Medical school vs Nursing School

jcgrund · Feb 27, 2011

I am currently an LPN, working toward RN and beyond. I work in a primary care clinic and I love being a nurse, but if it were at all possible for me, I would go to med school. I'm afraid for me, though, that's it's just not possible right now. I'm 31, have a 5 year old son, and a husband in the military. We are stationed in a town where the closest 4 year university is 2 hours away, and the closest med school is 4 hours away, and we can't move to be closer to school. The numerous on-line based nursing programs make nursing education accessible for me. If we happen to get stationed somewhere with more opportunites for school, I may still go for med school, but for now, I am excited for the opportunites that nursing offers.

moneyline702 · Mar 23, 2011

To put it simply: If you like working with people and creating connections, go into nursing. If you like working with data, and want to solve science problems, go into medicine.
Best of luck to you

For as much as you say they are equal yet different you fail to state that the "working with people" and "working with data" aspects of the job are in fact interchangeable. A better statement would be "If you enjoy working with people and being on a team to solve complex problems in a medical environment, go into healthcare."

There does exist doctors who couldn't take nursing school and nurses that can't take medical school. This notion that doctors are autonomous and have little interactions with patients is absurd. When in healthcare it's important to keep the focus on the patient not who does what and who's the Queso Grande. If I were a physician there are situations where I'd abdicate to the nursing staff. Were I a nurse I would do the same in instances as well. No person in healthcare is an island, for one simply can not function effectively without the other.

However, I offer that if you feel so strongly about the superiority of doctors they have forums for that (ie, Student Doctor Network). In case you (and you know who you are) didn't look at the URL this is www.allNURSES.com. Just a thought...

wannabesedated · Apr 3, 2011

Why did I choose Nursing?

I wanted to help people. I can help them by relieving their pain or anxiety and giving them comfort. I can also help their families. I like that I can always be learning and I never have a dull moment. I like the fact that I can specialize in the area I choose. I like the autonomy I have in taking care of my patients. Physicians will often base treatment decisions on my assessment. Nursing is a very rewarding profession. There's nothing else like saving a life. :heartbeat

Why didn't I choose Medicine?

Long, long hours! Some physicians are on call 20-30 hours straight. I didn't want to invest that much time into school. Med school requires many years of hard work and sacrifice. I believe I am smart enough to go through Med School and strongly considered it. But for me, it just didn't fit in with my values- family/friends and living a balanced life.

mike109810 · Apr 3, 2011

I have to preface this message off with saying that I am a fourth year medical student wrapping up the last few months of medical school, and trying to enjoy this "relative break" until intern year begins. As I stated in an earlier post, I started lurking these forums because a family member of mine was asking for assistance on learning more about the pathways into a career in the nursing field.

I feel that this thread has been quite a healthy dialogue highlighting some of the differences in the two careers. I have an immense amount of respect for all the countless nurses I have come into contact with. I remember many years ago I was in the hospital for a GI problem, and I still remember the dedication and compassion the nurse showed me, and how she was always in and out of the room. I think it's true that people REALLY appreciate nurses when they are on the "receiving" end of hospital care. In addition, I am wholeheartedly thankful for all the nurses who saved my rear-end on clinicals, and for all of their guidance.

I just want to address a couple of points in this thread. It is quite surprising to see how so many people on this thread claimed that physicians do not have enough contact with patients. In almost all outpatient settings, patients are generally solely interacting with the physician. Moreover, many physicians go into medicine because they have a passion for working with people. The hospital-setting may be less conducive for a physician to spend long amounts of time with the patient, but that's more of a logistical issue than a doctors-don't-care type of issue. I know that as a lowly student, I spent on average 60-70 hours a week in the hospital on my internal medicine rotation, and saw a wide multitude of patients. The residents I worked with spent many more hours than I did, and they were busy interacting with patients, patient families, attendings, students, studying, and learning more about the pathologies that they were encountering. Despite being in the hospital "caring" for the patients for almost 80-90 hours a week, it may have appeared that the patient-doctor face time was limited to a few 15 minute visits, but there are countless things going on behind-the-scenes pertaining to each patient. In addition, there was usually such a limited amount of housestaff for the units, that residents/attendings were always spread quite thin. Moreover, the medical staff always valued the opinions/assessments of the nursing staff, since the nursing staff's role put them in a position to spend more time with each patient, creating a very conducive "team" environment.

What I am trying to say is that if you TRULY want to spend a lot of time with patients, you can do just that with a physician. In my class, we have approximately 4 nurses who are now studying to become a physician. Nursing and medicine are two distinct professions that share common goals. The nursing stuff DOES get to spend more time with the physician, but the physician also spends his/her time caring for the patient, making treatment plans, diagnosing, and educating others.

In addition, I can't comment on the difficulty of nursing school, as I never went to it, but I would like to say that there is a difference between a pre-medical student, and a medical student. Many posters talk about "those stupid pre-meds", but they fail to realize that "pre-med" is really a non-existent term, that holds little value until someone does matriculate into medical school. All of the stuff I learned as a "pre-med" probably helped me survive until the 3rd hour of medical biochemistry. Medical school has definitely been the hardest years of my life, and I oddly enough I truly look forward to more of this during my residency years. Between memorizing 20 300+ powerpoint slides for one examination, studying nonstop for the boards, lasting 80 hour weeks during rotations, and flying to 9 different places for residency interviews, I can truly say that it was a very challenging part of my life. However, I do know that anyone else could do it, as long as their heart is in it.

Medicine and nursing are two very challenging, but rewarding careers. I have the utmost respect for nurses and the nursing profession. Medicine and nursing are also reliant upon each other--without one, you most certainly cannot have the other. Certain specalities of medicine are definitely more conducive to a better "lifestyle", such as emergency medicine (shift work), dermatology (amazing hours, no call, no emergencies), etc. To the OP, shadow a doctor, and shadow a nurse, see where your heart is, and then follow what you feel is right. As long as you are dedicated, you can manage to get through either form of schooling. :)

P.S. Sorry about the long reply!! :cool:

heather.f · Apr 25, 2011

"medical school has definitely been the hardest years of my life, and i oddly enough i truly look forward to more of this during my residency years. between memorizing 20 300+ powerpoint slides for one examination, studying nonstop for the boards, lasting 80 hour weeks during rotations, and flying to 9 different places for residency interviews, i can truly say that it was a very challenging part of my life. however, i do know that anyone else could do it, as long as their heart is in it. " mike109810

i think this really get to the crux of the "dispute" here. maybe some prople are not smart enough (but isn't that really a personal decision, not for someone else to say for them?)... but for others it is really a decision based on priorities. do you have the time in your life to devote 100 hours a week to something? do you have the fortitude to do this for several years in a row?

i, personally, feel i am (or maybe was hahaha) smart enough to go to medical school... but i chose to change my major (biochemistry to sociology) in college to facilitate a diffirent pace in my life than i was feeling. i definitely love the absolutness of (most) science; but the individual interpretations of sociological and psychological theory were a diffirent kind of interesting to me - and at 20, almost more intriguing.

so, i chose to do ba in sociology - then i went and did medical coding and transcription for 2 years, became a pharmacy technician for 6 years and somewheres in between i got married and had 2 kids. it was at this point (30yrs old) that i reevaluated what interests me and what would be a good fit for my family. i took the 3 pre-reqs i needed (anatomy, physiology and micro) and got on a waiting list (adn track, can not imagine taking out $60,000 when i came out of the uc system with $0 in loans).

wow, this got longer than expected... sorry

priorities of my family and the desire to not do the same thing for the rest of my life... these are the factors that led me to chose nursing. i can pick a specality or not, i can become an np or pa (because of the ba), if i so desire, after finding where my niche really is - or not.

i always have noticed that it is not smarts, but the application of what you have and the desire, that make a great student... there are some really smart people that crap their life away "being smart".

240zRN · Jun 30, 2012

I'm not sure if someone has already mention this or not, but I will go ahead and state it. I'm sorry if this offends you, but this is my opinion.
Most people that are going to or have gone to nursing school aren't capable of getting into and/or getting through medical school. By in large, most people would be going to medical school if they had the option. This is a blow to our egos (I'm an RN), and it's hard to admit, but it's true. The level of difficulty between the two aren't even comparable. Of course there are some really smart nurses out there, but most aren't really physician material.
I'm really, really, really sorry if this offends you, but it's just my opinion and I am answering the original question. I'm a nurse and there's no way I could ever get the top grades in the classes that a medical school requires from its' students.
A lot of this "well, I chose nursing because I like people interaction....or.... i like the hours better.... or.... i like to treat the person and not the disease" is a lot of what we have all convinced ourselves of. Of course there are exceptions but generally i don't think that's the honest case at all....
There are "ditzy" medical school students but under that they have the genetic makeup to absorb and regurgitate complex material, which is difficult for most people to do.
also wanted to add, *thinking* you could get through medical school is vastly different than *actually* getting through medical school.

This is the most asinine thing I've ever read. I had the grades to go to medical school. I was top of my class in both my chemistry and physics series. I chose to go into nursing because nurses are bad-ass. They are the Marine Corps equivalent of the medical field. They are knee-deep and see it all. Sure we can't diagnose, but that doesn't keep our "puny" brains and "weak" intellect from understanding complex pathophysiology and identifying status trends fast enough to rival most physicians. I've seen physicians snub nurses and watch them chase their tails; and I have also seen physicians rely on their nurse's experienced judgment and succeed.

It must suck to be you; not being able to have pride in the medical institution's largest force. By the way, I loved your "genetic" theory on intelligence. I love how career success and aptitude is narrowed down by my cellular ability absorb and retain knowledge.

Lastly, I do love the hours. Three days a week, four days off and 100k/year with all I can eat overtime is beautiful. Oh, and I do love to treat the person, because I value relationships more than I value my ability to problem solve--that doesn't mean I can't problem solve. I leave that stuff to wrenching on my hot rods. I can take apart a 60's Camaro and put it back together in just a few weeks, does that mean I'm genetically built to work on cars? No it means I enjoy it!

Has it ever occurred to you that human beings gravitate towards occupations they ENJOY?

I can't believe I wasted 10 minutes typing this.

Stephalump · Jun 30, 2012

Especially almost a year after the poster has even been at the site :)

But I feel your pain. I chose nursing. Not as a default because of my horrible GPA, low intelligence, or any sort of inadequacy, and anyone who actually knows me in real life wouldn't even imagine that would be the case, so posts like this don't bother me.

My choice was a calculated one. I'm a mother and a wife, and I enjoy a social life. I want to snake a good living to add to my husband's income, but I'm not willing to sacrifice my life for it. BECAUSE of my academics, my motivation, my intelligence, my love of the health care field, and my compassion for people, I knew I could be just as successful in the nursing field. The compensation may not be equal, but the perks are more than sufficient to make me ok with that. I come from a family of doctors and my mother is a nurse. I've watched those two professions my entire life, and I can now, at the ripe old age of 27, finally say I do NOT want to be a physician. Maybe in another life. Maybe if I didn't have kid's. I don't know. I could choose it, but I do not.

And along the way I've fallen in love with the nursing model. I think, knowing myself, something would be missing if I were to throw the majority of patient interaction and education aside for someone else to handle.