Have any NPs considered med school?

Specialties NP

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I know threads about considering medical school are often posted in the general forums, but I'm wondering how many NPs have actually considered med school as an option? Why did you choose to become a nurse practitioner instead of a physician? Have you ever regretted your decision?

Specializes in ICU, ER, HH, NICU, now FNP.

ALL MD's have to do residency - yes even "general" MD's. Specialists do ADDITIONAL residency in addition to that.

Contact a local medical school and talk to one of their advisors - they should be able to answer all your questions.

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Specializes in Transplant, Trauma/Surgical, Pre-reg.

Certain states will allow MDs and DOs to practice without serving a residency. However, they will not be considered board certified. This information came directly from an ER doc I worked with. You would need to check on the states that allow this and also check into board certification.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.
I know threads about considering medical school are often posted in the general forums, but I'm wondering how many NPs have actually considered med school as an option? Why did you choose to become a nurse practitioner instead of a physician? Have you ever regretted your decision?

I am currently working on my adult health NP and it did cross my mind about medical school for a second. I don't see the need to go back and do 4 years of Chemistry, Physics and Calculus and then do a full time residency just to do what I can do, without it, as a NP. In Florida, I can do everything a doctor can do except prescribe narcotics with the collaboration/supervision of a doctor. I will carry my own and apply for admitting privileges at the hospital I currently work at as a nurse. I know it burns physicians butts when they hear this and they take it as competition. I always hear "If you want to prescribe, treat, diagnose like a doctor then go to medical school" all the time.

I prefer to spend time with my family and take care of my patients from a nursing/medical basis instead of worrying about all that. If they eliminated the bulls**t and let NPs cross into medical school without the filler classes then I would reconsider.. :rolleyes:

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What if I just do a general M.D degree, is it possible for me to get a job?

Thanks

Nev

If you want to practice medicine, you will need to pass all 3 steps of the medical licensing boards (USMLE for MDs, COMLEX for DOs). Step 1 occurs after your 2nd year of medical school. Step 2 occurs during your 4th year of medical school. Step 3 occurs during your internship year. You cannot take step 3 if you are not doing/did not do an internship. Without step 3, you cannot get a unrestricted license to practice medicine.

If you want the bare minimum (just internship, no residency), then you can legally work as a physician. But you will have a hard time getting listings in HMO, medical insurance, medicare/medicaid, etc. Many hospitals require physicians to be board-certified if they want hospital priviledges. Physician groups (private practice) will only hire BC/BE physicians. Many patients also want "board-certified" physicians as their docs. So unless you want to work in a severely medically-underserved area, good luck operating a cash-based practice with no priviledges (including admitting) at any hospitals. Also, get ready to pay insanely high due to your "no residency training" status.

What concerns me most though is throughout this post, you seem to be trying to find shortcuts to becoming a physician. If you were a patient, would you like your attending physician to be someone who took shortcuts to get to where (s)he is today? As a physician, how would you feel if your patients died or were severely harmed due to lack of knowledge/training? There is a popular saying in medicine: The eyes do not see what the mind does not know.

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I have seen people trained in Med schools with 3 fellowships but are useless! At the same time I have seen PAs and NPs work as excellent physicaians. So I was thinking that it would be a good idea to make a bridging program for EXPERIENCED NPs and PAs into becoming Doctors.

I am not loooking for any easy shortcuts...................I was just curious about the regular medical doctor

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I have seen people trained in Med schools with 3 fellowships but are useless! At the same time I have seen PAs and NPs work as excellent physicaians. So I was thinking that it would be a good idea to make a bridging program for EXPERIENCED NPs and PAs into becoming Doctors.

I am not loooking for any easy shortcuts...................I was just curious about the regular medical doctor

There has been talk for years of these type of bridging programs. A few have been proposed.

One example: http://easteadjr.org/guest.html

This type of program may not be too far away with a proposed doctor shortage in non-urban areas.

But I would not bank on them. Opposition from all sides will be FIERCE.

You would be better served pursuing the educational prereq's needed for admission to an established NP, MD/DO program.

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Specializes in Maternity, quality.
I have seen people trained in Med schools with 3 fellowships but are useless! At the same time I have seen PAs and NPs work as excellent physicaians. So I was thinking that it would be a good idea to make a bridging program for EXPERIENCED NPs and PAs into becoming Doctors.

I am not loooking for any easy shortcuts...................I was just curious about the regular medical doctor

You will find useless, well-educated people in EVERY profession. Ultimately education can only do so much, it's up to the individual receiving the education to determine what kind of professional he/she will be, whether that's as a physician or an electrician.

The education an NP receives is different from the education an MD/DO receives. So, as someone stated, while being an NP or a PA may give someone an advantage in certain areas of med school, they still have to go through the same hoops as everyone else. I don't anticipate that this is going to change any time soon. Your best bet is to find the career that you feel fits best with your personal goals and go for it.

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MD's in all states ahve to complete the Step 3, including 1 year of internship, to recieve a license. In a few states, they are required to complete a second year of residency.

The practice opportunites to someone w/o a residency will be few and far between. You can accept medicare, but most insurances won't allow you on. You *might* get admitting privlidges to a rural hospital, but that's iffy. Generally the only people you see today w/o a residency are those that are over 50. Up until the 80's, many doctor's did not complete residencies. The Family Physician board certification, and later the ER board certification, has changed that. The few places you see that will admit GP(General Physicians) to staff and insurance boards usually requrie they have been in practice for 20-25+ years.

The places you could practice, would be the following:

1) For the Public Health Service

2) For the Military

3) In a community health center

As for your existing background, it will make your first year of residency, and your clinicals, much easier -- in that you'll have knowledge of how to start IV's, run a code, do some basic surgery, etc. A lot of course also depends on where you spent your time as an NP, and what your going into.

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Specializes in Peds, PICU, Home health, Dialysis.
Certain states will allow MDs and DOs to practice without serving a residency. However, they will not be considered board certified. This information came directly from an ER doc I worked with. You would need to check on the states that allow this and also check into board certification.

I am not sure what doctor told you this, but as far as I know, this is extremely incorrect. Doctors who have went through medical school but have opted to NOT enter a residency are hindered and unable to practice. After a doctors residency, they may opt not to partake in the board exam for their speciality. If they decide not to take the board exam, they are still able to acquire a position somewhere, but they must post the fact that they are not board certified, but rather only board eligible. Perhaps I am completely wrong, but I know a few doctors, and this is what they have told me.

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Doctors who have went through medical school but have opted to NOT enter a residency are hindered and unable to practice.

This is not true in my state. I used to work in the ER in a rural practice where none of the docs did a residency. Most were DOs that did a one year internship that was required for licensing then went into family practice then quit that and now do ER only. In a larger trauma center, they'd never get hired but rural bandaid stations are fine w/ those docs.

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All states require an internship, only a very few require a residency of one year beyond the intership. No state requries more than 2 yrs after graduation to recieve a license.

The issue isn't licensure, its getting onto insurance panels and hospital privlidges. Most insurers and hospitals will not admit a physician who hasn't completed a residency or been in practice for 20+ years.

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Hi All!

I'm new to this forum, and have found it to be very interesting and informative.

Here is my dilemma: :angryfire

I'm going qrazy trying to decide wether to continue with med school or just go for NP. I'm a guy, in my mid 30- ish, been an RN for almost 15 yrs with lots of clinical and general paper pushing exp. I'm also a licensed acupuncturist, and had been in private practice, before I quit it all, and went down to an off-shore med school. I'm done with 2 semesters, but it's really getting to me. Sure there are some folks even in their 50s, but I'm kind of starting to think that this mid-life thing got to me a bit to early :rotfl:. All I wanted is some independence, and to be able to do primary care. I've got to also say that I've been hung up on M.D status, and not happy being reminded sometimes that I am a male-nurse, more than I'd like to admit. It's just many of my quite happy patients were saying things like "why didn't you go all the way?",or "too bad you're not a doc, I would've chosen you instead of a crip I go to" and so on... I don't want to go into way too many details, but I really wanted to hear from some of you outthere in the know. Basically, are you happy? Do you ever regret not doing a med or D.O school? Please, I really need to hear form you guys, as my adventure is sure getting me into some impressive debt, and I'm stuck abroad without my wife and daughter.It's really taking a tall on me emotionally, and my personal health. I know that nothing good ever came into being without a great deal of sucrifice.But is it really worth it, if the only thing I wanted to do is Family Medicine /Primary Care or a physical medicine and rehab?

Sorry I went on and on for so long, I guess I needed to vent a bit :angryfire

Thank you very much

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