I'm at 36 full time working mother, want to get a US degree. My educational and working background is: Chinese nursing certificate 15 years ago, and had been a nurse in China for 4 year: Occupational Therapy Bachelor degree in New Zealand and was an OT for more than 1 year. really want to gain a master degree in the US in healthcare field, but not sure where to start. By the way, I only can study online and not familiar with business stuff...

So are you looking for say a Master of Science in Nursing or some type of more management oriented degree such as Healthcare Management?  I'm confused by your last statement.

well, to be honest, I'm confused too. I'm not very good at management, that's why I'm not sure what's fit me, but OK to try;

Well then you probably need to spend some time reading up on management, etc. and familiarize yourself with the subject matter before jumping into a full blown degree program.  Maybe spend some time on Wikipedia reading up on various aspects of general management, project management, finance, accounting, etc.  Management has little to do with health and although a healthcare management program is geared towards healthcare professionals going into a management area or a manager who is going into a healthcare area, it is most definitely a management degree. 

So do you want to progress to a more developed knowledge of medicine and practices or learn about something totally new in business and management?

I think you need to decide what professional goal you actually have, because once you do that it will be much easier to determine which sort of degree program will help you reach that goal.  Do you want to become a nurse-practitioner?  That would be one kind of program.  Do you want to become a hospital administrator?  That would be a very different kind of program.

Remember that a degree isn't a goal, it's a tool that will help you reach your goals.

-=Steve=-

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B.S., Info Sys, Charter Oak State College
M.A., Educational Tech Leadership, George Washington University
Doctor of Health Education, A.T. Still University, in progress

thanks guys! if I want to do something about master degree of healthcare management, do I need to start to take some online courses such as "health information management", "medical administrative assistant" etc. first? to get myself familiar with the management field?

Nah, you don't have to.  When going for my MBA I had an undergrad in criminal justice, I knew little to nothing about business.  So I went to a Barnes and Nobles and bought several books on business and read them.  That combined with the internet I felt pretty well armed to get into the program.  I can say that without them I would have been sunk pretty quick.