This is my first post, so please be patient with me.
When I first started college, I was determined on becoming a physician. However, I didn't do so well my first year of college, so I knew I wouldn't make a competitive medical school applicant. Fast forward 4 years later. I am currently in Nursing school, set to graduate next year. I have near perfect grades, and have a CNA job at a hospital. My dream nursing job is to become an ACNP, specifically Trauma Surgery.
My question for any nurse practitioners out there: Do you ever feel like you 'settled' for becoming an APNP instead of becoming an MD? Do you feel like the physicians respect you? Do you have and maintain your autonomy?
This is my first post, so please be patient with me.
When I first started college, I was determined on becoming a physician. However, I didn't do so well my first year of college, so I knew I wouldn't make a competitive medical school applicant. Fast forward 4 years later. I am currently in Nursing school, set to graduate next year. I have near perfect grades, and have a CNA job at a hospital. My dream nursing job is to become an ACNP, specifically Trauma Surgery.
My question for any nurse practitioners out there: Do you ever feel like you 'settled' for becoming an APNP instead of becoming an MD? Do you feel like the physicians respect you? Do you have and maintain your autonomy?
Have you ever considered going out of country to Med School? If you really want to be an MD, go for it.
Dude my ANP program is less than $30,000 for the entire thing, including books and fees! Im not going to have any debt when I get out.....paying as I go.
Please don't take this the wrong way, but you haven't even graduated nursing school, let alone passed the boards and then worked as a nurse. Don't worry about advanced practice vs. MD- you've still got a long way to go.
I became a nurse because I wanted to be a nurse, not because I was not smart enough to go to medical school. And I am becoming an APRN (I am in a PMHNP post-Masters) because I am passionate about mental health care and believe that our education in treating the entire patient and not just the illness is one of the most important things we can bring into an AP roll.
And I am becoming an APRN (I am in a PMHNP post-Masters) because I am passionate about mental health care and believe that our education in treating the entire patient and not just the illness is one of the most important things we can bring into an AP roll.
Unfortunately this is nursing propoganda at its finest. Holistic care isn't exclusive to nursing and to act as if physicians don't consider the "entire patient" is insulting to the many fine physicians out there who have dedicated a large portion of their lives to helping their patients just as we have.
As for my practice the most important things I attempt to offer are an accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment. The handholding I do on the rare occasion is a bonus but definitely not what I pride myself on providing for my patients.
I was not talking about any particular physician. I was talking about the medical model vs. the nursing model. There are plenty of fine physicians out there, but their education is very different from nursing education, and that makes a difference to me.
I was not talking about any particular physician. I was talking about the medical model vs. the nursing model. There are plenty of fine physicians out there, but their education is very different from nursing education, and that makes a difference to me.
Medical schools teach patient centered care which is the same thing as holistic care. The only people who are saying "physicians treat the problem, nurses treat the person" are nurses.
Its not like nursing has a patent on holistic care, nursing just uses it as a way to say their training is different from medicine in order to make up for its inadequacies.
cant slap a cheap coat of paint on a ford pinto and expect people to think its a lexus. The nursing gods would have you believe that though
Medical schools teach patient centered care which is the same thing as holistic care. The only people who are saying "physicians treat the problem, nurses treat the person" are nurses.
Its not like nursing has a patent on holistic care, nursing just uses it as a way to say their training is different from medicine in order to make up for its inadequacies.
cant slap a cheap coat of paint on a ford pinto and expect people to think its a lexus. The nursing gods would have you believe that though
Interesting points, but maybe a little extra side order of bitterness towards the end. What are the biggest inadequacies you believe nursing has?
I was wait listed for med school. I became a nurse and APRN after working in pharmaceutical and med device sales. I do not regret it. I know some NPs who became MDs, but I don't want to do it now. I love being able to continue to learn, continue to pick up certifications and to have time for my passions: ballet, piano, gardening.
I had the opportunity to go to medical school...never wanted that. I love nursing and how the holistic approach is carried across into the role of NP. I have no regets othr than it took me so long to get there.
Ben_Dover
254 Posts
Respect will be earned, regardless of your title, whether you're a CNA, LVN, RN, NP or MD. But it must be, again, earned!