Has anyone considered going all the way?

RN1982 · Jul 15, 2008

What do you mean by going all the way? I didn't become a nurse so that later in life I could go to medical school. I wanted to be a nurse. Nursing is not some sublevel of medicine. Nursing and medicine are two different fields so I don't understand what you mean by "all the way". If I'm gonna go all the way, I'm gonna to all the way to be an NP or CRNA, not a doctor. If you feel that you want to be a doctor, go for it.

Aariah · Jul 15, 2008

For me becoming a doctor would be going all the way in the medical field. I didn't mean to offend anyone. I was just asking if anyone got their RN and then decided they might want to go to med school.

Nurses are greatly important and I would be happy spending the rest of my life being one, but I stood by watching my Grandma die as a child feeling helpless, and I don't want to be helpless in my career because my job title doesn't allow me to do certian things.

I'm not really looking for a list of all the amazing things nurses do or what makes them great, you would be preaching to the chior.

lucky1RN · Jul 15, 2008

in aug i will be starting the nursing program at my local college and will be graduating in 2012 ( long time) with my rn. recently i have started to consider entering med school in 2014 at the ripe old age of 30. i was wondering if anyone has considered this and what your reasons may have been for not doing it, other than financial. or is anyone doing something similar and could share their experience.
also since most of you work in a hospital setting, what can you tell me about the doctors you work with? most of my experiences with doctors have not been good. that’s one of my reasons for wanting to go all the way. i think if more nurses became doctors we might have happier hospitals.
thanks for any help you might have.
jennifer

jennifer...i think you might want to duck. i fear there are flames coming your way!

your post implies that a) medical school is the only way to go "all the way" in the medical field and that b) 30 is old. both of which will grate on the nerves of many allnurses members. i'm sure you didn't mean it that way but this is the internet and intention is sometimes difficult to interpret.

nurses are nurses because they want to be nurses...not doctors. i am a nurse because i want to spend my days managing the minute by minute, hour by hour changes in condition in my patients. i am not a doctor because i don't want to work 60+ hours a week seeing 35+ patients a day and being on call 2-4 nights a week.

just curious...if you're considering medical school, why are you going to nursing school first?

oh, and to answer your question...most of the doctors i have worked with over the last 14 years are great. but i still hate seeing a doctor as a patient.

good luck.

RN1982 · Jul 15, 2008

For me becoming a doctor would be going all the way in the medical field. I didn't mean to offend anyone. I was just asking if anyone got their RN and then decided they might want to go to med school.
Nurses are greatly important and I would be happy spending the rest of my life being one, but I stood by watching my Grandma die as a child feeling helpless, and I don't want to be helpless in my career because my job title doesn't allow me to do certian things.
I'm not really looking for a list of all the amazing things nurses do or what makes them great, you would be preaching to the chior.

I'm sure there are nurses who have went to medical school. Yes, we are important. We are the backbone of patient care. However, as a nurse, I am not helpless. As a profession, we are not helpless. We have a broad scope of practice. And If I feel something is not right about my patient or my patient's treatment, I make my voice heard. To me, that is not helpless. No, I'm not going to give you a list of why nursing is so great. No profession, even medicine is perfect and each has their quirks.

Happy2CU · Jul 15, 2008

If you are truly interested in becoming a physician, do it directly. Why waste time/energy/financial resources pursuing a nursing degree?

30 isn't "too old" to do anything. I became a nurse at age 45 after a career in banking. I have a friend (retired mechanical engineer) who is in his early 60's who is in school and close to realizing his dream of becoming a PA.

Info about Doctor's ~ Huummmmm ~ . Guess I'd have to say that just like folks in any other profession, everyone is different. Some are caring, some are kind, some are a**holes, some are gracious, some are rude, I could go on and on.

Follow your heart and your dreams......best of luck.

Aariah · Jul 15, 2008

i don't think becoming a nurse is a waste of time, at this point i have only begun doing research on what med school is all about and what life as a doctor would be like.

as far as being old at 30 goes, sorry to offend, in my life time i have watched all my grandparents and great aunts and uncles die before the age of 60 so, for me given my family history at 30 my life could be more than half over. it's a complex, i know. i hear it everyday.

thanks for sharing some of your experiences

Altra, BSN, RN · Jul 15, 2008

Interestingly worded thread title for a professional forum ... :rolleyes:

Fewer and fewer people are remaining in the same career field/profession throughout their working lives.

If you want to be a physician ... start working on the path to med school.

If you want to be a nurse ... start down that path.

Nursing and medicine are completely separate though inter-related disciplines. Some nurses switch gears and decide to become physicians (see above) but that is not because medicine is some "higher level" of nursing.

Oh, and patients will die on you, no matter who you are or what initials are after your name. Despite all our advances, human mortality remains 100%.

janis9799 · Jul 15, 2008

I just graduated nursing school and I used to think that basically a doctor tell the nurse what to do and they do it. But you will learn in your first semester of nursing school that this is UTTERLY FALSE!!! The first thing they teach you in pathopharm is that as the LAST line of defense when you give a med you are expected to know all about it and its interactions, side effects, allergies etc because there will come a time when you will have to alert a doc that the medicine may not be a good choice because of those issues, because docs make mistakes too. I also have learned in clinical that we alert the doc on whatever situation is going on with the patient and based on the info we give them they write orders. So I sorta look at it as if I am telling the doctor sort of what needs to be done. If you go into ICU the scope of nursing practice is alot broader. Anyway, based on what I thought when I started to now my opinion of just taking the doctors orders has changed. In nursing school the joke used to be whenever they taught us a new nursing responsibility,"What EXACTLY does the doctor do?" So being a doctor isn't the end all be all of healthcare. Just depends how close to the bedside you want to be.

HeartsOpenWide, RN · Jul 15, 2008

I am "going all the way" I plan on becoming a CNM. I would never even consider becoming a MD/ObGyn because I do not believe in their philosophy on birth for the most part (although I do believe they need to be around for those occasional actual complications, my dream job would be in New Zealand or the Netherlands were Midwives dominate the birthing field); I believe in the nurses philosophy of birth. If you want to become a doctor than become a doctor, you are going to be going to school a loooooooooooong time if you get your RN first and then go on to med school.

You might offended some people here by referring to "going all the way" as medical school...nursing is nursing and doctoring is doctoring, not one is better than the other or more "all the way" than another...IMO

SunnyAndrsn · Jul 15, 2008

Yeah, like someone else said, duck and run...

I AM insulted by your comment of "going all the way". Nursing is my career choice, not medicine. These are complementary disciplines, nurses do not just do what doctors tell them to do. Once you get into school you'll see that this is not true, and how often nurses are called upon to alert MD's to the patient's condition.

I work in a long term care/sub acute facility right now, and in just 6 months, I have been told multiple times that "If it wasn't for that nurse who kept bugging the doctor about me I wouldn't be here..."

Nurses are working hard to change your perspective. Stop watching the medical shows and talk to real nurses about what they do.

There are a select few MD's who I do not enjoy working with, but and large the MDs we work with are wonderful.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Jul 15, 2008

The nursing model is an entirely separate entity from the medical model. Both models are wondrous, but they are still different. A nurse should never be regarded as a 'medical school failure', because most of us had never once aspired to become physicians. Likewise, a physician should never be considered a 'nursing success.'

A person goes "all the way" in nursing education by earning either a Ph.d in nursing or a DNP degree (doctor of nursing practice).

A person goes "all the way" in medicine by earning a D.O. or M.D. degree, and completing a residency in a challenging specialty.