HELP! Is it possible for RNS with BSN degrees to attend Medical School to be Doctors?

beth66335, BSN, RN · Aug 7, 2007

I don't get a paper but my parents do, I'll have to ask them for that section of the paper!

I actually read this (that House is based on Holmes) in Parade magazine in the sunday newspaper two days ago. How funny, huh? :)

rn/writer, RN · Aug 7, 2007

I tried going to the Parade website to see if I could find the article and provide a link here, but no such luck.

If anyone else is able to link to the article, we Housephiles would appreciate it.

SA2BDOCTOR · Aug 7, 2007

WOW you know alot!!!:) Thanks are you planning on going to MED school?

Medical schools don't care what you major in as long as your overall AND your BCMP (biology, chemistry, math, physics) GPA is solid. They do this to weed out potential slackers. It prevents people from padding their GPA, so if your overall GPA is (my math probably won't add up here, it's an example) 3.7 but your BCPM is 2.9, they'll probably round file your app. Major in something you truly enjoy, something that will show you add diversity to their school, and something you'll be able to hold a productive, interesting conversation in. So if you're into French Lit, go for it. They don't care.
my concern for you is the BSN. If you don't want to be a nurse, i really think you're wasting your time getting the bachelors because it will probably end up proving useless to you. my advice to you is to get your ADN instead, you make basically the same money, you do the same job, and it's 2 years faster in most cases. What i've done so far (and our situations are remarkably similar, i'm only getting my ADN so that i can afford to go to a real university and then on to med school, and it's a safety net) is plan out my course schedule to knock out all of my gen. ed. requirements for a bachelor's degree in microbiology while i'm getting my ADN. After this, i'll be moving to a different state to go to school and establish residency while working as a nurse. i plan on working all through undergrad, and if i can swing it and keep my grades up, the first two years of medical school.
You need to be able to answer the questions adcoms will throw at you. And they're going to prey upon us as nurses because they want to make sure we're not just being fickle. Nursing is typically considered a professional degree, nursing majors typically end up working as nurses. Why don't you want to be a nurse? And more importantly, why do you want to be a physician? If you can't answer this, you're not getting in. You need to have a good, solid reason for doing things the way you do (and that's true of all applicants, not just nurses). "I want to help people" isn't going to be good enough. Nurses help people too. Why do you think you'll serve the public better as a doctor than as a nurse?
That's the kind of stuff they're going to ask you. If you're just doing nursing for a job and a degree, i really think you're off track here. Go to PA school, get your ADN instead, get your EMT-B license, or be a medical assistant, respiratory therapist, SOMETHING that will let you make more money fast and get on with your medical school plans. Adcoms like to see planning and preparation, they do NOT like to see time wasted.
i understand where you're coming from. You've got the right idea, i'm just worried you won't be looked at as seriously if they think you're just another career jumper. Getting a bachelor's degree shows them (not necessarily correctly in all other cases) that you've invested yourself in nursing, what happens if you "invest" your self similarly in medicine?
This is not to say that people don't switch careers every day. Medical schools love diversity. But your options for "your story" are either "I got my BSN to make money," OR "i thought nursing was my calling but i was wrong." Either way, you paint yourself in a less than flattering light. In former case, you just wasted two years of your life. In the latter case, it is especially detrimental because you've JUST graduated with your BSN and you're jumping ship. Does that make sense?
You're going to need to start preparing now. Start volunteering for causes that you believe in, study your ass off and pull as high a GPA as you possibly can, start doing research if you're able, get involved in your school and your community, and take on some leadership positions. Develop your hobbies. Make yourself as interesting and as well rounded as you can stand, and get your story together. One great thing about being a nurse first is that it really saves you a lot of time shadowing physicians, since you're constantly in their hair all day anyway It's also a great opportunity to get yourself in tight with doctors who will write you stellar LORs, which you're also going to need for your app. Just keep your head on straight and plan ahead, you'll do just fine :icon_hug:
Additionally...
Entirely untrue. 3rd and 4th years will be tricky, but it's absolutely possible to work during the first two. i know a few people who do it. They're not thrilled about it, but one of them is a PA and the other is a CRNA, so "working" to them sounds a whole lot like studying. Also, the truth is, you can't go into nursing expecting to make friends when all the other nurses find out you chose their CAREER as your JOB. They don't typically like that. You DO, however, tend to get in tighter with the physicians, and i've found they LOVE helping newbies study on the job.
Also not true. You'll be lucky to pull $45k through residency (MAYBE $50k by the time you graduate, this data is from 2006). Most residents i know barely scrape by every month, and a few of them are being forced to destroy their credit by deferring their loans past their "grace period." It's not a pretty thing, but again, it's doable in that people do it every day. But you won't live well until after residency, in most cases you barely stay afloat. But consider that the average 2006 salary for a general surgeon one year out of residency was closely approaching $500k, you'll probably survive the 5-6 years if you're smart about it.
DO schools might be a good option for you. Let me first say that THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE IN PRACTICE BETWEEN THE MD AND DO DEGREES.One is not better than the other. The difference in the curriculum is that DO schools teach musculoskeletal manipulations, and MD schools don't. MD graduates can opt to take a class in OMM (which stands for osteopathic manipulative medicine), but anymore most MD grads don't even consider it, and DO grads don't plan to practice it.
As for the DO preference toward non-trad students, according to Stephen Shannon, D.O., president of the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine:
Unfortunately for the DO profession, admissions standards in terms of numbers typically run lower than allopathic schools. This is an incredibly complex issue, but many tend to give creedence to the fact that the stats run lower because of their non-trad friendly stance. A lot of non-trads went to college thinking they'd be communications majors, or drama majors, or basically just going to college because "that's what you do after high school." And not unusually, their grades sucked. It wasn't until much later in life that they realized a) grades matter, and b) they want to be physicians, ergo c) GRADES MATTER. So they spend a few years in post-bacc work trying to drag their GPA up, and generally do well...unfortunately once you trash your GPA, it's an uphill climb.
i hope that helped.