edical ethics, health informatics, health communications and marketing and clinical research. These degree options provide even more industry-tailored training, which will likely outshine the resumes of general business students or MBA grads.
What’s the Difference Between an M.S., an M.B.A. and an M.H.A.?
A master’s of business administration (MBA) is a business degree, designed by a college’s business department. As such, the focus of an MBA – even one that allows you to specialize in healthcare – will always be best business practices and bottom line thinking. If you’ve never studied business, and you already have some experience in health or medicine, the heavy dose of business coursework might be a useful addition to your resume. It might carry more weight in corporate healthcare settings, where business people outnumber clinicians or nonprofit employees. An MBA is also a more versatile credential. So if you ever decided to leave the healthcare field, an MBA would be more widely recognized in the business world.
On the other hand, a lot of students pursue MBAs. There are far more MBA grads in the job market than there are MHAs or graduates with an M.S. in health administration. Many employers will favor the job candidate with the more relevant degree. If you don’t already have experience in healthcare, committing to a health-specific degree (an M.S. or M.H.A.) will demonstrate your commitment to people and the profession – whereas an MBA grad with little health experience might be regarded as a business person looking for any available option.
What Materials Do I Need to Apply for a Health Administration Degree?
Associate and bachelor degree applicants usually only need a high school diploma or a GED. Some colleges may ask for letters of reference, SAT scores, or a personal statement that outlines your career goals.
Masters in health administration programs are somewhat more competitive. Applicants will likely be asked to supply undergraduate transcripts, to prove that they graduated from an accredited college with a reasonable grade point average. Other possible prerequisites include letters of reference, a personal statement, and a resume that includes relevant work experience.
If you are applying to a program that is designed for nurses who are planning to transition into management roles, you may be required to submit proof of a current RN license. If you are applying for an advanced degree in health informatics, you may be expected to demonstrate proficiency with certain types of software.
What Do I Need to Know About Accreditation and Healthcare Administration Degrees?
As with any type of college degree, it’s very important that your healthcare administration degree or hospital administration degree comes from an accredited school or college. Colleges receive institutional accreditation in one of two forms: regional or national. You may have heard that regional accreditation is more prestigious than national accreditation, but this isn’t always true.
It is true however that credits from regionally accredited colleges are easier to transfer than credits from nationally accredited colleges. Some advanced degree programs will only accept students who completed undergraduate studies at regionally accredited colleges. So if you think you might want to build on your college education at some point – advancing from an associate’s degree to a bachelor’s degree, or from a bachelor’s degree to a master’s degree – you may want to limit your search to regionally accredited schools.
Also, specific degree programs within a given college can earn something called “specialized accreditation.” The Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME) offers specialized accreditation to highly selective healthcare administration programs. According to CAHME, there are no fully online health administration degrees with CAHME accreditation. All CAHME accredited programs require some on-campus, group experiences, even if a portion of the course work is available through online classes.
However, CAHME only accredits