Featured Joint MSN/MHA School
University of Phoenix has an online RN to BSN option which can be followed by an online MSN program in one of several fields. Specialization choices include an MSN in Informatics, a field not taught in most MSN programs, and an MSN in Health Education. There is a general MSN option and two joint degrees including the MSN/MBA and the MSN/MHA.
Joint MSN MHA
The Master of Health Administration has become a very popular graduate program as managed health care has become the norm, and as it has become more sophisticated. There is consolidation in the industry and at the same time the treatment options keep proliferating and medical specialization continues to both improve and fragment the healthcare process. Nurses who enroll in this program usually opt for the administrative track in the MSN program in order to stay in sync with the MHA curriculum. A graduate of this program can opt to sit for the American Nurses Credentialing Commission (ANCC) as a nurse executive.
Purpose
Combining an advanced practice nursing degree with an MHA prepares an experienced RN for a senior management role in healthcare provision, in facilities management or in healthcare policy. Nurses who have a bachelor’s degree and want to advance to management ranks could not take a more direct path than enrolling in this dual degree option.
Admissions
As with other dual degrees students must be accepted to both schools in order to pursue the joint program. The MHA degree is usually offered through a university’s Department of Public Health, although occasionally it is an option in the business school MBA program. Even those programs embedded in a School of Public Health want to see some prerequisite coursework in statistics, microeconomics, finance, accounting or some combination of courses in those fields. Most nurses don’t have that kind of preparation in a BSN program, but some schools allow the student to complete them during the first year of enrollment.
Careers
The public health career options with this dual degree are clear: facilities management, health systems management, clinical management and clinical quality oversight. There are also strategic options in the field that about which many experienced nurses who complete these degrees may have strong opinions. Public health policy analysis is a field that becomes more prominent as management of the health care safety net increasingly falls to the states. There are also regulatory affairs departments in every major health systems delivery organization as well as the major health insurance firms. Health service contracting firms are also in need of knowledgeable health administrators with a grasp of clinical realities.
