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.
that some individuals are less inclined to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves. to that i have no reply. life in america is a series of personal choices. those who have the ability to accept a challenge take it, and their lives are duly enriched for it. what the rest do with their frustrations...well, i think that's becoming increasingly clear.
i am not really sure what opportunities you are referring to.... most of the people on this site are nurses and are happy to be. while there are a few who are going from nursing to medicine the majority are not, just something to keep in mind while addressing this subject. many made the personal choice to become a nurse because they wanted to be and took all advantages and opportunities to do so.....
for the most part the responses that have been posted are by no means personal in nature but merely stating whatever the poster thinks is a good choice for those wanting to pursue medicine but are considering nursing along the way. i would advise you to not take offense to any of it... in the end it is you that gets to make the choices as well as live them out. post your thoughts, ignore those who irritate you and respond to those who intrigue you.......
Specializes in MICU, ER, SICU, Home Health, Corrections.
I went all the way once. It wasn't what I thought it would be and I ended up feeling all dirty and alone... surrounded by young-eating RN's... it was so humiliating.
Seriously though, I think we just have the ol' irritating title syndrome again... "Who feels that *stopping* at *just a nurse* was enough?"
It's just another bad wording case, that's all... I'm sure most folks want to further their education in some way, as I'd like to be an ANP someday. Put in a few years for a really good return? You bet.
However; as for 'going all the way'... I'm well past that... who's got 20 years to get there? Who wants the responsibility of sole proprietorship? Who wants to spend years making equal or lower salary than an RN, paying off loans and start-up costs? Who wants the phone ringing at 3am all the time for an expert opinion [tylenol order]?
Plenty of folks! Just not me. :)
Feel free to go all the way, just realize that your road and mine may not cross.
Wanna make nearly $70K per year for a 5 year paid internship starting at about $32K per year, with no classroom or clinical time.... Clickit.
Just chiming in as all the others with the observation that the skill set that it takes to be a great nurse is different from the skill set that it takes to be a good doctor. If you really are at the beginning of your studies then you are probably just getting started on pre-reqs, which will have some overlap between nursing school and med school. If I were you, I would get a job as a tech in a hospital and gain some first-hand insight into the differences between the two fields. I agree with the previous poster who said that nursing is MUCH more than just doing what the doctor tells you to do. You have much more control over (and responsibility for) patient care than you realize at this point, never having done clinicals yet. Here's the difference: doctors diagnose and treat patient pathologies & injuries; nurses diagnose and treat patient responses to pathologies & injuries. There is overlap in subject matter, but MDs' focus is far more narrow. Your scope of care will be much broader as a nurse than it will be as a doctor. I'm not knocking medicine, not at all, we need doctors, especially great ones! But they are two very different fields. That said, I do think that doctors would generally be better doctors if they were nurses first. Sometimes I get the feeling that they don't really get what it is that we do for the patients, or how much we can help them (both the patients and the doctors). At my orientation, I met a man from the Philipines who had been a nurse and then became a doctor, and now in the US is working as a nurse while he tries to pass the boards here. I would bet that guy is a better doctor for having not only been a nurse before, but for seeing the value in doing nursing work while he gets his medical career in order in a new country. Obviously his preference is for medicine, but he also seems to get what it is that nurses can contribute.
Just know what you're getting into before you commit yourself to nursing school if what you really want is to be a doctor, because that is a huge time and financial commitment. You could also just go straight to medical school but know (without having to become a nurse first) that nurses are your lifeline! If you work with them instead of against them, they can make you shine as a doctor. I wish more MDs got that; the more they work with us constructively, the better we make them look because their patients heal better. You sound pretty enlightened about it, and if you treat nurses as your comrades, you will be well informed about the benefits of collaborating with them.
As far as good docs/bad docs, my limited observation is that doctors, like nurses, seem to have a facility-wide personality in general. A bad attitude is contagious (as is a good one). If you end up in a facility with cranky doctors, then they seem to be cranky in general, whereas if the culture of a facility is friendly, the docs seem to be friendly in general. I have to say in the Austin area, we seem to have pretty friendly docs. This is important to flesh out before you take a job somewhere! Cranky docs can make your worklife miserable. If you go the MD route, don't be one of them. :wink2:
Specializes in Trauma ICU, Surgical ICU, Medical ICU.
It's just that PERSONALLY, for ME, the fact that I would HAVE to make a call in order to implement a care plan that I KNOW will help a patient would frustrate me. Watching an intern botch a procedure that I KNOW I could complete easily, but am prevented from performing due to my job title would frustrate me.
This kind of irks me a little. It also sounds kind of arrogant that you, someone who isnt even a nurse yet, much less a doc or an intern, think you can do procedures 'easily'. I think it just shows the type of personality you have. I also think its kind of funny how you seem to think you're going to just know everything there is to know about what will make your patient better. Personally, know-it-all nurses scare the heck out of me! I dont know how you meant this, but you really need to watch what you say if you dont want it to be taken the wrong way. Frankly, I'm taking it as face value and heres my advice: lose the attitude before you do anything or you wont get very far in EITHER profession!
This kind of irks me a little. It also sounds kind of arrogant that you, someone who isnt even a nurse yet, much less a doc or an intern, think you can do procedures 'easily'. I think it just shows the type of personality you have. I also think its kind of funny how you seem to think you're going to just know everything there is to know about what will make your patient better. Personally, know-it-all nurses scare the heck out of me! I dont know how you meant this, but you really need to watch what you say if you dont want it to be taken the wrong way. Frankly, I'm taking it as face value and heres my advice: lose the attitude before you do anything or you wont get very far in EITHER profession!
I have to agree with you. How does one know that they can do a procedure easily or better if they have not even learned the procedure? I'm sorry but it doesn't look easy for a doc to place a chest tube or a swan cath or a central line from my observations. Know-it-all nurses are the worst and are very scary. I've seen many errors come from nurses who think they know-it-all. One cannot know everything there is to know about nursing.
If getting into medical school is competitive (and it IS!), how is taking an undergraduate course that is "easier than nursing" going to advantage one in such a competitive field? As difficult as the nursing curriculum is, it does not rise to the same level of academic rigor required for the premed degrees (usually the B.S. in either biology or chemistry.) If anyone doubts this, a quick perusal of Kaplan's Comprehensive MCAT Review may prove enlightening.
Specializes in Trauma,ER,CCU/OHU/Nsg Ed/Nsg Research.
When my husband was doing his undergrad for engineering, he said about 1/3 of his class were doing that program for pre-med (major in engineering, minor in physics), because they knew they would still be able to get good jobs if they didn't make it into the medical program.
Getting into med school is competitive, I would pick an easier undergrad major then nursing if I wanted to be a doctor.
Thanks to the people that actually answered my question.
I am sorry for the others I may have offended. I am not a child and feel like I am being judged as one. I am surprised that my question offended so many people. For those of you that take offense to the statement "nurses eat their young" several of you were just a prime example of that. Instead of ignoring the question you felt the need to educate me in how I was wrong.
Well I wasn't wrong... "going all the way" for me would be Med school. Sorry that I assumed others might have thought about med school at some point. My mother is a medical assistant and she considered med school at one point, should I go educate her?
I never assumed nursing was a lower form of anything. I apprciate the job nurses do and I understand that in most ways they work harder than doctors.
If you recognize at the beginning of your education that your personality may not be such a good fit with the profession, you are already miles ahead of the game. Perhaps the Myers-Briggs Temperament Inventory will help you decide if you should take nursing or go straight to medicine. I took this test as part of a nursing preceptor course. It revealed more than I expected, but explained why, despite a successful career, I have felt like a square peg in a round hole. The temperament type judged to be best suited to nursing is the ISFJ. One of the first professions listed for my temperament type (the INFJ) was "Physician/Dentist". (Epiphany!)
Way better than having your palm read! (Or, as one of my friends said, "Get outta my head!")
If you know of a medical school that has a residency program in your area, check to see if it might be possible for you to shadow for a day or two. Most academic medicine programs are more than happy to give prospective students the opportunity to be exposed to a day in the life of a physician or resident. (Be aware that there is often a waiting list, and your shadowing opportunity may have to be scheduled weeks or months in advance.) Visit the web sites of some medical schools. Request information; you'll soon have a plethora of helpful information about what classes you'll need to take, necessary GPA, etc. Find out if they may be holding an "open house" that will allow you to come and tour the campus, speak with currently enrolled students about student life, financial concerns, etc., view demonstrations of simulator training for their physician students, and get a feel for the educational philosophy of the school. You have LOTS of questions; these people have answers for you. If you are willing to make the commitment, and you have what it takes, IT CAN BE DONE.
Regarding the enormous debt incurred from going to medical school, paying off a loan that is anywhere from 50-100% of your annual salary doesn't sound nearly as scary as the dollar figure itself. If you purchase a vehicle that is 50% of your annual salary, what do you have after paying on it for 5 or 6 years? Invest in yourself and your future earning potential. You're only 30, and you still have MANY years of work ahead of you. (How old will you be in 10 years if you don't do it?) Make the most of your financial and intellectual resources! If you live in an "underserved" area, or are willing to practice in such a designated area, scholarships may be available to augment or cover the entire cost of tuition and books. Your commitment may be as little as the approximate equivalent of the time you spend in medical school--5 years, or so--not a bad deal at all. Once you have completed school and residency, there will be an array of repayment options from which to choose. (Many healthcare organizations agree to pay towards a physician's student loans as part of recruitment and retention.)
Nursing will provide you with amazing insight and experiences, and will probably prevent you from writing many ridiculous orders (as we all have seen residents do,) but it's not necessarily a practical plan if you are truly intent on pursuing a career in medicine. You can probably accomplish as much by simply keeping open lines of communication with the nurses with whom you'll be working. If you do decide to continue on the nursing track, but still have the remotest inkling to go on to medical school, DO NOT obtain your BSN before attempting to complete the rest of the prerequisites you'll need for the MCAT. As I understand it, obtaining a bachelor's degree (in ANY field) will disqualify you from obtaining a Stafford Loan (both subsidized an unsubsidized,) and may also affect additional financial aid for which you would otherwise qualify.
I hope you gain from the collective wisdom of your peers here, including the feedback you would have preferred to not hear--it is instructive and has the power to inform your future working relationships. Best of luck as you strive to actualize your potential!
Specializes in Trauma,ER,CCU/OHU/Nsg Ed/Nsg Research.
As I understand it, obtaining a bachelor's degree (in ANY field) will disqualify you from obtaining a Stafford Loan (both subsidized an unsubsidized,) and may also affect additional financial aid for which you would otherwise qualify.
jasmine- do you mean this generally, or for med students, because it is possible to obtain grad level Stafford (both types) after receiving a BSN. Not sure about med students, though.
Generally, Stafford Loans are not awarded for subsequent bachelor's degrees. This is true for all courses of study. You are correct that Stafford Loans are available for advanced degrees, but not for multiples of bachelor's degrees.
I do not consider myself expert in matters of student financial aid, but I do know that if I had actually completed my BSN (which I was working on when my husband died unexpectedly), I would have been disqualified from the Stafford Loans I needed to obtain my bachelor's degree in Biology. I expect that I will be utilizing more Stafford Loans when I start medical school in the next year (or two.)
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SweetLemon
213 Posts
i am not really sure what opportunities you are referring to.... most of the people on this site are nurses and are happy to be. while there are a few who are going from nursing to medicine the majority are not, just something to keep in mind while addressing this subject. many made the personal choice to become a nurse because they wanted to be and took all advantages and opportunities to do so.....
for the most part the responses that have been posted are by no means personal in nature but merely stating whatever the poster thinks is a good choice for those wanting to pursue medicine but are considering nursing along the way. i would advise you to not take offense to any of it... in the end it is you that gets to make the choices as well as live them out. post your thoughts, ignore those who irritate you and respond to those who intrigue you.......