Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) is a degree for registered nurses at an advanced level and is offered by academic institutions as postgraduate degrees. An MSN is necessary for various specific cadres of workers within the nursing field, such as nurse managers and educators, health Policy experts, nurse administrators, and clinical nurse leader(s), among others.
MSN is important and necessary for advanced practice roles and, in many cases, has been used as pre-requisites for nursing at the doctorate level in education. Its necessity and importance are further seen in the educational requirement for becoming an advanced practicing nurse for such professions as Nurse Practitioners, Nurse Anesthetists, Clinical Nurse Specialists, and Nurse Midwife. Since the advanced practice role is wide and detailed in its coverage of content, the advanced nursing practice offered by MSN focuses on different nursing specialties like an adult, family, acute care, geriatrics, palliative care, neonatal, pediatric, obstetrics, psychiatric, and gynecological nursing among others. The professional training offered by MSN programs is geared towards training practitioners in such areas with a touch of academic and professional compliance.
All states require proper MSN programs since this is the surest way of ensuring that the quality of nursing services given is up to the required standards. It is, however, appreciable that different States have different policies and regulative laws to address different academic programs, and therefore having universally accepted standards for MSN programs may pose some form of difficulty. This notwithstanding, there are governmental and non-governmental agencies that are charged with the responsibility of ensuring that MSN programs in all States meet the accepted standards so that the services provided by practitioners who undergo these programs are authentic, acceptable, and professional.