, my last point in this FA. In this area of, for career growth. It expands your thought process to the possibilities of what is open for you in your career? And the impact you can make. So I'm going to recap. There are three reasons. Y you should go and get a graduate degree. To make more money. To have more nursing job opportunities or job opportunities in general. Cause sometimes in healthcare they just require a master's degree. And then for career growth. Those are the three reasons. Why. You should go back and get a graduate degree. At some point in time, I will begin to kind of help to talk through. That decision making process in what master's degree to get, because what I'm finding. Is that not every nurse wants to go back and be a nurse practitioner and not every nurse wants to go back. To school to get a master's degree, to be a nurse manager. You want to grow you B you want to be in leadership. But y'all, there are more options out there than that. I love. My nurse managers and I love my nurse practitioners and an episode. In the future. I will talk about the way that I, as a clinical nurse specialists have collaborated with those two roles and we partner well with those two roles. Um, But I know that many people don't want to grow in that direction. Or either you choose it as a default, thinking that that's the only route that you can go. It's not. Um, So. Get your graduate degree, start thinking about getting your graduate degree so you can open up your possibilities of growth. All right. See you next time. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If so, would you take 30 seconds and share it with another nurse who may be unsure of where to go next in their career or maybe need some career clarity? Also, please leave a quick review for the show on Apple podcast. It brings me so much joy and so much encouragement to know this podcast is helping you. Now go get the career you want and not the one you settle for. And I'll meet you back here next Thursday for another episode. See you soon!