Why did I get my MSN????

[Genabrie]

I am an RN who decided 2 years ago after 13 years of being an acute care RN, BSN to get an MSN. A large part of my decision was that there seemed to be so much media coverage about the need for nurses with advance degrees. There seemed to be many sources and programs for loan forgiveness in exchange for teaching, or work in a facility with acute need.

While I was in school I asked the financial advisor about information on these programs, but was told I wouldn't qualify unitl I graduated. (Now all my searches seem to turn up programs you have to get into while you are earning your degree, and that your school has to submit you for participation.)

Well, I graduated in May. I had a 3.8 GPA and was inducted into Sigma Theta Tau. After two months of searching for opportunities, it appears that they may have been just myths. I am now $45,000.00 in debt (I had no student loan debts from my BSN).

I am afraid I am going to end up spending the money I should have saved to send my children to college when they are older, for a degree that I wasted time and money to obtain. When I think of all of those weekends I spent exhausted writing papers! I could have spent them enjoying precious time with my family. Your children are only young for such a short time... and I feel like I missed 2 years I can never get back on a fool's mission.

I guess I might qualify for administrative positions, but I have worked in administration twice, and am not interested in doing it again. Both times, my position was eliminated during corporate belt tightening cuts. Administrators are more expendible than bedside nurses in tough times!

My purpose in writing this is two fold. First, I wanted to know if anyone knows about any programs that really do exist for an MSN in California to forgive their higher education loans (maybe I just can't find them). Second, I wanted to warn any other nurses who are about to make the same mistake I may have made. Times are tough enough without strapping yourself with thousands of dollars of debt!

Sadly, I had planned to go one more year to get a Nurse Practitioner license. Now- I don't think I will. I don't want to end up working my butt off for another year and a half (plus donating over 500 clinical hours)just to wind up with another $20,000 of debt and still working at the bedside for the same wage I was making with my BSN!

Is anyone else having the same problem?

[scarecrow]

:nurse-soapbox:I have my MSN as well and I tried for a FNP when I graduated . My lender was after me right away for repayment of my loans but being in school put them off until I got two C's in the program and I was forced out. I'm making my monthly payments now. Now the nursing school I was at made my program a doctorate level. I'm sorry but I am not interested in a doctorate. I heard of progams to repay loans but I couldn't find them either. I 'm not interested in management level so if I really want to use the MSN I need to teach, but teachers don't make a good living so I would need to keep some sort of hospital job going to make ends meet.
You and I have our MSN's and we earned them with hard work and we put up with study groups to make paper deadlines and other class projects. Our classmates were type A personalities and we had to deal with their crap too. I'm proud of my accomplishment and you should too. My family is proud of my accomplishment and I bet yours is too. Do not regret your MSN, and tell people who ask, I have a MSN!

[AmandaWIRN]

I'm just curious- if you don't want to go into administration, and you don't feel you will make enough by teaching, and don't want to go on to be an NP, what exactly is it you are wanting to do with your advanced degree? What type of MSN did you earn?

Other jobs for positions like Clinical Nurse Specialists are hard to find with the economy being the way it is. Many hospitals are on hiring freezes, so if they are not hiring staff nurses, they are also not going to be hiring for these advanced positions. Relocating might be your only option.

As far as the whole loan forgiveness thing, I don't mean to sound harsh, but it seems like poor planning to get a student loan that you expect to be forgiven without knowing all of the details about the specific programs that offer said forgiveness.

Just my 2 cents...

[amberdouglas]

A friend of mine just got her FNP, I was floored when I learned what she is going to make. She was telling me that another girl in her class took a low offer and she is really upset about it because its going to lower the offers the rest of her class in return (small town). The offer the girl took was for 65 grand a year! I don't know if its worth it if thats all you'll make. My friend told me that the average for this area should be around 70 grand a year, which I know is not bad money, but come on! I have an ADN and am traveling, and this year I have already made almost 60 grand. I'll make more than her with my associates than she is with her FNP.

[cali510]

This thread gives one reason to question getting an MSN in these times. Not many can afford to get a degree just to say they have it, as nice as that may be. I am sure you will find something appropriate, maybe after some time. Meanwhile, plug away at that debt and good luck. And congratulations on your achievement!

[Genabrie]

Cali

The reason I posted the thread was to get people to question the decision to get an advanced degree. I am beginning to feel like getting mine may have been a big mistake economically, and don't want others to read all of the hoopla about "Advanced nurse loan forgiveness programs" and decide to head back to school.

One of the problems I ave always seen in the nursing firld is that education does not always equate to advanced earning. I graduated as a BSN years ago, and was suprised that the Associate degree nurses earned the same as me. Now I have an MSN, and I still have ADN nurses making the same salary.

As far as "why did I get my degree", I wanted to teach, and would be happy to do so even though it doesn't pay too well. I would still work at the hospital anyway to make a little extra.

I just see on the news every day that people are running to nursing to get a good career during the recession... and there isn't alot of coverage about the hiring freezes, and cutbacks in our field. Nursing is still a great career, but it is not recession proof.