What Can You Do With an MSN?
Nurses are often the primary point of contact for patients, allowing them to directly influence health outcomes by monitoring conditions, providing education, and coordinating care with other healthcare professionals.
Advanced practice nurses also play a key role in mitigating the effects of the ongoing physician shortage, offering specialized nursing care and implementing principles such as value-based care.
If you’re interested in an advanced nursing role, consider earning a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree to broaden career options and potentially shape the future of healthcare. Read on to learn what you can do with an MSN and why earning a master’s degree can be so important for nursing professionals who want to advance their careers.
What Is an MSN Degree?
A Master of Science in Nursing is a graduate degree designed to deepen the knowledge and skills of those already practicing as registered nurses (RNs). This expertise prepares nurses to pursue advanced nursing roles. MSN careers encompass leadership positions as advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), administrators, and educators.
RNs without a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) can typically complete an MSN program in two to three years. For those with a BSN, it usually takes about two years. While program requirements vary, prospective students generally must meet prerequisites such as a minimum GPA, clinical experience, and specific courses, including statistics.
Prospective MSN students must also meet degree-related requirements. Some programs require a BSN, while others offer MSN programs that build on educational or professional experience. These include RN to MSN programs designed for practicing RNs with an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN).
MSN curricula commonly cover core topics that apply to all advanced nursing roles, such as nursing research, ethics, and health policy.
MSN Degree Specializations
MSN students interested in becoming nurse practitioners (NPs) can focus their education on a specific area of care delivery. MSN specializations include the following:
- Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse Practitioner: Psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNPs) focus on diagnosing and treating patients of all ages dealing with mental health and substance use issues. They deliver holistic mental health assessments and provide treatment to individuals, families, and groups.
- Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner: Adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioners (AGPCNPs) concentrate on providing primary care to patients across the adult lifespan. They develop care strategies that meet patients’ unique healthcare needs during each life stage, from adolescence to old age.
- Family Nurse Practitioner: Family nurse practitioners (FNPs) provide care to patients of all ages, including infants and children. The broad scope of practice for FNPs makes them instrumental in delivering quality primary care, especially in areas underserved by primary care physicians.
These specializations allow nurse practitioners to develop expertise in the conditions and issues that their patients face — ultimately helping them deliver a higher level of care tailored to their patients’ needs.
What Are the Benefits of Earning an MSN?
Earning an MSN degree can yield professional and personal advantages. An advanced education can lead to a more rewarding career and allow you to have a greater impact on your patients and communities.
1. Higher Earning Potential
With an MSN, you can pursue roles that have greater responsibilities and higher salaries. The median annual salary for those with an MSN degree was approximately $111,000 in May 2026, according to Payscale, compared to around $82,000 for nurses with an ADN and approximately $101,000 for those with a BSN.
2. Significant Job Growth
Ongoing nurse and physician shortages have created a pressing need for advanced practice nurses and a very promising job market. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects a 36% increase in positions for nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives, and nurse practitioners — all roles that require an MSN degree or higher — between 2025 and 2035, much higher than the average for all occupations.
3. Access to Increased Career Opportunities
Many advanced nursing roles require a graduate degree. With an MSN, you can pursue roles in advanced practice, nursing education, and administration positions that allow you to directly influence the next generation of nursing professionals.
4. Nursing Specialization Options
Many MSN programs offer concentrations that focus on certain patient demographics, such as pediatrics, adult gerontology, or women’s health, or on a particular area of healthcare, such as oncology.
5. Mentorship Opportunities
The increased knowledge and advanced skill set that comes with earning an MSN provide graduates with the opportunity to mentor less experienced nursing professionals. By sharing their insights and expertise, they can help newer nurses gain a greater understanding of how to manage their nursing responsibilities.
6. Enhanced Capacity to Improve Patient Outcomes
Nurses with advanced degrees are often better equipped than other nurses to identify complex health issues and communicate with healthcare professionals at all levels, which can improve care delivery and efficiency and lead to better outcomes for patients.
7. Workplace Autonomy
An advanced degree also impacts workplace autonomy and the complexity of care nurses are allowed to provide. Some states grant advanced practice nurses full practice authority, allowing them to diagnose, treat, and prescribe medication for patients without physician supervision, benefiting communities lacking a sufficient number of primary care providers.
What You Can Do With an MSN: Career Options
With an MSN, you can choose from many ways to positively impact healthcare. These include nursing positions in education, leadership, and advanced or specialized clinical care. Some positions may require additional education, training, or certification.
Nurse Practitioner
Nurse practitioners are highly skilled medical professionals who deliver comprehensive patient care. As graduates with advanced education and several years of practical, hands-on experience, NPs can provide a wide range of care services to patients in both public and private organizations.
Some of the daily responsibilities of a nurse practitioner include:
- Conducting physical exams
- Ordering diagnostic tests
- Analyzing test results
- Diagnosing illnesses and diseases
- Collaborating with other healthcare professionals to build treatment plans
- Overseeing patients and adjusting care protocols
- Diagnosing patients and prescribing medication
MSN programs help these nurses develop the clinical nurse practitioner skills required to provide care to patients. They also learn soft skills such as communication, critical thinking, attention to detail, and resourcefulness. The BLS reports that the median annual salary for nurse practitioners was $132,300 as of May 2025.
Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
PMHNPs are specialized nurse practitioners who focus their care on patients dealing with any of a wide range of mental health issues. Common conditions they can diagnose and treat include depression, anxiety, addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
According to Payscale, PMHNPs make an average annual salary of about $129,000 as of May 2026.
Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner
AGPCNPs are primary care nurses who provide care to patients from adolescence through older adults. They treat patients with acute illnesses and chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, arthritis, and hypertension, often working in long-term primary care facilities like private practices or clinics.
According to Payscale, these professionals make an average annual salary of about $108,670 as of May 2026.
Family Nurse Practitioner
FNPs provide primary care services to patients from infancy to adulthood. They can work in many different primary health settings, including clinics, private practices, universities, and care centers. They treat chronic and acute illnesses, order diagnostic tests, develop and administer treatments, and maintain patient records.
According to Payscale, FNPs earn an average annual salary of about $110,460 as of July 2026.
Public Health Nurse
Public health nurses coordinate health services and provide health education to a specific community. Nurses in this proactive role strive to improve the population’s health through preventive measures and strategies like:
- Developing community wellness plans
- Advocating for immunizations
- Educating people on making healthy choices
- Providing access to resources and programs
In addition to a clinical nursing background, those in the role should have strong analytical skills to be able to identify a community’s health needs.
The median annual salary for public health nurses was about $74,000 as of January 2026, according to Payscale.
Nurse Educator
Nurse educators teach the next generation of nurses the fundamentals of nursing. They create curricula that encompass lessons taught in both classrooms and controlled clinical settings. This allows educators to help students apply what they’ve learned to real-world situations.
Nurse educators need to monitor emerging medical innovations and best practices as they prepare their lesson plans and curricula.
Payscale reports that nurse educators earned a median annual salary of about $89,670 as of July 2026.
Director of Nursing
With an MSN, you can also qualify for director-level roles, such as director of nursing. These high-level professionals oversee the business side of a healthcare facility’s nursing department. They develop strategies to keep nursing operations running smoothly through processes like:
- Addressing staffing needs and mitigating burnout
- Creating and overseeing budgets
- Implementing nursing policies and procedures
- Setting goals for various teams to improve patient care
- Acting as advocates to represent nursing staff with other departments and outside interests
Because they are responsible for so many aspects of healthcare operations, directors of nursing must have strong leadership skills, along with advanced critical thinking and decision-making skills.
The median annual salary for directors of nursing was about $107,300 as of July 2026, according to Payscale.
Chief Nursing Officer
Chief nursing officers (CNOs) are C-suite executive managers who oversee a healthcare organization’s nursing department. Some of their responsibilities include:
- Establishing clinical protocols to ensure the best possible care is provided to patients
- Overseeing the successes or challenges of different nursing programs
- Strategic planning and coordinating with other executives
- Managing staffing levels, recruitment, and guiding daily workflows for nursing departments
- Ensuring their organizations are compliant with federal and state regulations
CNOs must have strong leadership skills as well as competencies needed to effectively function in a C-suite role. These include strong collaboration, conflict resolution, attention to detail, and creative thinking skills.
Payscale reports that the median annual salary for CNOs was around $158,190 as of June 2026.
Elevate Your Nursing Practice With an MSN
With a Master of Science in Nursing degree, you can pursue any of a number of advanced nursing roles. Whichever you choose, you can work toward a rewarding career that can help improve patients’ care and outcomes.
Wilkes University can help prepare you to make a difference. By enrolling in one of our online programs — the RN to MSN or BSN to MSN (Nurse Practitioner) — and choosing between the MSN-PMHNP, MSN-AGPCNP, or MSN-FNP concentrations, you’ll have the opportunity to advance your knowledge and skills through a holistic curriculum that emphasizes the latest in evidence-based practice on a timeline that fits your schedule.
Find out how Wilkes can help you begin the next phase of your healthcare career.
