My I'm going to medical school

Specialties NP

Published

Why I'm going to medical school. Ill keep this short and simple. How does this relate to everybody else? Read the entire thing and see, this explanation is not at all about me.

Overwhelming amount of masters level nursing programs. Never before besides law and maybe the MBA have I ever seen such a large amount of specific programs pop up. Every school in america seems to have a masters level nursing program in their academia. This includes the notorious for-profit schools that everybody excluding people who hold degrees from these institutions seem to loathe. Our credentialing bodies, by allowing all of these poorly regulated programs to pop up, have lowered them selves to the level of weaksause, bile-like vomitus.

decreasing job market. Again, with every soul in america for going an advanced practicing nursing degree, our job availability will decrease severely in the next few years. This has already began to take place, with many NPS across america, varying geographically of course, fighting for entry level jobs making substandard wages.

Low barrier to entry. This is where the nail gets hit on the head. Essentially, to keep enrollment high, higher level nursing programs (excluding a few from higher end schools) have DROPPED their admission standards, in fear that somebody will go to another program instead of their own. NO GRE, NO GPA, NO EXPERIENCE, NO INTERVIEW. I mean come on people, really??? Your so money hungry you will lower your admission standards just to get more applicants and provide more seats. At least in the medical world, schools keep it competitive, for which is mostly to make their school look better.

Role confusion. This is not prevalent everywhere, but even with all these nurses pushing for education of the np model to patients” a large amount of people still don't know what we are. PAGING DOCTOR NURSE, DOCTOR NURSE. I mean how ridiculous does that sound. DOCTOR NURSE??? while the DOCTOR NURSE complication may be DNP and PHD specific, there is much confusion to a nurse wearing a while coat, prescribing medication, etc (not anything wrong with it but it is confusing to patients)

Weaksause curriculum. I am sure there are very difficult schools out there that provide the MSN needed to obtain the overly sought nurse prackk” status, but many of these online programs at for-profit universities have really dumbed the requirements. I know of many schools that require no closed book tests, being the only one you take is your majorly feared BOARD EXAM, which was so notoriously easy i don't see how anybody can fail it. I think the hardest question I had was. SOMEBODY COMES IN WITH THAT BILE-LIKE- VOMUCKUS AND RIGHT QUADRANT UPPER PAIN IN THE ABDOMINALS AREA. WHAT LOLTEST DO YOU ORDER IMAGING WISE FIRST SO U CAN DIAGNOSE THIS PATIENT LIKE A 1337SAUSE NURSE PRACKK AND BE EPICLY LEET AND GET A LONGER WHYT KOAT. But anyway…. it is too easy, to short, and does not always prepare people for the level of knowledge required to do his or her job. If you disagree, then why do we aways get these ZOMG I CANT TAKE MY JOB ITS TOO HARD AND HARD AND I CANT FUNCTION, DIDNIT LERN ENUFF, HELP” posts on all nurses from these inadequate providers that went to the university of the FEENIX at western senator university and didn't even learn what lisinopril is? epic failure my fellow PRACKKS.

I could keep going but i will spare you all from my wonderfully notorious grammar and poor use of capitalization to go study the MCAT since medical school actually has requirements to get into it. By no means am I smarter or think I'm smarter than anyone else, but by taking this path I will have a much more rewarding career, more job options, and an overall better outlook than most (if not all) NURSE PRACKKS. None of this is due to any quality I possess besides the fact that I have been imbued with the knowledge that Low barrier to entry, overly easy schooling, hot popularity, and poor credentialing bodies will lead to a severely saturated market for current and future nurse practitioners, which I have chosen not to be a part of.

If anybody else wants to follow me through a more difficult and rewarding pathway than advance practice nursing can provide, you will reap the rewards of the hard labor you shall put forth, if not, enjoy the last few years of excellent salary guarantee (excluding excellent providers, which most people think they are but they are not even close) and wallow in your despair once your fighting for jobs that pay a couple grand more than RN positions.

Eat dirt you poorly managed nursing credentialing bodies, for imbuing all these poor people with high hopes and dreams which will burn in fumes faster than the dotcom bubble did.

THE PRACK BUBBLE WILL POP, ARE YOU READY?

#incoming hate

#pulverize the dead horse

#all of the people who cherish his or her APRN license will be super MADZLOL and be offended by this which is awesome

#hanging out under my bridge

#overly sensitive nursing population

Oh, and I also put down a 200k+ year job to do all this, for all you people who will be like "LOL YOUR BADZ AND NEED MORE SKOOL TO BE GOODS AND PROBABLY MADE LIKE 55K PER YEAR ROFL ROFL ROFL."

Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.
Nurses work for pennies because they are emotional, at least many of them. Unfortunately due to that fact our salaries tend to take a hit and we are all considered "emotional"

I had a doc tell me this was something he liked about me. I'm not even remotely whiny. I maybe be ****** and cynical but not emotional or needy.

Specializes in ER.

I get the OP's frustration - nursing is a fairly emotional and convoluted profession. This fact by itself has led me to question my choice to leave the med school track so many years ago as well! I believe nursing as a profession struggles when it comes to improvement because so many just put their heads down and take it or leave the profession altogether (no coincidence that a female dominated profession would face the same issues as women in the workforce?). But I'm reading the need for respect and recognition in what was said (a common male concern), and in that case, medical school is probably a better individual choice for the OP. It will still be a long-time coming and bring a new set of frustrations, but after the years are done, that undeniable instant respect that comes with "M.D." might soothe some of those old nursing wounds.

Specializes in ER, HH, CTICU, corrections, cardiology, hospice.
Doctors see patients just for the money?

Why the heck do you see patients!?

I see them for money because my family and I developed this bad habit - we like to eat. Geez, you think if most of us won a big lotto that we'd keep working?

I would, definitely.

Some good points from the OP. I too have given thought to pursuing a career as an MD. I did a LOT of research into it. I haven't ruled it out completely but there are a few things that have held me back: the obscene student loan amounts, the many more years of schooling, and the fact that every physician acquaintance that I talked to about it tried to discourage me. I have two older brothers who are doctors, and both of them discouraged me as well---for a number of reasons that seem to make good sense. The medical profession is not without its own share of issues, and these are also worth considering if one intends to go that route.

For others who may be interested, there is a very good article on this very topic in the September 2015 issue of Nurse Practitioner Perspective magazine. They interviewed a couple NPs who transitioned to med school in their late 40s. And they are now very happy with their physician careers. Mind you, these people didn't pursue medicine because they hated being NPs. They did it because they wanted more autonomy to care for their patients. Its not an easy choice to make. Medical school is obviously nothing at all like NP school, but to those of us who are brave enough and have the resources to do it I say go for it! I was surprised when I read that these NP to MD students were entering medical school at almost age 50. I think that that is awesome!

Yes, the NP profession has issues, but I wouldn't knock it because of that. I understood what being an NP is all about before I decided to go to NP school. And being a nurse at any level will never be the same as being a physician, but that is ok. I have no problem at all with telling any patient that I am a nurse practitioner. They have the right to refuse me as their provider, and I'm cool with that too. I just move on to the next patient, and the vast majority of the ones who know me would rather see me than the physician anyway. Our experiences as NPs depend a lot on where and with whom we are working...and also on how solid our clinical skills are. For NPs, this is a situation that varies dramatically from state to state. I believe that it will all improve significantly in the more progressive (not politically) states in the future.

I do agree with the OP that there is a problem with too many NP schools just pumping out grads. It is way too easy to get into these schools and way too easy to pass our boards. And this is one reason why there is an oversupply of NPs in certain areas and why the salaries are so low. I believe that politically activated nursing organizations like the ANA are focusing their attention on mostly the wrong things. They need to revisit nursing academia and toughen the entrance criteria and curricula of these programs instead of wasting time on redundancies like the DNP.

I wish the OP success with his goal to become a physician.

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