Possible to take extra class per semester at another school during nursing program?

[RnStudent2021]

I am entering into the nursing program in Fall 2014, but I plan on attending medical school after I get my BSN. The prerequisites for med school is not fully covered by nursing. I will need Chem 2, Organic Chem 1 and 2, and Physics 1 and 2. My question is is that I would like to take one of these classes each semester at a community college during my nursing program instead of another year and a half of school after I graduate. I was wondering how possible/impossible it would be to tack on another class? Thanks in advance for the replies!

[MissChloe]

That's actually not true, Jessatkinson. I have a bio degree from a liberal arts school and lots of my colleagues went to med school with everything from bio to art history or English majors.

[coolinbysound]

I think it's a good idea to get your BSN and work as a nurse for a couple of years before you apply for med school. That way you can get some actual hands on experience with patients and you never know, maybe you can get a doctor at the place you work at to write you a recommendation. You can also save up $$$ for med school and reduce the amount of loans you borrow.

If I were you, I would have gone straight to the upper level chemistry or bio instead of doing the intro level science classes that are prereqs for nursing programs. Nursing schools will accept either one. That's what I did. I took gen chem 1,2,3 freshman year, majors bio series and organic 1,2,3 my second year along with nursing prereqs.

It looks like you're already done with gen chem so I would suggest maybe taking an accelerated version of the year long Organic series at a community college that offers it in the summer. That way you don't have to stress out doing this during nursing school. I would preview/teach yourself organic over the breaks or if you have free time from nursing school. Organic chemistry to me wasn't very hard if you could find patterns, the first quarter is killer because you are learning so many things but it gets super easy as you go on. So I wouldn't stress to much about that. Physics on the other hand.... I suggest doing that after you get your BSN and focus just on that series. I don't know if you have to take the algebra or calc based version but both are very challenging and you should devote/give yourself time to fully understand it without any other distractions in the way.

So it boils down to if you're really awesome at science, I would say yeah, takes those med school prereqs during nursing school. Just don't overload yourself (maybe 1 per quarter).

[crossfitnurse]

Bottom line is - time wise I'd go straight for med school. Maybe this chick is 18 I don't know. If so... good luck. But at 27 (my age) I wouldn't do that.

[Pink Magnolia, BSN, RN]

Take your time and enjoy time. Rushing will burn you out and stress you out.

[green34]

Paramedic seems like it would be a better leg up in getting experience in a shorter amount of time than going for a BSN. EMT-B is 3 to 6 months and medic school is 12 to 18 months depending on if there is an anatomy component. That is better than trying to get all the pre-reqs for BSN and then finding out you may not make the cut. We have had medic students who were also in med school or planned to go to med school. We had one ER resident who was a former paramedic.

Depending on how you play your cards, you could also potentially work on a primary 911 unit or could even fly quicker (we use RNs who are also medics and medics on our helicopters so 1 RN and one medic). I think medic school is more friendly in taking classes elsewhere at the same time as you also schedule clinicals on your own time.

I would major in something that would get the pre-reqs done. Plus you'd walk out of all paramedic classes that I know with your ACLS and PALS if not more certs. I cannot relate to people who think ACLS is so hard since it was a breeze as a medic student.

[smf0903]

Yes it is possible. I am doing nursing and Biology also! I may never use the Biology degree, but I am a math and science nut so I decided to pursue both degrees. The trick is being and staying well organized. I will caution that the issue you will run into is that of scheduling...having two clinical days and at least two other days on campus makes it darn near impossible to schedule classes like o chem, physics, etc (those classes that usually have minimal sections to choose from). People say it's impossible to do a second degree alongside a nursing degree, but it's not. Will it be easy? Heck no, but I'm sure you already realize that I do not work outside of my home, but I do have a family to take care of so I do have other obligations. I can tell you that I even had the advisor from the school offering the biology degree try to dissuade me from working on both degrees. If it's what you want to do, do it. It's possible. I'm usually enrolled for 17-18 credit hours a semester and have managed to maintain a GPA of 3.87. Good luck to you!!