Naive high school student here! Should I go for nursing or become a pre-med student?

SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP · Mar 23, 2013

I would still suggest you pursue Med school. If I had it all to do over again, I would have been a doctor. At my age (43), I would never recoup the investment of the cost of med school before retirement age. You're young and have your life ahead of you. Go for your dream!

If you don't end up getting into med school, the good news is that you'll still have a degree in Life Science and will be able to apply to an accelerated BSN program because you'll have already finished a bachelor's degree. If you truly have the passion to become a doctor, you will find a way to make it happen. Don't second guess yourself!

It's less time to get the bachelor's degree and try med school and fall back on nursing, than to go for nursing right out of HS and then decide later to go to med school. Follow your dream

succinate · Mar 23, 2013

That's what my instincts are telling me - go for Life Sciences and hopefully become a doctor. But since med schools in Canada do not care which undergraduate you did, I could try nursing and then apply for med school. Would you think that's a good idea?

**NICU Guy, BSN, RN** · Mar 23, 2013

If you went the nursing route, you could go onto get your Nurse Practitioner later. It may not be identical to becoming a doctor, but similar.

maddiem · Mar 23, 2013

If you want to work with people who are deaf/have hearing disabilities you should seriously look into being a speech/language pathology major at your undergrad school. If you major in speech/language pathology in your undergrad you can go to a Doctor of Audiology program which will put you in direct contact with patients that have hearing disabilities and you will be treating them as well. I was a speech path major before nursing and it's a very promising field! Especially for what you want to do.

loriangel14, RN · Mar 23, 2013

That's what my instincts are telling me - go for Life Sciences and hopefully become a doctor. But since med schools in Canada do not care which undergraduate you did, I could try nursing and then apply for med school. Would you think that's a good idea?

But you would still have to take the pre med subjects. A nursing degree alone won't satisfy the med school requirements at many universities.Not all, but many require sciences at a higher level than a BSN program.

Vincent_ · Mar 23, 2013

Hello there, I am speaking this from experience and as a u.s student. I am not sure if pre-requisites are different in canada but I will make a comparison.

As a pre-medical student you must take more advanced courses.

A typical pre med looks something like this:

1) pick a major and complete all its classes and projects (senior thesis/research/etc)

2) complete all pre-med requirements which include:

Sciences (with labs): General bio 1 & 2, General chem 1 & 2, Organic chemistry 1 & 2, Physics 1 & 2

Math: need classes up to calc 1

English composition 1 & 2 with research paper

Writing intensive course

Humanities/social science classes

electives: (primarily taking classes in anatomy, physiology, microbiology, and upper division courses like biochemistry or genetics is recommended but not a pre-requesite for medical school. However they are recommended in order to teach you fundamentals for the rigors of what is to come)

As for nursing students, the courses you take in chem and bio are not always the same with the ones required for pre-med and this varies depending on the college. Usually the bio and chem subjects for nursing are more basic than that for pre-medical students but again, this varies on various colleges. Other colleges have the chem and bio classes the same, but organic chem from the chem department and physics classes from the physics department are not required for nursing.

I know many nurses and physician assistants who want to go to medical school but need to spend 1.5-2 years back in school to fulfill pre-med requirements. Of course you can complete them in less time, but let me tell you, getting a seat in pre-med courses can be frustrating if you do not have registration priorities, most especially if you already graduated once, the priority is always given to students first and second degree students or those who have graduated not pursing a graduate program..last. Usually registration for classes is determined by seniority. Meaning those higher up like a sophomore or senior gets first grabs at a class. However, if you're an honors student you will have registration privileges.

The nursing student pre-requsites are not as extensive as pre-med but there are some overlap in terms of science subjects. So if you want to do medicine in the near future but become a nurse first, I highly suggest inquiring with your advisor to see if you can take pre-med subjects..see if it will fulfill the same science requirements as nursing, but be wary that science subjects such as organic chemistry, as well as other advanced subjects demands a heck load of study. Many premedical students end up repeating organic chemistry. If you are a nursing major, you must take two semesters worth of anatomy & physiology with labs as well, so you'll have to carefully schedule your classes. You don't want to be taking organic chem, advanced bio, a&p 1 with labs, physics, and maybe a writing intensive course while volunteering/working all in one semester.

Nursing pre-requisites go something like this:

1) Basic general biology 1 & 2, General chem 1 (some college/uni require two semesters of chem), microbiology, psychology electives, statistics, a "organic chemistry for health related" fields class which is by the health department (not by the chemistry department). Other requirements include your english classes and core classes mandated for all majors.

Once you are accepted to the nursing program you will be taking nursing classes and clinicals. You may have 12hr clinical days and you will be commuting to hospitals, aside from your lecture based learning you will have team based learning as well. A lot of the nursing program is being proactive and directly applying first hand your knowledge in assessment, drug calculations, etc. I will be honest and say the nursing subjects do require work as well, and just as much time and dedication as it does for pre-med classes.

Here is a sample of classes which vary upon colleges upon entering the nursing clincials part after satisfying pre-reqs:

Nursing process in health promotions

Health assessment (nursing fundamentals)

Pathophysiology

Nursing development classes

Pharmacology

Drug calculations/med calculations and prep

Nursing practice with Obstetric & gynaecology clients

nursing practice with adult clients

nursing practice with children

Nursing practice with psychiatric clients

Nursing research and theory

Public health nursing

Advanced synthesiz

Ethical issues in health care

intro to research process

independent study

electives

As you can see, the nursing curriculum is very thorough and more demanding than that of a pre-med student (of course medical students have it harder lol)

In addition to make yourself a great applicant for medical school you need volunteer/work experience/research experience, and great letters of recommendation from your professors. You will have to go through interview processes and take entrance exams for medical school and they are no walk in the park at all. Panel of staff will really question your every incentive to become a doctor, your future intentions, and question your last 4 years of undergraduate study. They will really grill you and you need to be ready. You must be able to network well, but these concepts are the same for nursing, you must have good interpersonal relations and be able to network with your teachers, co-workers, as well as develop good communication skills with patients.

When I really think about it, there is definitely a lot of workload but definitely doable. You may opt to just do nursing altogether, and take pre-med classes while working as a nurse to build up work experience and give yourself exposure to the field then apply to medical school. However if you are really aiming to be a doctor then just go the pre-med route and put all your focus there. I believe it's possible to complete pre-med prequisites while pursuing a nursing degree, but there's reason why the classes are not put into the nursing curriculum and it's because the later part of the program is heavily clinical based, and more directed to teaching nursing in its entirety.

I am not in any way saying nursing is better than medicine or vice versa, or giving any program a bad rep. I am just giving you my first hand knowledge of the process a nursing student goes through and what a medical student goes through.

So be sure to research the classes you'll need to take, speak to your college advisor, and be brutally honest with yourself about what you really want to pursue, and how you want to do it. The plan does not have to be perfect, but I would start with having a good 1-on-1 with your college advisor.

Please also consider the amount of time spent towards achieving your dream. If you want to become a doctor, but pursue nursing first, you will spend 4 years to become a nurse, take board exams, and eventually work for 1-2 years for clinical experience. Let's hypothetically say you get into medical school the following year upon applying while in your year two of work. That 4 years undergrad-2 years nurse-4 years medical school- then 3-5 years of residency (depending on what you want). In addition the amount of money you will be spending to fund your education.

By no means am I discouraging you. I truly believe nursing is highly respectable field and people who are just as important as physicians are. However, as ambitious as you may be, consider every option realistically. Any more questions or info about me and I'll kindly answer.

-Vince