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.
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
excuse me for being pissy, but i'm confused... if you are 26 now, how will you be 30 in 6 years (2014)? can i use your calendar?
anyway, now i will address your question. if you want to be an md go for it, but please do not take a nursing school spot from someone who wants to use their nursing degree to be a nurse.
You asked this on a nurse forum! What did you think the response was going to be? Fine if going all the way for you = MD, but the implication as that choosing nursing then means not going all the way, and/or 'quitting'. This is way people got defensive, it was an insulting statement.
As far as your comment about nurses eating there young, if you have a nursing license and are STILL making the same comments, well...I guess then you could expect to "be eaten". It's insulting!
I'm sorry your felt helpless during the loss of your loved one, and that you felt the nursing staff was helpless too. Where was your loved one's MD during this time? I wonder if the MD felt helpless too?
About 6 weeks ago, we lost a beloved resident at my facility. His family counted on us, the nursing staff for emotional support. They counted on us to make sure their father's dying wishes were met. They thanked me personally and told me they were glad I was there. With tears, I was able to say I was glad I was there too. There father told me he loved me, he was glad I had been his nurse for the last 6 months, and he was sorry if he'd ever given me any trouble. He then told me "come closer so I can kiss you goodbye".
Again, I'm sorry your family member didn't have such a peaceful ending. I brought this up because I hope you will examine your motivations for looking at medicine vs. nursing. Often, MDs are not present during the last days and hours. Orders are obtained through nurses, who report change in condition. Nurses spend more time with individual pts. than MDs do. Ask the nurses here who are ICU nurses and who can work there shift 1:1.
Again, spend some time interviewing MDs and nurses who have been in the profession for awhile. See what they like and why and then make a determination about what to do, but I don't think that moving from nursing into medicine is the best way, especially since nursing school is competitive and there is a shortage. You don't plan on staying in the profession, you're taking up space by people who are looking at this as their "all the way".
Best of luck to you.
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.
I considered it but for one thing, I'm not very smart so I decided to become a nurse. That wayI could still work in the hospital even though I wasn't doing the important stuff like doctors do. Also, like you, I was way too old-. I was 27 when I graduated with my BSN. Gosh, if I went to med school then I would have been almost 40 by the time I finished my residency- that's almost dead isn't it? Sounds like you have made the right decision in becoming just a nurse- leave all that doctor stuff to the smarter people.
Specializes in NPD; Administration; M/S; Critical Care.
llg,
Sorry to hijack this thread, but I'm looking ahead to next year, when I finish my MSN in Nursing Education, and am considering a EdD (Higher Education), DNP (Nursing Education) or PhD (Higher Ed.). Since my goals are to teach nursing/sciences, which would you suggest? Is your PhD in Nursing or Education? Any comments are appreciated!
I just don't think that the OP said a single thing for anyone to get upset over, and there are alot of people that are responding to her very, very disrespectfully.
I'm very shocked that a group of educated men and women cannot "get" what she was trying to ask.
Medical schools take all kinds of majors...I had a friend that majored in Sociology, of all things, took the MCAT and was accepted.
What the OP was asking (and I'm sure the OP will correct me if I'm wrong), is if she got a BSN (which is still a 4-year degree last time I checked), has anyone here decided to go to med-school later???
Medical schools care very little about what you majored in, because they all require pretty much the same pre-reqs such as two semesters of not only A&P, but Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physics, Microbiology...why? Because these are good predictors of success.
No reason in the world why someone that persuing a BSN can't take these courses at the same time, and I think with all of the courses towards patient-care, the pharmacology, etc...it would at least give you a better "heads up" to med school than just taking a science major, like so many do, an applying.
There is a Neonatologist, a man of all people, that used to be a nurse that works at my hospital, that is well known for being very respectful of nurses.
Granted, some docs can be a pain in the patoot, rude, we have at my hospital that used to be an attorney, and spends more time covering his butt at the expense of not only the nursing staff, but his patients as well...however, I am also working with a few nurses that have grown so heartless toward patients, that I feel that they just need to find another line of work, because I feel that they are just rude and insensitive.
I can see it from both sides. Nurses are the patient advocate and they don't think physicians care about them, only about getting that big fat check at the end of the month. But I can also see a physician's point of view...b/c in the end, if something goes wrong...who is the one that usually gets sued?
Specializes in Trauma,ER,CCU/OHU/Nsg Ed/Nsg Research.
Unit,
I hope you don't mind if I answer the above question (at least partially). You can teach as an adjunct with a MSN (preferably MSNed). The DNP is a clinical doctorate, meaning that it is geared more toward NPs or CRNAs, although you can teach higher ed with that degree as well. If you want to teach at the university level for nursing, the PhD in nursing science is the way to go, and is the best road to getting a tenure track position. Tenure= job security in the academic world.
Specializes in NPD; Administration; M/S; Critical Care.
Thanks for responding. Actually, depending on the school one attends, the DNP now has three focuses: education, administration, and clinical. The idea being that if one was to teach clinical nursing, for example, you would have the DNP to validate your knowledge in the clinical arena.
Since my goal is to be a professional adjunct (!), I had thought of the EdD, so that I could teach courses other than nursing, although I could do that with my MSN, also, as you stated. I'm just trying to make myself more competitive in the field.
I just don't think that the OP said a single thing for anyone to get upset over, and there are alot of people that are responding to her very, very disrespectfully.
I'm very shocked that a group of educated men and women cannot "get" what she was trying to ask......
No reason in the world why someone that persuing a BSN can't take these courses at the same time, and I think with all of the courses towards patient-care, the pharmacology, etc...it would at least give you a better "heads up" to med school than just taking a science major, like so many do, an applying.
I guess phrase "all the way " is the sticking point, as if a nursing degree isn't enough of an end in itself. It isn't as if AARIAH has completed a nursing program and has had a change of heart in career choice but using nursing as a stepping stone to a medical degree as a plan seems wrong. She will be taking the place of someone who wants to pursue career in the college on nursing. There are multiple other science degrees that would provide a path to med school without displacing a nursing student. As far as nurse/doctors having a better attitude, you can be just as big a jerk with a BSN as you can with a BS in Chemisrty. Nursing dosen't make you more respectfull or courteous-I'm a good case in point.
while i don't believe the op was intentionally trying to offend, it did kind of read that way. and with that title, it was virtually impossible not to check out the thread....
as for the op's question, i agree that if you want to be a doctor, go straight to it, don't take a seat away from someone who wants to nurse.
and the comment about the hospital food chain reminded me of this:
I just don't think that the OP said a single thing for anyone to get upset over, and there are alot of people that are responding to her very, very disrespectfully.
I'm very shocked that a group of educated men and women cannot "get" what she was trying to ask.
Medical schools take all kinds of majors...I had a friend that majored in Sociology, of all things, took the MCAT and was accepted.
I can only speak for myself but I do think that most of the posters aren't stupid and they did "get" what the OP was trying to say.
The question is why bother being a nurse when what you really want to be is a physician? The OP also has some misconceptions about nursing. She seems to believe that a physician is like a nurse only more highly educated hence the "going all the way" comment. A nurse is not a doc and vice versa.
Why go through all the drama that is NS just to move on immediately after? I also know first hand that medical schools accept a variety of majors. One of my friend's majored in Anthropology and another in Biology. Some would consider one major to be more difficult than the other but the point is that they were both accepted and one is actually finished now.
Getting a degree in nursing because you think it's going to make you a better doctor is like wanting to learn Russian but taking Chinese first because you think it's going to help you learn Russian.
Specializes in med-surg 5 years geriatrics 12 years.
I have worked with a doctor who started out as an RN and worked her way to PHD; still not what she wanted so she went to medical school. I loved her !! She still had and used her listening skills; wasn't upset when questioned and loved to teach. So...if that's what you want to do go for it.
I don't think the OP meant any harm in what was said-- just obvious naivete. The OP, like most of the unwashed masses, probably think that a physician is "all the way" under any circumstance. But the vast majority of nurses I know have had no desire to ever become physicians. With all the extra years, loans, lowering reimbursements, and overall nightmarish headaches /hours/ paperwork /lawsuits...its not the profession it once was -- they're not so much the gods in the healthcare system they once were.
Nurse Salt
330 Posts
excuse me for being pissy, but i'm confused... if you are 26 now, how will you be 30 in 6 years (2014)? can i use your calendar?
anyway, now i will address your question. if you want to be an md go for it, but please do not take a nursing school spot from someone who wants to use their nursing degree to be a nurse.