Has anyone considered going all the way?

Nurses General Nursing

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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

Why not just go to medical school in the first place?

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Specializes in ICU/ER.

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 have helped more families at the time of a loved ones death than the Dr. I provided the pain meds and the comfort care to not only the patient but provided huge amounts of emotional support to the family members. I felt honored to be a part of such an important part of life.

I in no way feel helpless in my role as an RN.

But to your main post---yes I know nurses that have gone on to be great MDs. Become a nurse and if you still feel a desire and a calling to pursue your MD go for it. Trust me. 30 is not old!!!!

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I have known a few nurses who became MDs. They felt that they did not have enough autonomy in nursing and wanted to be at the "top" of the medical food chain.

I've never wanted to be a doctor. I don't want to be called at 2 am for tylenol, change in diet, sleeping pills, or even true problems. When I go home I don't want to take work home with me because I am on call. I don't want to go to school that long while still trying to have a life - particularly since woman usually still run the household and have to be wives and mothers in addition to trying to have a career. I don't want to be a doctor and feel that I am out of touch with the realities of healthcare.

If you really aren't sure about what you want to do, see a career counselor. They can give you tests that determine what some of your better and worse skills are as well as help you to define your interests and goals better. If there is any chance that you'd rather be a doctor, going to to nursing school really would be a waste of time and money for you. You need to get headed in a more specific direction. We have too many problems in nursing and people who are going to quit after a while make it more difficult for us to solve our problems. We need people who want to be nurses for the long haul.

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Specializes in Trauma,ER,CCU/OHU/Nsg Ed/Nsg Research.
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.

Some of us would consider obtaining a PhD or DNP 'going all the way.'

;)

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Specializes in Trauma,ER,CCU/OHU/Nsg Ed/Nsg Research.

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.

Unfortunately, doctors are just as helpless as nurses when it comes to end-of-life issues.

You might find it to be a more direct path to go straight through med school, rather than starting out as a nurse. They are 2 different paths, and nursing is not necessarily going to offer you a short cut. Both are be great career choices. Check out your options, and decide whether you want to commit yourself to residency, the financial cost, etc. Good luck in whichever you choose.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Ariah,

As a nurse who LOVES my chosen profession, I take exception to the phrase of "going all the way" in regards to education. I realize you are simply expressing the views of the vast majority of the population who understands very little about what it is that we do or how we are educated. So I'd like to clarify.

Nursing & medicine are two separate professions. We have distinctly different scopes of practice. "Going all the way" in nursing would mean obtaining a doctorate in NURSING. We are not "junior doctors". Nursing is not a stepping stone to medicine.

If you want to go to medical school, I would encourage you to follow your bliss and do so. However, keep in mind that the medical profession will continue to change and evolve. Becoming a physician no longer means an automatic entrance into wealth and privilege as it did in the old days (pre DRGs). The future will undoubtedly bring even more changes.

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.
Some of us would consider obtaining a PhD or DNP 'going all the way.'

;)

Nope, nope, not me...DNP and PhD is what I call "all the way way". I just want to go all the way.

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Specializes in Trauma,ER,CCU/OHU/Nsg Ed/Nsg Research.

:chuckle

But if you're considering the NP or CRNA in the future, you just may find yourself having to go 'all the way way' anyway. :chuckle

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.
:chuckle

But if you're considering the NP or CRNA in the future, you just may find yourself having to go 'all the way way' anyway. :chuckle

Good point. All the way way it is.

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Specializes in SICU/CVICU.
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

i am still considering it, but i think the biggest issue is the financial part (even though you asked for reasons other than financial). i have a brother starting med school soon so i am going to wait and see how he feels about his 100k+ student loan debt. not sure if it's really worth it.

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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.

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Getting into med school is competitive, I would pick an easier undergrad major then nursing if I wanted to be a doctor.

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