What is a Masters in Health Administration Degree?
After finally getting a degree in health care, it’s time to think of your next step. You have lots of choices regarding work, personal life, and additional education. Some people prefer to work in hospitals right after college, and some get settled even though they have the choice of working. Still, there are others who seek higher education with the hopes of landing a better-paying job and a brighter future.
Master of health (or healthcare) administration is a graduate study you can pursue after you have finished a course in healthcare administration and have the competency to prove it. There are different ways to get an MHA, depending on the setting and program you applied for. It can be a classroom-based study or a practitioner-teacher model program. Either way, you are better assured of getting a good-paying job once you’ve graduated here.
The goal of MHA is for the students to work a managerial job, instead of simply being a staff member at the bottom of the work hierarchy in the healthcare field. This program will give you the much needed knowledge and skill to do the job right. MHA allows you to learn about public health, the health care system, ethics, society, and law among others. Having finished all these subjects, you will be more than ready to work. With the right training and experience, who knows, you might become one of the CEOs you coveted to work with.
It only takes 51 hours to finish the MHA program, with 45 hours given to study the core subjects. The remaining hours are allotted for you to work as an intern and take elective courses. These are all concentrated into teaching you health care administration and policies. After finishing your MHA, getting a job is next. But to know what sort of work you will be doing, I gave a few examples with their descriptions and what you should expect in the job.
The top position of a health care institution is always coveted by the staff. Being a CEO , COO, or president depending on the institution is only possible if you have the skill to handle all the people under you. You don’t have to interact with the staff members, but their future partly depends on your abilities. Working as a CEO will require you to make informed decisions that will greatly affect the institution. Whether it will develop or not will be up to you.
A hospital administrator is another executive job. Although not as high-paying as a CEO, this also requires great skill. As a hospital administrator, you will have to run the facility with ease. You are the one responsible for the overall management by working with the staffs. You have to make sure that the patients are well-taken care of, the hospital policies are being followed, and make quick decisions when needed.
A nursing home administrator has similar work with a hospital administrator. The only difference is the place of work, which in this case, is a nursing home. Having this job entails you to work with the nurses and all the staff to ensure that the facility is in great condition. You cannot easily get this job in some states, mainly because they have other requirements aside from a degree and good skills.
Another managerial job is being a practice administrator. This is yet again similar to a hospital administrator. However, this job doesn’t revolve around huge number of staffs and a large building. The workload is lighter because your setting is only small with a few staffs and limited number of patients. The great thing about this is that the salary is still pretty high, about $80,000 annually.
Last, but definitely not the least, is being a consultant. Consultants need to have the knowledge and skill to talk to others in the same field. As an MHA holder, you surely have these. Not everyone goes into consulting right after the MHA degree. Some prefer to work in another job, probably to get more experience.
There are more administrative works possible aside from those listed above. The salaries and workload all depend on the facility you’re working in or the position you have. Non-profit organizations have smaller salaries compared to private hospitals, but for those wanting to work for the poorer people, it is fulfilling. Although having an MHA isn’t necessary for some jobs, it is still a big advantage when you are going to work in health care.