A follow-up of my only post; RN to MD.

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hello everyone! I have only posted here once before, but I am happy to say that I have successfully completed the first few goals in my original post. At the age of 16, I passed my GED with flying colors (I was home-schooled prior to that) and I have been in college for 2 months.

I will be 17 in January, and I plan on (somewhat) pursuing the aforementioned plan located in my other post. In case you would rather not shuffle through my profile in an attempt to find it, I will summarize what I wrote. :) After getting my GED and attending college, I wanted to obtain my ADN > BSN > MD. My plan has been altered slightly. I still would like to go the route of ADN > BSN > MD, but while in school for my BSN, I would like to minor (perhaps double-major) in Biochem.

I do have a few concerns though. As I watch my mother finish her BSN, I have realized that I love what nursing entails. I would thoroughly enjoy direct patient care, hands-on work, and general nursing duties. However, I also love what medicine has to offer. I like the idea of diagnosing, and generally controlling the route of patient care. It is a bit hard to imagine being a nurse, and being out-of-control of something I see unfit. Is there something between these two fields? Something with a bit more control than an RN, but still involving bedside care?

I am not sure if this is worth mentioning, but I have two "go-to" fields: Emergency Medicine and Global Health. The former is my practical choice, but the latter is something that I am passionate about.

Thanks in advance!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in FNP.

midlevel

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in OB, L&D, NICU, Med-Surg, Ortho.

Nurse Practitioner :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Neuro/NSGY, critical care, med/stroke/tele.

Absolutely... check out the Nurse Practitioner model :) It has the best of both worlds - thinking of the person as a whole and not just physical systems, the hands-on direct care, being a patient advocate and educating them, managing cases and coordinating follow-up care - BUT with the added benefit of a thorough, in-depth knowledge of pharmacology and the ability to order and interpret tests, diagnose, and prescribe.

Check out the wiki article for more info: Nurse practitioner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia or you could google NP programs to get a feel for classes. :-)

Let us know what you think! good luck!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Neuro/NSGY, critical care, med/stroke/tele.

Oooh, and i just re-read your post and saw your field/specialty choices -- i think Acute Care Nurse Practitioner would probably be a good choice; http://www.nursing.virginia.edu/media/ACNP-ft.pdf is a sample course of study for the MSc with the Acute Care specialty. :-) Have fun!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.

Physician assistant or ARNP.

Go for it!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in acute care med/surg, LTC, orthopedics.

But why go through all that schooling when with a little bit more, you can be an md and make oodles more money and have oodles more opportunity.

Lotsa mds I know are VERY involved in patient care, in fact looking at them interact you'd never think they were a doc.

There's limits to your diagnosing abilities and you may very well still experience "being out-of-control of something I see unfit" as an NP.

I don't know. If I had your ambition, I'd go the whole kit and caboodle.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Also, make sure when you are doing your undergraduate work that you cover the medical school prerequisites along with your nursing school prerequisites. For example, don't enroll in "Bio 101" for non-science majors. Take the 1 year biology course with lab that will get you into med school. You will also need 1 year of Chem, 1 yr O Chem, 1 yr Physics, and 1 yr of Calculus (to be competitive). If you major in Bio Chem, this should cover all of those bases. Needless to say, if you complete your pre-med requirements, you will be a hop skip and a jump away from Nursing school as well.

You are young enough, I'd recommend that you take the time and initiative to complete the 2 years of science prereqs for med school, because it is also the platform for any science degree that you may want to pursue in the future!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Why are you bothering with an ADN if you are already in college? Just go for your BSN, then NP. If you still want to be an MD, then go to med school.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.

Some schools even have a Nurse Practitioner program with concentrations in Emergency Medicine. Might be something for you to check out.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Nurse Practitioner has already been mentioned, so my suggestion would be to compare MD & DO (Doctor of Osteopathic medicine). Of course, I don't know much about DOs.. but they definitely sound interesting. I need to do some research on them myself. :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Cardiology and ER Nursing.
Nurse Practitioner has already been mentioned, so my suggestion would be to compare MD & DO (Doctor of Osteopathic medicine). Of course, I don't know much about DOs.. but they definitely sound interesting. I need to do some research on them myself. :)

There really isn't any difference between MD an DO anymore.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment