MD to NP

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I was looking on a PA website and they were discussing PA to MD bridges and if NPs could go this route. One PA commented on his/her view of NPs was that they have been giving physicians the finger for years so the AMA would never allow a NP to MD pathway.

However, NPs we might make a MD to NP bridge someday!!!!

I couldnt stop laughing

Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
If you are an MSN NP with an MD, can you be called a doctor by patients though because you earned your doctoral MD degree even though you are practicing as an MSN NP? I'm really curious because one of my close friends is attending a carribean medical school and isn't doing too well and it is very difficult to get into a residency from the carribean. He always dreams of being a doctor so I recommend to him the NP route post MD if he can't get into a residency or else he is stuck with $200,000k debt and no job. Very curious how something like this works.

Certainly, that person can introduce himself as a Dr. Someone. That's the same principle as DNP's calling themselves doctors, the important distinction being that the person in question must be clear to the public that he is practicing as an NP and not as a physician. The local medical community where he will practice may view this negatively and though it appears to be a way of "skirting the rules" and not necessarily breaking the law, they could still lodge a complaint to the regulatory boards of both nursing and medicine. Is that the kind of headache this person wants to pay to satisfy that obsession with the doctor title?

Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
Certainly, that person can introduce himself as a Dr. Someone. That's the same principle as DNP's calling themselves doctors, the important distinction being that the person in question must be clear to the public that he is practicing as an NP and not as a physician. The local medical community where he will practice may view this negatively and though it appears to be a way of "skirting the rules" and not necessarily breaking the law, they could still lodge a complaint to the regulatory boards of both nursing and medicine. Is that the kind of headache this person wants to pay to satisfy that obsession with the doctor title?

He would not even consider becoming an american osteopath because he wants to be an MD. He went to Grenada to get an MD degree. Believe me, he wants to be called "doctor." Sorta the same reasons why there is a big push for NP to be called doctors now. The DNP, from what i've been hearing, is basically a fluffy bs degree that doesn't maek you a better provider, but it'll make you feel more respectable because you cann call yourself "doctor" to your patients.

Specializes in Neurosurgery, Neurology.
That isn't always true; many NP programs require similar science pre-requisites including organic and inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology, biostatistics, genetics, etc.

I'm curious as to an example or two of this?

only benefit I've gotten from being an np in med school so far is i don't have to practice nearly as much for patient encounters/ physical exam class check offs. I am sure it will help in clinicals too but of course if being a doc is your aspiration right off the bat there is no point in doing anything besides a bachelors then going straight into the med school. Just a waste of time/money otherwise.

As to what golden fox said, not all dr salaries are decreasing. family med, psych, neuro, and a couple more have been on the rise. Its just not common to have the obscene million dollar salaries some cardiologists, and a few other specialists had back in the 90s and early 2000s. But I mean who goes into anything in healthcare expecting to make a million anyway. Unless your the CEO of a health insurance company or some fraudulent for profit hospital.

Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.
I'm curious as to an example or two of this?

Any quality program will have some mix of those classes as prerequisite.

For instance, Simmons DE-FNP program requirements: Nursing MSN: Direct Entry Program

Specializes in Outpatient Psychiatry.

What about NP scholastics at all mirrors medical academics? I don't see how such a path would be possible without starting over.

Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.
What about NP scholastics at all mirrors medical academics? I don't see how such a path would be possible without starting over.

It will never happen.

Any quality program will have some mix of those classes as prerequisite.

For instance, Simmons DE-FNP program requirements: Nursing MSN: Direct Entry Program

It's one semester of gen chem and orgo. Med school requires 2 semesters of each plus 2 semesters of physics...

Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.
That isn't always true; many NP programs require similar science pre-requisites including organic and inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology, biostatistics, genetics, etc.

Would you mind adding some of these programs? I'm not doubting you just would like to have schools to refer to as I'm often asked by prospective students where they will get a decent education and in my experience as someone who went to a well respected, highly ranked, brick and mortar school I was not impressed. My program required none of the above. Two pharm courses and here's your prescription pad.

Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.
It's one semester of gen chem and orgo. Med school requires 2 semesters of each plus 2 semesters of physics...

Hence why I said "similar".

I've never seen a NP program require physics as a prereq, not sure it would make much of a direct impact on practice.

Most quality NP programs require less chemistry than medical school, though they still require it, and often replace that with requirements for biostats and developmental psych as well as A&P1/2 which is covered within the medical curriculum.

Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.
Would you mind adding some of these programs? I'm not doubting you just would like to have schools to refer to as I'm often asked by prospective students where they will get a decent education and in my experience as someone who went to a well respected, highly ranked, brick and mortar school I was not impressed. My program required none of the above. Two pharm courses and here's your prescription pad.

Did you go to RN-NP or DE-NP? It's the DE-NP programs which typically require these courses, though I am not sure why the RN-NP programs don't, more evidence of the lack of standardization and quality control.

John Hopkins: MSN: Entry into Nursing Practice | School of Nursing at Johns Hopkins University

Vanderbilt: MSN Admissions | Admissions | School of Nursing | Vanderbilt University

Mass General Hospital IHP: Direct-Entry MS in Nursing | MGH Institute of Health Professions

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