Hello, are there any current or former nurses, or anyone interested in becoming a nurse who could enlighten me on how to earn an advanced nursing degree (MSN)? Do you have to continue working as an RN while attending school for your MSN degree at the same time? How would work hours be affected? Thank you.
In a perfect world, you would find an employer to cover much of the cost, while you attend school part-time. Some masters courses are at least partly online, which is particularly important for people working evenings and night shifts.
You can take out substantial amounts of federal loans to cover grad school tuition. However, there are almost no federal grants for grad school.
My friend’s mom had a lot of her masters degree paid for by her job, but she had been working at that job for a good 5 years. I’m sure a job will only cover your expenses if you show commitment.
I’m not an expert on the subject, but some types of employers provide “reimbursement” for tuition. The employee needs to up-front the cost each semester, and then they receive money to cover the tuition after they successfully complete the class with a minimum grade. The employee may be required to continue to work for the employer for a minimum period of time, or else they have to pay the money back.
I don’t know about nursing, but some other employers may approve a leave of absence to complete a degree. This might involve taking classes for a couple years while you work full time and then taking leave for a semester or two if you want to go full time to finish a degree.
If you are just starting out, some schools offer a 5 year program which allows you to get your BSN and masters in 5 years. Not sure if that is something fairly new but when we went to a college fair a couple of schools were using that a marketing piece.