As a nurse, would you go on for an MD?

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If you're a nurse and work closely with MD's would you want to go on to further your education and get an MD license? There is more pay and you already pretty much know human anatomy, diseases, medications and clinical skills that you could do well in Medical School. Plus the hospital you work at may have a tuition reimbursement. When you're a doctor you call all the shots and like I've said you make more money as well.:yeah:

I always wanted to be a doctor.....

I went to college, chose the hardest "pre-med" major - Biomedical Sciences....I took Histology, Neuroscience, Pathophysiology, Physiology (6hrs), Anatomy (4 hours), Med Micro, Immunology, Infectious Diseases, Issues in Bioethics..etc AS AN UNDERGRAD

I even did a year of research in our university's college of medicine

I took the MCAT and made in the 30's...not super duper, but respectable

Fall '07 - I was burnt out, tired of school (and working 50 hours a week throughout college), broke and my mom got diagnosed with cancer......

So I decided to apply to my university's "Accelerated BSN/MSN" program because I could have a BSN (and some of my MSN) in a year (with my background and degree) and do a second year to finish my MSN.....It was the quickest, cheapest, means to an end.....

You know what I learned? I should have done this ten years ago......I wasted all those years and money to come to realize that I was supposed to be a nurse all along....I would have never been happy as an MD because the level of care and patient contact is a complete 180 from nursing....I just wish I had figured it out sooner! LOL I'd be RICH!!! Instead I'm 5 weeks away from my BSN (finally) and starting all over at 27 =)

We live and we learn!

Yes, I'll continue my education....I'll end up finishing up as an NP (eventually), but med school? Not a chance in you know where! I enjoy my free time and my patients entirely too much!! :wink2:

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Specializes in NICU Level III.
Oh God No

Never

Not a chance

No kidding! I don't want to be an MD and I sure don't want to marry one, either!

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Yeah - you don't "go on for your MD." That doesn't even make sense. The majority of nurses in this country don't even have a bachelor's degree, and even those of us who do would have to go back to undergrad for probably two years before we could even sit for MCAT. It's a completely different career field. I'd have to take 3 semesters of chem, 1 of bio (maybe 2 - it's been 11 years since 101), and 2 of physics for sure, plus the "recommended" classes of genetics, histology, biochem, and embryology at the school I got my BSN from. I have a high GPA and I test well, but who knows if I could maintain it in all of these classes, especially when I would have to take several at a time if I didn't want to draw it out over 4 more years of undergrad.

Your question just doesn't make any sense. Most nurses (unless they started college considering premed, or as a bio or chem major) have no more premed requirements completed than anyone else who has a bachelor's degree. We just happen to work in health care, and typically interact with MDs on a daily basis. It's not "going on" for your MD, it would be going back to undergrad and essentially starting over. As others have said, it makes sense for many RNs to "go on" to become NPs, CRNAs, CNSs, MEDs, MBAs, other MSNs, PhDs, and DNPs. Those degrees all allow us to enhance our nursing careers.

If anyone, nurse or otherwise, wants to become a physician and has done the research, that's fantastic. More power to them. Nurse2Doctor, I'm so glad you've succeeded in achieving your goals. I have wondered if being a physician is something I might have enjoyed, but I know that at 29, going back to undergrad, then med school, then residency is something I would hate with a passion.

Sorry about the length, just wanted to make my point!

I guess my question "didn't make sense" because I hadn't compared the prereqs for med. school against the ones for nursing. I know the pre reqs for nursing at my school but not MD training prereqs. I do know that BSN at some schools are required to take the upper levels like chem/org.chem physics, biochem and some math. Maybe my wording of this question may not have been right but I would say that there are people out there who transitioned from nursing to medical school. It was just a thought not meant to be taken so personally.

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Specializes in Adolescent Psych, PICU.
If you're a nurse and work closely with MD's would you want to go on to further your education and get an MD license? There is more pay and you already pretty much know human anatomy, diseases, medications and clinical skills that you could do well in Medical School. Plus the hospital you work at may have a tuition reimbursement. When you're a doctor you call all the shots and like I've said you make more money as well.:yeah:

"Call all the shots"--- At what price and what responsibility? Sometimes the residents don't know what "shots" to call.

I work as an RN in a teaching hospital in the ICU so I work day to day with residents and attendings, etc. Their job is far harder than you can imagine. I am fortunate that I can work my 12 hours and go home and not have to worry about post call, 30 hour shifts, being called at night, etc. I used t think the life of a doctor would be so fun and exciting but I know now that it is not.

I have the feeling you have never worked in a hospital to really see what is involved in patient care either by the RNs or MDs--and thats ok because before nursing school I hadn't either and was very naive to what nursing and medicine really was. Going from an RN to MD is not a simple role transition.

I've read some of your other posts, I would REALLY recommend that you shadow an RN and maybe a hospital MD so you can see first hand what is involved.

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Not all docs are bad. I married a great one, but I think I got lucky.

I agree with the others though about the difference between the two. Shadowing is a great idea.

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when i was a little kid I wanted to be a doctor because that's the major role you hear about that does everything and I thought it would be neat. More and more when I was a patient myself I was able to see the role of the nurse and those with advanced nursing degrees. That was what appealed to me. I enjoy talking with a patient for more than 5 minutes. I enjoy the technical skill that come with nursing. It seems that unless a surgeon or in er a doc doesn't do a lot of hands on things. Also I agree being a nursing student and working in a teaching hospital, I see a little bit what the life is like for a resident. The education appeals to me, but the duties don't. If I want a little more autonomy and pay, I will go on for a MSN I like the holistic model of nursing. There is nothing wrong with becoming an MD and I have utmost admiration for those that go that path, however I don't really see nursing as something that could be a step in that direction. It would probably be way easier and way faster to just go the premed route

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Specializes in Cardiac.

For those who would want to become a doctor, I hope its not for money. If you consider all the time it takes to become a doctor and add in your debt after schooling, I bet you would be better off making more as a nurse.

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Specializes in ED, Flight.
Nope, I'd rather marry one instead.

That's what I did, and she's great! :D

Now, when I once mused out loud about going to med school myself, her response was 'I'll kill you.' Surviving one residency was bad enough.:icon_roll

If I were 20 years younger, I might actually consider it. But now, I'd finish residency and start repaying loans at about age 60. No thanks.

BTW, at least here the premeds not only have a lot more science for pre-reqs; they also take higher level courses. A&P, for instance, is a different course for the premeds. Different texts, harder all around, and a different code in the college catalog.

Also, it is incorrect that there is no tuition reimbursement for med school. My wife took her student loans on a loan for service agreement. After residency she went to work in an approved loan repayment site (a FP clinic that served uninsured and indigent patients). Some new docs out here go to the reservations or pueblos. The military also offers options.

We told one of our daughters (BSc in Microbiology and BSc in MedTech) to go to Nursing. It looks like she's going to PT for grad school. Another good choice.

Meanwhile, I think ACNP looks pretty interesting for my next foray...:uhoh3:

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Premeds have far more science than we do. Far more. (I think nursing should require more science but that's a different thread.) I believe the premise of the OP was that we would have an advantage going into med school, but that's not the case at all.

from what i've seen, i would only need one extra semester of o-chem and one extra semester of college physics to fulfiill the prereqs for med school beyond what i've taken for my nursing school, but then again, i also didn't just take the lowest-level chem/o-chem required to get in to nsg school (which a lot of people do).

also, to respond generally to the OP, it might seem like med school is the next "level" beyond nursing, but i think that the medical and nursing fields really address different aspects of patient care. they may treat the same person, but doctors and nurses take different approaches. i think that people confuse the autonomy that physicians have with increased autonomy to do what nurses do. i like nursing for its primary-prevention focus and its emphasis on a more holistic approach, while it seems to me that medicine is more concerned with mechanisms of disease and treatment pathways.

sorry if this is repeating something someone else said; i'm responding and then going back through and reading. =)

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.

I havent got the time nor inclination to be a Doc I chose the easy route by becoming a nurse. I love being a nurse maybe I am strange

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I know nurses suffer from burnout, but read this article! http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/science/chen10-30.html Half of medical students suffering from clinically-defined burnout and more than 10% consider suicide. It's a TOUGH road. Nurse Pracitionner is a better (and less stressful) route for me!

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There's something else--I don't like the phrase of "going on" to medical school. To me, looking back on it, if you want to go to med school--go. If not--don't. Nursing is not a bridge to medicine. While I want to be an absolute expert in my field, I don't think having an MD would make me a better nurse, nor do I think having an RN would make me a better MD. It might help a little to have the extra knowledge for med. school, but I'll never forget what one doctor told me. He said, "I thought I was smart with my 4.0...until I got to med school and everyone had a 4.0."

cause i really like the way she wrote this and it should reappear in this thread. =)

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