Affordability Ranking of Online Master’s-Level Nursing Education Degrees
AffordableSchools.net — a college rankings site centering on unique and affordable academic programs — announced the release of its newest online masters programs rankings list, featuring the 25 Most Affordable Online Master’s of Nursing Education Degrees.
The top three schools on this AffordableSchools.net’s rankings list are: (1) Grantham University (Lenexa, Kansas); (2) Charleston Southern University (Charleston, South Carolina); (3) Central Methodist University-College of Graduate and Extended Studies (Fayette, Missouri). The complete list of all 25 U.S. colleges and universities, in alphabetical order, comprises:
- American Sentinel University (Aurora, Colorado)
- Angelo State University (San Angelo, Texas)
- Briar Cliff University (Sioux City, Iowa)
- Central Methodist University-College of Graduate and Extended Studies (Fayette, Missouri)
- Charleston Southern University (Charleston, South Carolina)
- Clarkson College (Omaha, Nebraska)
- Concordia University-Wisconsin (Mequon, Wisconsin)
- Ferris State University (Big Rapids, Michigan)
- Grantham University (Lenexa, Kansas)
- Indiana Wesleyan University-Marion (Marion, Indiana)
- Mount Carmel College of Nursing (Columbus, Ohio)
- Oklahoma Baptist University (Shawnee, Oklahoma)
- Regis University (Denver, Colorado)
- Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville (Edwardsville, Illinois)
- Texas A & M University-Corpus Christi (Corpus Christi, Texas)
- Texas Woman’s University (Denton, Texas)
- Thomas Edison State University (Trenton, New Jersey)
- University of Mary (Bismarck, North Dakota)
- University of Texas at El Paso (El Paso, Texas)
- University of Texas at Tyler (Tyler, Texas)
- University of Wyoming (Laramie, Wyoming)
- Walden University (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
- Wayland Baptist University (Plainview, Texas)
- Wheeling Jesuit University (Wheeling, West Virginia)
- Wilmington University (New Castle, Delaware)
“What’s arguably worse than a shortage of skilled practitioners in a particular field?” asks Raj Dash, lead researcher of the article.
“Answer: a shortage of the instructors needed to educate future skilled practitioners and guide them towards successful careers. That’s what’s happening in Nursing in the United States and elsewhere around the world. Nursing schools in the U.S. have collectively turned away many thousands of qualified students in recent years, and temporarily suspended academic programs due to lack of nurse educators.
“The shortage problem is multi-fold. Firstly, there is the regular job turnover in the profession. Secondly, some nurse educators who had meant to retire around the time that the current economic recession started — around 2007-9 — had delayed their plans. However, they are starting to retire now, faster than new nurse educators are taking their place. Thirdly, there is an increased number of nursing school applications, possibly in response to the fact that there is a shortage of clinical nurses as well.
“The shortage of nurse educators also threatens the well-being of patients, due to the shortage of practicing nurses, which increases the number of patients for whom they are responsible. Currently practicing nurses or aspiring nurses who are interested in being educators need a Masters degree in Nursing, either focused entirely on Nursing Education, or as a concentration in another MSN program such as Nurse Leader. Our ranking of colleges offering online masters degrees in Nursing Education serves as initial research towards applying to a suitable nursing school.”
College rankings for this article were compiled with data from NCES (National Center for Education Statistics), a bureau of the Dept. of Education. We queried for graduate institutions that grant degrees in “Nursing Education” on a distance basis, filtered out colleges that are based in U.S. protectorate nations, sorted by increasing out-of-state tuition, filtered out doctoral-only and certificate-only colleges, and filtered for active online masters degree programs. This resulted in our list of the 25 most affordable online masters programs in nursing education. Similar topical rankings will be published at AffordableSchools — a college search and rankings site with a focus on affordable colleges and programs — on a regular basis.
