Bad Idea???

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my cousin, who is in grade twelve, has been accepted to her top two university choices. she would like to go to medical school to be a doctor. lately she has been saying that she will go into nursing first (she was also accepted into some bscn programs) and then apply to medical school. her reasoning is that she can get some medical experience, have a good job to work at, live at home while in nursing (the university she would go to is near her home town but not very prestigious) and if she does not get accepted to med school she will still have a good job.

i'm curious to see what other nurses think.

i have my own opinions but have kept them to myself so far.

thanks for your thoughts

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Specializes in Pediatric Mental Health.

Sounds like a solid thought process to me.

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I think you'll find many nurses on here feel that if you want to go to med school, go to med school. I used to think this, too. Now I know a couple of nurses who went on to med school and are now very successful doctors; honestly, I think nursing would be a great way to prep for med school. My close friend who did this thinks being a nurse has really made her a great doc.

If that's really what she wants to do, who cares?

I wonder, though, if there is another reason she came up with this plan. Is she worried about finances? About moving out and away from home? About being successful in med school?

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

The thing is, she will not have time to have a job in nursing while in med school. Unless she is planning on taking a few years off from education while she works as a nurse, she may find that her nursing license will go unused.

My thoughts are, if you want to go into medicine, just bite the bullet and do it. It's so flippin rigorous that it's best to get it over with early, before she wants to have a husband and children (or any life at all, outside school and the hospital).

She can get her bachelor's in some type of pre-med degree, and then if she doesn't get into medical school, she can then do an accelerated BSN and get her RN in about 15 months.

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Specializes in Hospice.

I think its a good idea. lots of my classmates in my 2nd degree program had planned to go to med school and didn't get or changed their mind but they were stuck with a biology degree they couldn't use . i think their seems to be some solid thinking there

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FWIW-I think that it's a good idea. I teach organic chem to mostly premed students.

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Sounds like a great plan to me. Even if she is too busy to work while in med school, she still has the degree and license ready and waiting should things not work out.

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Specializes in ER/ICU/STICU.

Sounds like a good plan because she will some type of bachelors degree in science for med school. If she wants to do nursing for it than so be it. Like you said if medschool doesn't work out then she still has a degree in the medical field she can fall back on.

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they are two different worlds....if she truly wants to be a doc, and has that mind, set nursing will drive her crazy....suck it up and do the med school.

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A doctor at a facility I worked at was a nurse first and I think that made her a better doctor and she knew what the nurses went through. She was tough but fair.

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Specializes in CVICU.

One of our best cardiologists was a nurse for a long time before she went to med school. It's not a bad idea at all.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

Nursing is not a stepping-stone to MD. Two different disciplines, completely.

As long as your cousin understands that concept, more power to her.

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