OVERVIEW
What is a Nursing Home Manager?
A nursing home manager satisfies all administrative responsibilities that a nursing home environment requires. You will supervise food services, ensure high levels of patient care, oversee the management of nursing home finances, and implement any new or updated healthcare regulations.
The position of nursing home manager is obtainable with a bachelor’s degree. However, qualified applicants will also need to complete hundreds of hours of supervised nursing home service before they obtain one or more certifications and pass a qualifying exam.
To start drawing your nursing career map, you should understand how the role of a nursing home manager differs from other nursing professions. Unlike nursing home administrators, nurse case managers care for clients recovering from injury or illness, in addition to their work with geriatric patients. The role of a nurse manager is also unique from that of a nursing home manager, mainly in that nurse managers work in hospital or clinical settings and provide direct supervision strictly for nursing staff.
If you’re searching for a nursing leadership career—like the operational role of a healthcare administrator—you should first take steps to understand what nursing leadership roles mean in a healthcare environment. Unlike managerial staff, leaders empower their teams by example, implementing high-level strategies and creating a long-term vision for a company’s future.
RESPONSIBILITIES
What Does a Nursing Home Manager Do?
Nursing home managers fulfill a wide range of responsibilities. From communicating with patients and healthcare staff to organizing a nursing home’s budgets, you’ll remain busy each day on the job.
The exact responsibilities of a nursing home manager can include:
- Ensuring effective nursing home operations daily.
- Establishing nursing home nurse schedules in a way that allows each nurse sufficient working hours without reaching nurse burnout.
- Implementing autonomous nursing practices that allow nurses to make decisions and implement processes without having to consult doctors or other healthcare professionals.
- Developing nursing home goals and objectives to be shared across all nursing home departments.
- Communicating with nursing home department administrators to ensure that each branch of nursing home operations is functioning smoothly.
- Speaking to nursing home operations and success during investor and executive board meetings.
- Monitoring nursing home budgets to ensure that finances are spent appropriately.
These and other responsibilities help nursing home managers find success while connecting all geriatric patients with high levels of personalized care.
EDUCATION & BEST DEGREES
What Education and Qualifications Does a Nursing Home Manager Need?
Before you can begin a career as a nursing home manager, you’ll first need to satisfy a few educational requirements. Often, this means you will need to obtain a bachelor’s degree in healthcare administration, health science or a related field. A healthcare management degree program is a fantastic option as it allows students to learn about the intersection of business and healthcare, giving them specific insight into how healthcare organizations run, their financial needs, strategies, management practices, and more.
In order to move into a management position, a master’s degree is typically required. An MBA in healthcare management can be an ideal option for students looking to pursue a management career in a nursing home or other health field. This type of MBA program will again focus on combining healthcare best practices and business skills, giving students insight into how these two areas work together. Courses on marketing, accounting, communication, leadership, and healthcare regulation can all be expected in this type of MBA program. Similarly, a Master of Healthcare Administration degree could help those who need more information on the healthcare elements of business management. When determining the right healthcare leadership degree for you, consider your desired role.
Best Degrees for a Nursing Home Manager
Business
MBA Healthcare Management
Prepare for a career leading private or public healthcare organizations....
Prepare for a career leading private or public healthcare organizations.
- Time: WGU lets you set a schedule so you can finish your MBA in just one year.
- Tuition: $4,755 per 6-month term.
- Courses: 11 total courses in this program.
Skills for your résumé you will learn in this program include:
- Regulatory compliance
- Patient care improvement
- Service line development
- Healthcare trends
- Health policy and legislation
Healthcare is big business in today's complex economy. Steer your career with this specialty MBA.
Compare online business degrees
This program is not the only online business degree WGU offers that is designed to create leaders in the field of healthcare. Compare our health leadership degrees.
Business
Healthcare Administration – B.S.
You can become a healthcare industry leader:...
You can become a healthcare industry leader:
Compare with B.S. Health Information Management
- Time: 63% of graduates finish within 17 months
- Tuition: $3,755 per 6-month term.
- Courses: 40 total courses in this program.
Skills for your résumé you will learn in this program include:
- Management
- Communication
- Team Leadership
- Operations
- Scheduling
- Strategic Planning
The online courses in this career-focused business degree program will prepare you with management-level skills and an up-to-date understanding of our healthcare delivery system.
Health & Nursing
Master of Healthcare Administration
A master's focused on managing comprehensive, value-based care, directly...
A master's focused on managing comprehensive, value-based care, directly in line with innovations in health and healthcare.
- Time: 60% of grads finish within 21 months.
- Tuition: $4,995 per 6-month term.
- Courses: 12 total courses in this program.
Skills for your résumé that you will learn in this program:
- Collaborative Leadership
- Healthcare Models and Systems
- Healthcare Financial Management
- Enterprise Risk Management
- Healthcare Information Technology
Your rich experience in a health-related field can mean more when you bring a master's level of understanding to the problems that organizations need to solve.
Compare degrees
This program is not the only degree WGU offers designed to create leaders in the field of healthcare. Compare our health leadership degrees.
Health & Nursing
Health Science – B.S.
An online health science program designed for students who want real-world...
An online health science program designed for students who want real-world skills for valuable health careers.
- Time: 63% of students finish similar programs in 24 months.
- Tuition: $4,210 per 6-month term
- Courses: 28 total courses in this program
Skills for your résumé that you will learn in this program:
- Epidemiology
- Disease prevention
- Behavioral health
- Substance abuse support
- Health research
- Medical technology
This degree prepares you with relevant industry skills and experience that will help you move forward in your healthcare career.
How Much Does a Nursing Home Manager Make?
$55,481
As with many healthcare careers, your exact role will heavily affect your earning power. The exact income of a nursing home manager can vary, based on factors that include your employer, employer’s location, employer’s private or public funding, years of experience, education, and obtained certifications.
In general, the salary of a nursing home manager can average $55,481, with a range of roughly $35,000 to $82,000 earned each year.
What Is the Projected Job Growth?
28%
A positive job outlook is one of the main reasons why you should consider obtaining a healthcare management degree. The employment of health services managers, in general, is expected to grow 28% from 2022 to 2032, as populations continue to age and require greater levels of care.
With the natural aging of the baby-boomer generation, nursing homes will face an increased demand for long-term treatment and quality care. The demand for nursing home managers should grow in parallel, creating multiple avenues for growth in the nursing industry.
SKILLS
What Skills Does a Nursing Home Manager Need?
In communication with nursing home employees and patients, budget allocation, and installation of new procedures, a nursing home manager regularly depends on a wide variety of skills to be successful.
- Team leadership. The ability to inspire a team by example, as you lead all nursing home employees toward solutions that improve long-term outcomes for all patients.
- Business management. The ability to facilitate successful nursing home operations and to correctly inform all nursing home departments on correct procedures.
- Staffing. The ability to maintain a high-functioning nursing home staff by onboarding new employees and releasing employees whenever necessary.
- Instruction. The ability to teach new and existing nursing home employees whenever a policy needs to be integrated, updated, or altogether changed.
- Public speaking. The ability to confidently address groups of patients, nursing home employees, or executives.
- Technological proficiency. The ability to correctly use all necessary pieces of technology, including any computers, tablets, phones, and online tools.
- Problem-solving. The ability to creatively solve problems that patients or nursing home staff members might face.
These and other skills can help make you into a successful nursing home manager, and equip you to solve any issues that might come across your desk.
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