Medical School or Nursing School?

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Hello everyone, I know that there are an incredible amount of topics posted about this already, but I wanted to get your opinions about going for medical school or nursing school. This might be long, I apologize!

I am graduating this semester with a BS in Pharmacology and Toxicology. I entered college thinking I wanted to work in a pharmaceutical research lab but found out I absolutely hated working with just theoreticals. I really enjoyed courses such as psychology, physiology, and pathophysiology, which led me to consider nursing or medicine.

Since most of my courses for my degree crossed with the prereqs for nursing programs, I was able to get accepted into an Accelerated BSN that will finish next August. As for medical school stats, I graduated in 3 years with a 4.0 working part time as a peer mentor and as a home health aide, but I have no volunteer experience.

I really enjoy my home health job because I can work one on one with the clients and they are usually fairly independent. I once picked up a caregiver shift at a memory care center my company contracts with and it stressed me out very much.

If I had to narrow down my concerns, it would come down to family time and cost. Both of which medical school seems to take away. Becoming an RN seems like it would be very flexible for raising children while medicine is very rigid (for example, the ability to work part time vs 80 hours in residency). The return on investment would be alot more for an NP than an MD working in primary care. It seems to me that nursing would be the logical choice to fit what I want out of life, but being completely honest, and direct patient care really freaks me out, which always seems to lead me back to contemplating medicine. I think I would like to be an FNP, but I dont want to bulldozer through school, as I see value in obtaining RN experince.

As a new grad RN, would there be any place where I could work in a one on one environment? Was anyone scared of direct patient care and was able to become more comfortable with it during nursing school? Would it be better for me to just accept the high cost and high time commitment of medical school to seek out the environment I want to practice in? Has the push for the DNP and decreasing wages made becoming an NP unaffordable?

Thank you for taking time to read this!

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14 minutes ago, WestCoastSunRN said:

Hmmm. I'm going to argue that I think the fear you mention above is something you need to work through regardless of what role you are in. Skilled, well-rounded clinicians (RNs, MDs, NPs, PAs,) know how to move patients and read physiologic and psychologic cues to assess pain with cares/mobility. Unless you are in a purely consultative role or outpatient mental health or allergy clinic or somewhere where you don't need to have this skill (in which case you won't need it until you do), you need to be comfortable with comprehensive pain management across populations - and that necessarily entails understanding how nursing cares/mobility/ADLs impact pain and quality of life (for which there is no greater teacher than experience).

This isn't even a granular issue - it's basic. I understand you are saying you experience 'fear' - but that fear is likely born out of what you do not know.

Now, if what is really at play is that you don't like touching patients or caring for patients dependent on nursing care - then you may want to reconsider any of these roles. Holistic care is not just the battle cry of nursing - medical disciplines are responsible for providing it as well.

Thank you for your reply. I have tried to evaluate why I had these feelings. I have thought too about whether I dislike to care for those dependent on nursing care. However, I did enjoy helping the residents get cleaned up, dressed and ready for the day. I tend to be scared to make mistakes, and I think that partially contributes to my fear when the residents would start crying- that I was doing the procedure wrong and causing them undue pain.