Do nurses have an advantage in becoming a doctor?

[jesse_james]

Obviously a nurse would have to go back to school and get a bachelor's degree (if they don't already have one) before applying to med school. Would a nurse be better equipped to handle pre-med undergraduate course work, and would a RN score better on the MCAT and have a leg up in the med school application process?

[rachelgeorgina]

Here, getting into postgrad med counts on three things: GPA, GAMSAT (our version of the MCAT) & interview. In the interview, they look for people with life experience, amongst other things. Nursing would be pretty good life experience, I'd say.

You're undergrad degree isn't important, even though 80% of applicants have theirs in medical science/science/biomedical science. Nursing students might be a bit better off than someone coming from an arts/commerce/business background but there's a huge gap between the basic sciences learnt in nursing and the complex scientific background required to take the GAMSAT/MCAT.

[sweetpriscy17]

Well...I have alot to say. YES YOU CAN GET INTO NURSING SCHOOL AND THEN BECOME A DOCTOR FOR SURE! I actually know a in law family member who was a Nurse and had her doctorates in nursing that got in without a problem to University of Miami Med School. She is a great nurse but now she got the chance to be a doctor because of her care and health care experience. Most of the doctors that are in hospitals do not know how to talk to people or show at least some care and arnet to informative to pts becuase they dont know how too! Obviously, she had to take the pre-requisites which are: Chem 1 and Chem 2 with labs, organic chem 1 and organic chem 2, Bio 1 and Bio 2 with labs, and physics 1 and 2 with labs and her MCAT! And she had all that done already along wth her nursing degree. When i go see a doctor at an ER or ICU or in a general room, unfortunately many doctiors now are very uninformative and do not have good bedside manners because they are there for the money and expenses. However, a nurse is the one that cares, treats and make sure the pts leave a hoospital healthy. Not he doctor he doesnt even know when the pts leave or not, yes he cures with medication and test but the nurse is the one that puts her 100% into the pts questions and well being and is their for the family. So if you have been a nurse,,,you will have respect and a good chance to get into med school as long as your grades are good and get the pre reqs done! :)