Stop with AA in Health Information Management, and get a Masters in LIB with a Records Certificate?

Graduate School
1

Apparently I will get to sit for some test call ICRM with test one though five already credited because I got this certificate.

I’m in the fall semester of the Health Information Management now.

It’s completely online at a CAIIAM accredited community collage. I’m taking 18 hours and I work 40 hours a week.

Even if getting sleep or having a social life has been almost nonexistent so far I’m doing fantastic in my classes.

However, my heart was on getting in the library field.

I also know I can do other careers with the degree not just library.

If I got this I wanted to work for the state. I always see a lot of jobs for it there.

I also thought that If I get this Masters I can always go back and finish the health degree, and even become a Medical Librarian.

However,this virus made me think getting a degree in the humanities was not wise.

I mean I already have one financially useless degree(BA Journalism) I don’t really need another one.

However, I’m beginning to rethink because quite frankly I don’t like the health field.

I also don’t like that four of these classes are about coding, one about medical terminology(in now), and one about Anatomy and Physiology.

I also hatttte that a math course is in this to. Statistics.

I’m in that one now as well.

I’m doing good in all these science heavy classes, and the math one,but I hate them.

I thought this was supposed to be about electronic records not coding.

My natural inclinations are writing and english related things,but unfortunately they’re always in low money fields.

Basically my interest in this HIM degree was not like or love but to be financially secure.

I sent the the director of the LIS Masters program my college transcripts to see if I would even be admitted, and she said my GPA was high enough for Full admission without taking the GRE.

If I do this I have to have my application done before the deadline in Oct and I can start in the spring.

I was hoping to get an apprenticeship so it would pay my tuition and have a stipend,but she said they have none because of the virus so I’ll have to get in more debt by loans if I do this.

I also told her that I will have to finish this semester of classes for this HIM degree or drop all of them with W if they can’t wait for this new transcript.

I mean if I get the LIS(even if it’s in the humanities) it still should start off with a default good starting salary because it is a Masters right?

Also hopefully the the world should be back to some financially normality in spring of 2022, and careers that need a LIS Masters with a records certificate would then be back in abundance.

Or should I forget the Masters in LIS, and stick with the HIM degree since it is in the more secure health field?

What are you thoughts on this?

Thank-You

Note: Either degree will finish at the same time. Spring or Fall 2022.

Note:

If I stick with the HIM degree the only jobs that interest me with it are Release of Information.

So far I have zero interest in coding.

Basically in essence my question is thus:

MLIS with Records Management Certificate?

I have until late Oct to decide.
If a go I would start the spring term in Jan.

or

BA in Journalism that I really didn’t use with a HIM AA degree that I’m currently in the first semster of?

Which scenario has better financial security?

2

I don’t think an associate’s degree in health information management is much, if at all, more “financially secure” than the library science degree. Library science is a pretty competitive field in and of itself without a whole lot of open positions - but most of the higher-paying/financially secure roles in health management & administration will be open to people with a bachelor’s or higher. You could also probably get a job in health management and administration with your current BA in journalism that would pay as much or more.

Your original BA in journalism is not “useless.” Have you tried to get a job with it yet? Have you gone on the market and identified what it is you want to do?

There’s this very common idea that the role of a degree is to open as many “doors” as possible. IMO, that’s not the goal - the goal is to open the doors you are personally interested in. It’s clear that you don’t like HIM, don’t enjoy the classes, and probably wouldn’t enjoy the work. Associate’s degrees don’t confer high salaries. So it sounds like the degree would open doors that you don’t actually want opened. Those aren’t useful doors!

Why would you get an AA instead of going for an MBA or MPA in health administration and management anyway?

If you want to be a librarian, and that’s something that calls to you and that you would enjoy, then you should get a library science degree and become a librarian. It’s a competitive field, but anything worth doing is hard.

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