Changing from ICU nurse to a doctor?

Specialties MICU

Published

Hi,

My husband is American and we are leaving Australia to live in the USA.

I am an Intensive Care Nurse with a post graduate degree and are looking to change career to do medicine.

If you're a nurse in Australia, you only have to study for 3yrs to be a doctor.

What is the situation in the USA with nurses who want to study medicine? Is the medicine course shortened there also?

What should I use as a title to research in the universities in the USA?

Thanks

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

Probably most people on here are not familiar with the med school process. You would need to find a med program and see what the prerequisites are. Generally a nursing degree will not get you into med school. You would have to complete the required courses and then med school itself is 4 years plus a residency of at least a couple of years after that. Check out the AAMC website for more information.

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Specializes in Pedi.
Hi,

My husband is American and we are leaving Australia to live in the USA.

I am an Intensive Care Nurse with a post graduate degree and are looking to change career to do medicine.

If you're a nurse in Australia, you only have to study for 3yrs to be a doctor.

What is the situation in the USA with nurses who want to study medicine? Is the medicine course shortened there also?

What should I use as a title to research in the universities in the USA?

Thanks

You don't get to skip a year of med school for being a nurse in the US. You would also likely need to take several undergrad courses to fulfill the pre-med requirement because a nursing degree does not put one on track for medical school and take the MCAT.

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RN-MD program in the US. I think not.

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

Hello DelaneysMum, welcome to allnurses.com.

Speaking in very general terms, Americal medical schools generally require the following:

A bachelor's degree

A competitive score on the MCAT https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/

Completion of prerequisite courses either as part of the undergraduate degree or in addition to your degree: 2 semesters each of biology and chemistry with labs, and 2 semesters each of calculus, physics, and organic chemistry.

Much more information about medical schools and the application process:

Graduate Medical Education (GME) - AMA?

Good luck to you!

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In Australia you do not get to skip a year of medical school because you are an RN.

You need to take the GAMSAT, have an adequate undergraduate GPA, make the cut off for interview, get through the interview process and be offered a place in medical school -- and then get through the four years of graduate medical school everyone else does.

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Specializes in CTICU.

I was going to say, I've never heard of an accelerated medical degree for RNs in Australia. There are post-grad medicine courses but they are four year graduate degrees. You would be FAR better to do medicine in Australia before going to the US. The fees alone are astronomically greater in the US.

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.

You could do a 18 month ACNP program here in the US and practice as an intensivist if that what you want to do.

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Actually, if you are accepted into medicine in Australia, you can get a years Credit, if you have post graduate and masters degree's as I do. I have already looked into it.

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There is no credit for prior learning in medicine in Australia. You must complete the entire course or you will not be eligible for registration with APHRA as an intern at the completion of your degree (because your degree will not be complete).

Try posting this question on the PagingDr forum and see what sorts of responses you get from the experts.

Welcome to Paging Dr forum for graduate entry medicine in Australia

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Specializes in CTICU.
Actually, if you are accepted into medicine in Australia, you can get a years Credit, if you have post graduate and masters degree's as I do. I have already looked into it.

Please post the link to the university website that states this - I have also looked into it and have found nothing similar so I'd be interested.

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Specializes in Adult ICU/PICU/NICU.

I have never known an RN to became an MD/DO. I knew one very bright young RN who wanted to go this route and started to take the pre req courses and found it nearly impossible to work around. The nursing science courses are the same ones that the pre meds take. I know...I took both when I went back to school for my BSN. I remember the nursing organic chemistry where you circled the water molecule and slammed the alcohol into the acid and got an ether. In the pre medical level course you learned how the electrons flow and why to make one of several products. My nursing chemistry was two full semester...and the pre med chemistry was two full years and one semester. Anyhow...this poor kid just couldn't work full time AND take very difficult pre reqs...so he's now a cardiac NP with a better schedule than the docs without the huge student loans he would have needed for med school....and almost doing the same job as the docs. I know I trusted my seasoned NPs just as much as I did the attendings. It was those residents in July I had to look out for....

Perhaps investigate the NP route

Best to you,

Mrs H.

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