Six rules for computers and other stumbling blocks to obtaining an advanced degree

The decision to return for an advanced degree in nursing, after many years outside the academic environment, can be fraught with uncertainty, doubt, and panic. The majority of returning students attempt to juggle career, family, community obligations, and school simultaneously. Nurse educators are in the perfect position to act as well-informed resource people, facilitators, and mentors for these returning students.

The expression "experience is the best teacher" proved to be true. The first author's (B.C.) return to a master of science program after 18 years out of school provided the opportunity to "learn as you go." This article was written with the desire to help ease the transition and lessen the fear for others.

The first author (B.C.) graduates in May 1999 with a MS as a Family Nurse Practitioner, enriched and stronger because of the experience, enthusiastic, and facing the future of the nursing profession with a positive and energetic outlook.

Provision of support; networking with other returning students; and understanding the basic tool in modern education, the computer, eases the return for an advanced degree. Nurse educators' involvement in educational growth, both individually and as proponents for nurses who are dependent on those educators' expertise, is vital to nursing and its evolution as a profession.