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."
Are you working 6 extra hours a week to finish your work? I hope you get paid for that time. I work several jobs and there is rarely a time when I am not able to get my work finished during the shift. My staff handles patient phone calls. It is my opinion that if I am not able to assess, diagnose and prescribe in the expected time frame I'm not doing something efficient and I need to make changes.Perhaps I'm misreading your and others' points but it seems like we are back to the self-serving thought that spending more time with a patient and having them "like me" equates to competent care and I'd disagree.
Could we just agree NPs are midlevel providers and stop protesting that label? We truly can't have it both ways.
I dont get it fellow collegue. I know I am a midlevel. Ive said that before. Ive also said that NPs need to know their scope/boundaries as well. But MDs should respect NPs or any other midlevel too.(Not take advantage of them). Im not trying to be an MD. But being MD doesn't make you a "signifcant power" Every health professional needs to work together. Thats what I said before. I am happy being a midlevel. But hey, there are others who are not and want to MDs. Nothing wrong with that. Is it wrong to deliver good care and patients liking you? If youre not in this health profession do so then what are you here for? I know if you had an a-hole PCP you would fire him or her. If its about making lots money then that varies from state, county, or job in your current practice. And no its not all time I do 6 hours extra but you just said NPs arent willing to working hard enough according to docs. Maybe I am misunderstanding you. Does owning multiple practices + making lots of money + not seeing your patients + not being reliable make a good MD for some anyways? Even my own friend whose an MD says, " Those patients are like your family. Treat them like your dad, mom, sister, brother...."
Could we just agree NPs are midlevel providers and stop protesting that label? We truly can't have it both ways.
Maybe you are a "midlevel" to someone, but the vast majority of NPs are not. Most function independently even in the states that require collaboration agreements. Those agreements have one purpose: to ensure physicians remain in control of the revenue stream. If it were for any other reason an experienced NP could be the supervising provider for a novice NP.
You argue that you won't "do any tasks that a physician wouldn't do" and demand equal pay but then spout this kind of nonsense about NPs as "midlevels". You are right, you can't have it both ways.
I care for a large panel of medically complex patients fully independently in a state that requires a collaboration agreement. My collaborator is my business partner and treats me as such. We do the same job and see the same number of patients on days we work; he works 3 days a week the rest of the time I am alone both inpatient and in clinic. I am similar to the vast majority of my colleagues, most of which make 15-25% less per patient in reimbursement and 25-50% less in salary than their "collaborating" physicians.
I also do not understand all of your post. MD vs NP vs PA is all a personal choice. Could I have done medical school? Sure. I just didn't want to go that route. Does that make me wrong? No.Much luck in your endeavors. I really hope there was a good reason for your (lack of) proper grammar.
You think he needs to take an IQ test first?
Interesting points have been brought up about "appliance nurses" (new term for me, love it) and nurse practitioners wanting to not work as hard as MDs.
That is because nursing is a pink collar profession, which means nursing is/was a profession of mostly women. Traditionally women are/were the primary caretakers of the home and children, which means we need our work to be flexible, accommodating and not all-encompassing.
As gender roles evolve, we are learning that both sexes need flexibility at work, both sexes need time caring for the family and home; and time contributing to society (that's what nurses do). If we want to still have physicians in the US, (we are running out of them, grabbing them from foreign countries and getting desperate) we will need to change the schooling requirements to fit the needs of the millenial and boomlet generation. This generation does not have sex roles that allow the continuation of the med student who works 80 hours for 7 years for little pay. The contemporary med student does not have a wife who is taking care of everything else, pouring her whole self into the well being of her doctor husband while he lives at the hospital. Nope. Not happening.
The Nurse Practitioner path is doable. Not only that, NPs have similar outcomes to MDs. NP is the future. Not saying there isn't room for improvement. Of course there is. But the idea that NPs are going to become extinct? Not in my lifetime.
Physicians could become extinct. I don't think it will happen, but I think it might if we don't grow with the times. We need to realize that with the internet, the wealth of constant information, we simply do not have to school physicians the way we used to. We can relax a little. And that's a lucky thing.
You argue that you won't "do any tasks that a physician wouldn't do" and demand equal pay but then spout this kind of nonsense about NPs as "midlevels". You are right, you can't have it both ways.
Actually that was meant to be tongue in cheek for those saying they don't need to work as hard as a physician because their patients get so more attention and holistic care. The point I was attempting to make all along was that if we want to be considered on par with physicians we need to function as they do.
I'm in an independent state so no collaborator needed here but sadly no my pay is not equal to what the psychiatrists bring in.
The debt is the bad part >.>I will say though, that for the most part that whoever governs the nurse anesthesia group seems to have their stuff together pretty well. I know the market is also narrowing for CRNAs, but it also seems to be for anesthesiologists in a lot of areas. But i do not see the CRNA market to take a beating like the prackyprack market will. If only the ancc and aanp would follow suit.
See, im not against nursing, just the shabby boards of rotten yellow pine that control the validity of our license we worked so little to get.
maybe we should try to write our governing bodies letters tell them more is not always better. I think they feel that there is power in numbers. Either that or the more nurses and nurse pracks there are, the more money they get for selling CME, board exam tests, license fees, and the other fecal-like substances they make us hold in our gloveless hand to remain licensed.
The debt, and don't forget to factor in the opportunity cost that going to med school comes with. The hours in med school will preclude you from working hours earning money in the present time as an NP...and then on top of that you will still have to foot the med school bill. Be sure to pencil out those numbers because depending on your age when you start med school, between lost NP wages and med school tuition, in absolute financial terms in you might, ironically, up earning less money in your lifetime than if continuing as an NP. Undoubtedly you will have a fine degree once you are done, just be prepared to make a tremendous time and financial sacrifice in exchange for that medical degree. The old addage applies here, be sure the ladder you are climbing is leaning against the right wall before you start climbing it. You hear about certain members in certain professions (dentists & attorneys come to mind) suffering personal crisis when they invest a tremendous amount of time and money into a profession that they later end up second guessing why they made that move for a multitude of reasons. I do commend your enthusiasm, although, and be sure to keep us all updated as to your journey!
I don't plan on becoming a NP but I just went to the AAMN national conference in Minneapolis and a lady spoke from HRSA and said they just did a study and it's being reviewed but it showed that NPs performed at the same level or out performed their physician counterparts in hypertension and diabetes management. As with anything there is good and bad, I'm sure there are doctors who went to medical school that are less competent than some NPs and I'm sure it's the same with PAs and what not....so really I just don't get why such the long post you could of actually left it "short and sweet" like you said and quit after over saturation of the field. Other than money it doesn't matter what your field or title is as long as your competent...i know of someone who was an incompetent nurse that went to med school that is an incompetent doctor now...it is what it is
Was that in code?
I'm cheap. Like, I really am. No, I don't duct tape everything together, but I'm the guy that gets sore at the coke machine for wanting a buck 25. Med school is too costly, and I don't care enough about healthcare to go to that expense. This is something I like well enough, but I could be happy doing other things. I'd lose money going, and it'd take a heck of a long time to get that back and pay off school. Idk. Maybe Uncle Sugar would take me and pay for it.
I admire MDs. It's quite the sacrifice. I work really hard to learn what I know and what I want to know, but I do it on my time. I hope you record all of your lectures and post them on YouTube for us.
I think if you even have to ask the question you should stop. You will never have the respect of a doctor. Dont even try to. You will get paid less and may work more but you're just doing ******** paperwork for them while they are making the decisions. Medical school is hard and you won't get through it if you are just a nurse now. Don't waste your time. Just clean up peoples **** and hang their IVs like you should
Jules A, MSN
8,864 Posts
Are you working 6 extra hours a week to finish your work? I hope you get paid for that time. I work several jobs and there is rarely a time when I am not able to get my work finished during the shift. My staff handles patient phone calls. It is my opinion that if I am not able to assess, diagnose and prescribe in the expected time frame I'm not doing something efficient and I need to make changes.
Perhaps I'm misreading your and others' points but it seems like we are back to the self-serving thought that spending more time with a patient and having them "like me" equates to competent care and I'd disagree.
Could we just agree NPs are midlevel providers and stop protesting that label? We truly can't have it both ways.