ECU nursing’s first MSN-MBA grads are ready to lead healthcare

Three years ago, East Carolina University’s College of Nursing and the Thomas D. Arthur Graduate School of Business embarked on a new trajectory, to prepare mid-career nurses to assume roles in hospitals and healthcare that they have generally been shut out of: chief executive, operating and financial officers and director of nursing.

The first two Pirate nurses to graduate with dual master of science in nursing and master of business administration degrees — Megan Warren and Mary Tynch — are wrapping up their coursework and reflecting on what they have learned and where they are headed.

Next Steps

Warren is originally from Gastonia but has lived in Raleigh for two decades. She started as a medical-surgical nurse but soon transitioned to case management. She now works in a utilization management leadership role, which blends clinical skills with management and administration. She makes sure the hospital’s limited resources are optimized, every bed is being used appropriately and delays are minimized.

Megan Warren is one of the first graduates from ECU’s new dual Master of Science in nursing leadership and Master of Business Administration degree program.

“It’s using clinical knowledge from being an acute care nurse and the financial knowledge of understanding what’s needed to secure reimbursement,” Warren said. “A big part is blending in regulatory requirements.”

Warren said she always wanted to pursue a master’s degree, but having two kids shifted her priorities. When she took a new position four years ago, she was given a gentle nudge by her boss to continue her education.

“I recognized that there really is truly no right time, life is just hard,” Warren said. “I’m really thankful that I waited until this stage of my career. If I’d obtained my master’s in my 20s, I think I would be somewhere different.”

She debated what track to follow. A master of healthcare administration? An MBA?

In 2023, she met with Dr. Thompson Forbes, the College of Nursing’s associate dean of strategic operations and partnerships, about the Master of Science in nursing leadership program. He mentioned the new dual degree track that was not yet publicly announced. There are several dozen similar dual degree programs in the nation; ECU has one of only two in the state.

The time commitment is not insignificant — three years of full-time coursework can be demanding, especially for working professionals, Warren acknowledged, but she believes opportunities for advancement after graduation are worth it.

“I was attracted to the challenge for the newness and novelty, and if I decide to continue on an executive leadership track, this will give me exactly what I would need to market myself,” Warren said.

Tynch, the other inaugural member of the MSN-MBA program, decided to purse nursing as a career. After visiting Greenville, she told her dad, “This is the place I want to grow and work towards something special. I want to be a Pirate.”

After graduating in 2022, she took a job in the children’s emergency department at ECU Health. Caring for pediatric patients has been central to her work ever since, and she’s taken more of a leadership role — reviewing cases, supporting community outreach and education, and PTSD and trauma survivor care.

Even before she graduated, she knew she wanted to extend her knowledge and skills beyond the bedside and asked Forbes if there was a way to combine nursing and business, not knowing the MSN-MBA program was almost ready for prime time. As soon as she heard about it, she sent an email to ask if she qualified.

“It’s been in the back of my mind the whole time I was in nursing. I’ve tried to get involved in leadership, unit committees and projects,” Tynch said. “This is what I want to do. This is how I want to grow.”

Lessons Learned

Warren said the program’s blending of nursing leadership skills and business just makes sense because she’s already experienced much of what she’s learning. The nursing skills were intuitive; the business courses, on the other hand, required her to find a new gear.

“They are two different colleges, so they’re going to be different,” Warren said.

Topics that business students would probably take as foundational, like spreadsheets, required her to play catch up. She first learned how to use Excel 10 years ago, but as a staff nurse she “never had to touch it.”

At 25, Tynch is the youngest member of her cohort. She couldn’t rely on decades of experience like her peers, but she knows the direction she wants to move in, and the program has opened doors for her to meet people and gain experiences she would otherwise never have had.

After a few weeks of the first business class, Tynch called her parents and said she felt like a fish out of water. Like Warren, the nursing side of the program came relatively easy, but things finally clicked and she switched from part time to full time.

“Taking three or four classes at a time was a lot, but doing the classes more frequently helped me get into the business mindset a little bit easier than stretching it out,” Tynch said.

The late nights and homework had an added benefit, Warren said. She is modeling lifelong learning for her children.

“My kids say, ‘You went to school four years, you’ve done three more and you want to do two more. Why are you doing that to yourself?’ I tell them, ‘We enjoy lots of nice things and I like being able to like challenge myself,’” Warren said. “You have to find those things that you love.”

Dr. Mary Jo Nimmo, clinical associate professor in the department of advanced practice nursing and education, teaches a course in quantitative methods coded OMGT 6123. It’s a tough class that students in the MSN-MBA program have to pass.

“I call it Oh My God T. If you can get through Oh My God T, you will make it,” Nimmo said.

Nimmo said those students who graduate will be qualified for leadership positions helping to manage clinical operations, supply chains and the finances of clinical enterprises from provider-owned clinics to large health systems.

Putting Education to Work

Mary Tynch, a member of ECU’s new dual Master of Science in nursing leadership and Master of Business Administration degree program, plans to use her education to improve how patient care is delivered at ECU Health Medical Center.

A better understanding of how business works has been an immediate benefit for Tynch. Recently, some of the supplies preferred by the nurses she oversees have been unavailable, causing some friction. With insight into the hows and whys of supply chain management, she was able to explain to them the reasons behind the disruption and smoothed things over.

Tynch credits the program with sharpening her leadership skills and providing financial and marketing knowhow that she hadn’t considered before.

“Now I can step into marketing opportunities, and when we get grant funding I can help allocate it and understand what the best opportunities are,” Tynch said.

Nimmo said the dual degree program is not for the faint of heart, but it helps them to be prepared. When she started in a management position, she had to scramble to learn those lessons on her own. Her students won’t have to struggle like she did.

Nimmo said the College of Business faculty have learned a lot about healthcare management from Warren and Tynch, and the other nursing students following behind them.

“There’s a balance between the patient, finances, new technologies are challenges not all businesses have, and being able to bring all of that together, the MBA instructors are really appreciating that,” Nimmo said.

Even before graduating, Warren has the skills she has gleaned to practice, in her budgeting or staff management duties at work. Each month she meets with members of the administrative team to hash out line items on her unit’s budget and for eight years she’s struggled to understand variances.

“Literally one chapter of our textbook that semester gave me the foundation that I needed to finally help everything click,” Warren said. She then took that understanding back to her teammates so they wouldn’t have to chase the same concept that she had as they progress in their management careers.

What the Future Holds

Tynch said she now feels empowered to step into executive roles.

“This degree’s hidden superpower is that if you ever want to leave the bedside and go into something that’s not nursing, you now have that option, and you don’t have to start from scratch, you don’t have to start over,” Tynch said. “But if you want to grow in healthcare and move into divisions that you never thought were possible, this degree can get you there.”

The future of business is in artificial intelligence, Warren said. While the education world has slowly come around to the opportunities inherent in the new technology, the business world has been running at top speed with artificial intelligence. One of her business professors was an enthusiastic proponent of AI, which mirrored the leaders in her day job.

She’s recently worked with a new AI tool that allows her staff nurses to synthesize patient information to help compile appeals letters for reimbursement and has explored using AI to offer a second, objective opinion about strategic decisions for her department.

Warren said she received great satisfaction from working at the bedside, but she has the capacity to impact more lives in her current leadership role. Having advanced degrees now means she is set up to expand that reach even further.

“A degree will no longer hold me back from anything I decide to pursue. Even if I decided to retire from nursing early and open up a coffee shop, I’ve got my MBA fundamentals, right?” Warren said.

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