Medical school after nursing school ?

OrganizedChaos, LVN · May 9, 2015

If you want to be a nurse, be a nurse. You can always become an advanced practice nurse or get your doctorates in nursing. Or if you want to be a doctor, be a doctor. They are both very different careers. One is nursing & the other is medicine.

Plus you will need to take many more classes if you decide to become a doctor. Classes you could've taken if you weren't in nursing school and working as a nurse.

EternalFeather · May 9, 2015

I wanted to be a doctor too but I was told nursing school is a better back up plan if I don't make it to med school.

I had beautiful gpa before going into nursing school but then it's gone down after graduating nursing school. Cause nursing school was so hard and the grading scale was super challenging!

But since I have to take more classes anyways for med school requirements maybe i could raise my gpa back up to the desirable gpa after taking those classes???

And do med schools really hate students who took classes in community college?! That's crazy!

I also don't like how nursing school is so underrated. Only people who've gone to nursing school could understand us. I also don't like that the first day of nursing school, we are told that they expect more than half of the class to fail and only like 10-20 people will survive, and one time you fail a class, you're out of the program. Meanwhile, in med school,(I heard) the first day of class, they're told "we support you all the way, we're gonna make you pass, you get remedials if you fail."

It sucks.

Wrench Party · May 9, 2015

I think if you're young and motivated, you can pull this off.

1) go to nursing school, get your BSN

2) work as an RN, save up money (who knows? you may like nursing as is)

3) take pre-requisites for med school

4) apply

Also, consider becoming a PA. These programs are in the medical model, but the program is only 3 years long. It may offer

you better life/work balance than an MD.

meanmaryjean, DNP, RN · May 9, 2015

You believe you have the potential to become a physician but come on an online, anonymous nursing board to find out the requirements for med school?

Just let that sink in....

Dranger · May 9, 2015

Here you go OP:

Let me google that for you

It baffles me that even I know med school pre reqs backwards and forwards along with the physician licensing exam requirements but a career oriented poster like yourself can't find what a 18 year old freshman pre-med knows.....

browneyes3000 · May 10, 2015

The surgeon at my hospital came to the patient room to fix a beeping IV pump. I was kinda surprised, and he told me he used to be a nurse tech for 8 years. He treats nurses and patients really nice.

SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP · May 10, 2015

No, not feasible. Skip nursing school and get your pre-med undergrad in a science. It will take you longer to get your BSN than it would to fulfill your science requirements with a different degree.

If you really want to be a doctor, don't go to nursing school

OrganizedChaos, LVN · May 10, 2015

You believe you have the potential to become a physician but come on an online, anonymous nursing board to find out the requirements for med school?
Just let that sink in....

And then don't come back... Lol.

JoseQuinones · May 11, 2015

I added a minor in bio-medical sciences to my BSN because I want to leave the door open to do just what you're thinking about. The way I see it, a straight science degree in a pre-med track is a bit of a risky proposition because while it may be useful in any number of fields, it doesn't directly lead to a job. But with a BSN, you have a ready-made career option as a plan B just in case.

RN -> MD · Jun 17, 2015

Hi,

I think I can speak to this. Certainly medical school after your BSN is possible! I spent 2.5 years after my BSN working on gaining my pre-reqs for medical school while working as an RN. I needed to do O-chem, gen-chem, physics, and i personally needed an extra biology credit, and many schools require calculus. I then took the MCAT and applied. I did talk to a school counselor, but yikes! They didn't have a whole lot of faith in me! I do think it is worth mentioning that I am in the caribbean for school, but applying to school in the states would have been more feasible had I had a stellar GPA in my BSN (I wasn't worried about it at the time, as I had no clue I wanted to go to medical school until the near the end.) But ABSOLUTELY if you have a stellar gpa and you get 30+ on your MCAT you can get into medical, especially if you get As in all your sciences. If your stats are not so stellar, DO is an option, and there are a few schools in the states that take less than perfect candidates that are worth researching. The caribbean was the best option for me, and being away from the buzz of american life is very helpful to study. I could not imagine working while in school, as I feel guilty for doing anything besides studying. It is possible that it would be a little easier to work if you went to school in the states, as they have less of a "weed out" mentality than they do here in the caribbean.

I will tell you this. I am finishing my second year, and my life is pretty much nothing but studying. I spend all my time in the library, and get anxious about being social because i spend my entire day staring at a computer screen, and don't interact with people very much these days! The point of me saying that is that you have to have a lot of resolve. You have to want to be a physician more than you want much of anything! For me it was the love of learning science / wanting to understand medicine on the deepest level mixed with wanting to push my education as far as I could that drove me this direction. My friends got their NPs after nursing school, and they finished them and started making 100k a year at the same time that I came home from my first semester of medical school for a break. They were done, and I was just starting. They are living the dream and doing whatever they please with their lives, and I'm going to be a student/resident with no life for years to come. But this is my path, but thinking about the differences is very real in terms of how we are spending years of our lives.

Anyway I'm rambling, but the point is that it is possible if you want it! You can make it happen, but its pretty much going to really be a nightmare most of the time, until you get to the end result (at least the first two years are a total nightmare!! hopefully the next two in rotations will be a lot better). Being a nurse helps... err some in these first two years, I'd say I started out thinking the opposite of most people with the very sciencey undergrads, as I had a framework of thinking that builds on my clinical knowledge, and they have more of a cellular basis, but at this point, finishing up the basics sciences we have all obviously become very similar in our knowledge, but I will probably have a good advantage when it comes to being comfortable in a clinical setting, and having a clue how it all works. So when people ask if being a nurse is an advantage in medical school, my answer is certainly yes sometimes, but sometimes sayyyy in biochem, I tend to have a lot harder time than people with biology or chemistry backgrounds (which is most people).

Anyway I talked a lot, but I joined this site for the sole purpose of shining a little light for people like you! I would say you can PM me, but apparently I have to post 15 times before Im allowed to send any more messages, so I will try to do that!

smf0903 · Jun 17, 2015

If you want to be a nurse, be a nurse. You can always become an advanced practice nurse or get your doctorates in nursing.

And who wouldn't want to say "Hi, I'm Doctor Smith and I'll be your nurse today." :up:

bugya90, ASN, BSN, LVN, RN · Jun 17, 2015

You need to research the nursing practice model and the medical practice model and decide which one fits your personality best. If it's nursing get your BSN then go to NP school. NPs are providers and with the Heath care reform and shortage of physicians they are becoming more marketable than ever before. If the medical model fits better get your BS in biology or chem (have always been told don't get a BS in "pre-med" get one in an actual science so you have a real fallback degree in case med school doesn't work out) and apply to med school. It makes no sense to spend money and time on your BSN if that's not what you want career wise.