Online Graduate Degrees for Healthcare Professionals’ furnishes detailed information pertaining to popular graduate healthcare programs which can be pursued online. The article also discusses the advantages of pursuing these graduate programs online and how it helps you evolve as a healthcare professional.

1. Online Graduate Degrees for Healthcare Professionals
It’s no secret that this is a great time to be working in the field of healthcare. The industry is
teeming with jobs and offers career options that are stable and promise growth in addition to
attractive compensation and benefits. (www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs035.htm)
Those who are already employed in the healthcare sector have the opportunity to grow their
career by leaps and bounds if only they invest some time, energy and money in obtaining a
graduate degree online.
There are several benefits of pursuing health sciences programs online. But first, let’s look at
some graduate degree programs that healthcare professionals can consider to propel their
career:
Master’s in Healthcare Administration: This online Master’s degree is ideally suited for
practicing healthcare administrators. Professionals involved in direct patient care, but looking to
move to management roles can also consider getting an MHA degree.
Typically, the focus of an MHA program is to provide business education and build on prior clinical
experience of candidates with the objective to train them for complex management roles.
Master’s in Healthcare Informatics: Those who are interested in technology and the various
ways it can be applied to health services are ideal candidates for graduate degree programs in
healthcare informatics.
Health informatics professionals are the people who are responsible for the maintenance and
security of all patient records. They make generous use of technology to discharge their daily
duties and are hence expected to keep pace with technological advances.
For this reason, a Master’s degree in Healthcare Informatics includes training in computing skills
as well as information systems.
Master’s in Nursing Education: This online Master’s degree is meant for Registered Nurses
who want to become educators and train future nurses in a variety of settings.
A Master’s in Nursing Education program guides RNs in curriculum development, teaching
methods, evaluation techniques, and mentoring skills – all the responsibilities that they have to
fulfill as nurse educators.
Since the job requires a solid clinical background, it’s generally recommended that RNs spend
some part of their careers in direct patient care before becoming educators. They should also
have excellent communication and inter-personal skills to train their students effectively.
Master’s in Nursing Administration: This graduate degree is also available to Registered
Nurses looking for career progression.
The objective of this program is to train nurses for management level positions. Those who enroll
for this degree should be prepared to move away from active patient care, as nurse managers
spend most of their time in supervising nurses, delegating duties, maintaining staff, developing
and implementing training programs, etc.
However, some nurse managers may also be involved in patient services, overseeing and
monitoring the delivery of healthcare by her subordinates.
As far as the benefits of pursuing graduate health sciences degrees online are concerned, there
are many.

2. As a working professional, you may have little time to fit school into your schedule. However, an
online Master’s degree will provide you the flexibility to set your own timetable and pace of
learning.
Another concern you may have about going back to school is managing finances. College is a
huge expense and if you already have a lot of responsibilities, going back to school may not be
high on your priority list.
But with online graduate degree programs, you may be able to take advantage of employee
education benefits. An online program will also save you costs associated with fuel, parking,
books, etc.
However, the biggest benefit of an online degree is that you can continue on the path of
education while adding to your experience at the same time, as it does not necessitate taking a
sabbatical from work.
By the time you complete your program, you would have grown naturally in your role and your
newly obtained degree would provide the additional impetus you need for further advancement.
Now that’s a combination any employer would want from any employee on his team.