Hello reader, Welcome to this informative article about the Nurse Administrator career!
After reading this article, you will understand who Nurse Administrator is, where they work, their roles and responsibilities, the benefits of pursuing this career, and whether it is the career path you would want to follow.
Here are the topics we are going to focus on:
- What Is a Nurse Administrator?
- Nurse Administrator Job Description
- The Nurse Administrator Work Environment
- The Nurse Administrator Career Benefits
Here it begins!
Introduction
Healthcare management has become crucial in the healthcare sector, and most medical facilities require an executive team to ensure smooth operations.
The need for management other than direct patient care bred the position of Nurse Administrator.
What Is A Nurse Administrator?
Nurse Administrators are Registered Nurses fully licensed and with advanced degrees.
Their primary role, as the name suggests, is tasked with supervising and managing other Registered Nurses in a health facility.
They are overseers of health care facilities and ensure their smooth operations.
Typically the Nurse Administrator has little or zero direct contact with patients.
As an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN), the Nurse Administrator must hold a post-graduate degree as a major qualification.
It is paramount that Nurse Administrators possess extensive nursing experience and outstanding management and leadership skills.
Apart from a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing (BSN) and an RN license after passing the NCLEX-RN, other skills and Nurse Administrator education requirements that they must have are as follows:
- Master’s Degree in healthcare administration or nursing (Nurse Administrator Degree)
- Nursing certification
- Nursing leadership experience
- Extensive knowledge of healthcare legal guidelines and hospital procedures
- Basic Leadership skills
- Excellent communication and problem-solving skills
- Knowledge of basic budgeting and skills in financial reporting
- Analytical skills
- An eye for detail
- Required technical skills
Nurse Administrator Job Description
As a Nurse Executive, your job description will require all the experience, knowledge, and skills you acquired during your clinical practice.
These requirements will be instrumental in helping you offer outstanding leadership to the nursing staff working under you in the healthcare facility you will be administering.
Here are the job duties you will be expected to take on as an Administrative Nurse:
- Collaboration with committees and management board in setting performance goals
- Conduction of performance reviews
- Development of procedures and policies to ensure the smooth running of operations
- Medical staff coordination
- Developing and facilitating professional development activities
- Budget creation and implementation
- Conducting recruitment and hiring of nurses
- Ensuring that all activities happening in the healthcare facility are all in compliance with the professional regulations and the laws of the land
- They also represent the nursing staff during meetings
- They create and schedule nursing shifts, ensuring that everyone attends their shifts
The Nurse Administrator Work Environments
A good percentage of Nurse Administrators manage hospitals, while others work in a physician’s office and residential care facilities.
So, what do they do in these setups:
Hospitals
Nurse Administrators in hospitals are tasked with developing and implementing departmental procedures, goals, and policies.
They are also responsible for directing and evaluating the nursing staff, preparing and implementing reports and budgets.
Physicians’ Offices
In these work setups, the Nurse Administrator mainly collaborates with the administrative and medical staff to ensure the smooth running of operations.
They will be involved in hiring and training new Nurses and managing recordkeeping and patient billing.
Residential Care Facilities
These are places like nursing homes and other care facilities.
The Nurse Administrator supervises the nursing staff and oversees financial operations, facility maintenance, and residents’ care management.
The Nurse Administrator Career Benefits
You might have chosen to pursue this career in Nursing Administration, but do you truly understand the benefits of choosing this career path?
You can be assured of great work-life balance and career advancement once you follow the Nursing Administration path.
By understanding the benefits, you will understand whether pursuing that Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) for Nursing Administration is worth it.
Here are more benefits of becoming a Nurse Administrator:
Rapid Job Growth
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report indicating an increased need for medical and health services managers, including the Nurse Administrators in the health service job market.
The demand will likely increase by 17% by 2024, which is quite faster than the average rate.
This is impressively higher than the expected growth for Registered Nurses, which the BLS reports indicate to be 16 % by 2024.
Higher Earning Potential
The Nurse Administrator’s salary is higher than the Registered Nurse who works with patients directly.
In 2016, the Registered Nurses earned a median salary of $68,450, according to BLS data.
But the Nurse Administrators earned about 40% more than the annual median of $96,540 in 2016.
The top-earning Nurse Administrator earns $165,380, with those working for government and hospitals earning a median annual salary of $100,00 plus, while those at the Physician’s office earn $85,600.
Well, that was 2016; currently, the earnings are way higher, with an average salary of $105,280, which is equivalent to about $51 per hour.
More Career Options
Having an MSN in Nursing Administration opens up various career opportunities, such as Nurse Manager, Chief Nursing Officer, and Nursing Director.
With that Master’s Degree, you can also qualify to pursue advanced roles like Nurse Practitioner or Clinical Nurse Specialist.
This will help you qualify for various Executive Nurse jobs in the market.
Less Physically Taxing
The duties of a Registered Nurse can get quite physically demanding.
If you want something less physically demanding, you might want to try a career as a Nurse Administrator.
As we have seen, Nurse Administrators usually don’t deal directly with patients, but their work is more of deskwork, overseeing staffing, meetings, and other administrative duties.
Favorable Work Schedule
Nursing is one profession that has a lot of shiftwork comprising days, on-call shifts, and weekends. If you intend to have a career that has a work-life balance, then this is it.
This career has a family-friendly schedule because you will get work schedules during daytime hours.
Most healthcare setups don’t need their Administrators to work weekends or holidays unless there is a major emergency.
The Doctorate Path
This Nurse Administration profession provides an avenue to build your communication, leadership, research, and business skills.
The valuable experience you gain from working closely with Managers, Nurses, and other leaders will count a lot in your doctorate journey.
The Nurse Administrator experience will adequately prepare you by first making you qualified and equipping you with the right skills.
Employer Support For Advancement
Most American organizations specializing in healthcare are always looking for Nurse Leaders.
This is why most employers support their professionals by not only encouraging them to advance their education and through financial support in some cases.
The financial support could be in the form of loan forgiveness or tuition reimbursement.
Also, suppose you are a Registered Nurse interested in pursuing an administrative career with your current employer, the chances of receiving financial assistance from your employer to ease the financial burden are high.
In the process, you can grow professionally with your employer and keep fulfilling your roles.
Conclusion
You might not offer direct nursing care to patients, but your work in executive nursing practice is equally important, as is now evident from this position’s job description.
Becoming a Nurse Administrator has various benefits, as we have seen, such as a higher salary, consistent work schedule, nursing education advancement opportunities, and professional value.
We have also looked at the Nurse Administrator role in various work environments, the job description, and the skills and professional qualifications required to be a successful Nurse Executive.
A few disadvantages such as more paperwork, no patient care if you are passionate about serving patients, and the need for additional education and involvement in resolving any conflict that arises might be a bit daunting.
Still, the benefits are obviously surpassing the drawbacks.
It is a great nursing career to pursue especially if you are looking to contribute positively to the public health sector within the community that your health facility is serving.
FAQs
Why should I become a Nurse Administrator?
The benefits of being a Nurse Administrator should be enough for you to become a Nurse Administrator. You get to enjoy a larger paycheck, more Nurse job opportunities, a friendly work schedule, and favorable opportunities for nursing education advancement should you decide to pursue a doctorate path.
Can a Nurse Administrator be called a Nurse?
Nurse Administrators are the first licensed Registered Nurses tasked with managing the nursing staff and running operations in a healthcare facility. With their nursing expertise and experience combined with their administrative and business skills, they can successfully work towards ensuring smooth operations of healthcare facilities.
Is being a Nurse Administrator hard?
Like every other profession, the Nurse Administrator career has its own challenges, which can get quite demanding. It requires you to have multi-tasking and quick-decision-making abilities regarding policies. You might also find yourself mentoring other Nurses, which requires you to be a role model.
What does a Nurse Administrator do?
Nurse Administrators are tasked with budget maintenance, financial reporting, and creating policies and procedures to ensure smooth operations of healthcare facilities and compliance with the local laws. They also serve as the liaison between the executive and nurses working at the healthcare facility.
What is the meaning of Nursing Administration?
Nursing Administration is the leadership responsibility accorded in a healthcare setting to a qualified Nurse professional to ensure adequate healthcare management. The responsibility involves staff and patient management through creating and implementing policies that ensure all activities are done by the book.
What makes a good Nurse Administrator?
First, they must have strong interpersonal, analytical, and leadership skills, orientation to detail, and technology skills. Apart from the Nursing Degree, years of experience, and other education requirements, these other skills are key to running a thriving healthcare facility as a Nurse Administrator.
What is the difference between Nurse Manager and a Nurse Administrator?
The top leaders involved in overall nursing operations in a healthcare facility are the Nurse Executives, who are Nurse Administrators and Nurse Managers. The Nurse Administrators manage various departments as the work environment protocols and policies dictate, while the Nurse Manager’s work involves the management of the everyday activities of the staff.
Where do the Nurse Administrators work?
Nurse Administrators work mainly in healthcare facilities, such as physicians’ offices, hospitals, nursing homes, urgent care facilities, and other healthcare environments. Most of them work in these facilities on a full-time basis and especially on day-time shifts unless an emergency happens that requires all medical personnel to report
What is a regular workday for a Nurse Administrator like?
On a typical day, Nurse Administrators oversee the nursing staff and ensure full compliance with all the medical regulations and policies in place for running healthcare facilities. As they facilitate the best patient care, they also handle administrative tasks like meetings, training development, performance reviews, human resources duties, etc.
What is the process of becoming a Nurse Administrator?
Enroll in an Associate Degree In Nursing or a Bachelor of Science in the Nursing degree program and obtain the Bachelor’s degree. Pass the Licensure Exam(NCLEX-RN) to become a licensed RN. Enroll in an MSN program and acquire the necessary advanced certification and experience to qualify as a Nurse Administrator.