Nurse to Doctor

TX_ICU_RN · Mar 21, 2008

If I had not accidentally gotten pregnant in nursing school, my husband (a fellow nursing student) and I were going to go to med school after nursing school. I felt we would have had a distinct advantage during the clinical portion (we were going to work for a year or two as RNs before med school) of med school. I am not sure how much it would have helped during the first two years of med school.

aeauooo · Mar 21, 2008

I just got to thinking the other day. How many if any nurses go on to become a doctor, you know a full MD. And if so are nurses at an advatage in medical school. Just wondering what you all thought. Thanks

In 16 years of nursing I've known two residents who had been nurses. They were great residents too.

Fiona59 · Mar 21, 2008

I used to have a GP who had been a nurse. Good bedside manner and listened to what you said.

MiaKeaRN · Mar 22, 2008

We have a family friend who was a nurse and now is an OB/GYN. I also know of a medical assistant who went on to be an RN, who then went on to be an MD.

abeachRN · Mar 22, 2008

in nursing school i had a classmate who had always planned on med school following nursing school. he said statistically only about 5% of MDs go to nursing school first...

MikeyJ, RN · Mar 22, 2008

Very few nurses (relatively speaking) will actually pursue their MD after their RN. If you talk to nurses, many of them had contemplated nursing or medicine and chose nursing for a variety of reasons. Many of them liked the nursing model rather than the medicine model, and others pursued nursing because they wanted to live a life outside of the hospital and raise a family... rather than working an insane amount of hours and always being on call.

There is a resident (1st or 2nd year.. forget) on our ped's floor that was an RN for many years followed by a neonatal nurse practitioner for many more years. She is in her early 50's now. I've talked to her a bit and she said she always wanted to be a physician but for lifestyle reasons chose nursing. After her children were older and her and her husband were very stable financially, she decided to go back and pursue her MD. She wishes she would have pursued it a lot sooner.

I graduate with my BSN in August and will then start working in the PICU. My plans are to start taking classes slowly to finish the pre-req's for medical school and hope to enter med school by the age of 28 or 29. I've always wanted to pursue medicine but thought nursing would be a better fit for me; however, if I do not pursue my MD, I will probably regret it my entire life and always wonder what would have come of me if I had chosen medicine.

elkpark · Mar 23, 2008

My father was an RN before he went to medical school (some 60 years ago).

freegirl · Mar 23, 2008

Yes, RN to MD is doable but quite difficult to accomplish. I have an aunt, a nurse for 12yrs, married with 3 very young kids, got into a medical school in the Carribean. At 42yrs old, she is currently a 2nd year resident in Miami. Unfortunately she has had to forget about her family in New York in order to focus on her studies. Only gets to see them maybe once every two to three months.

One of my friends, an ICU RN was lucky to get into a medical school in the States but spent three years taking science classes before applying.

freegirl · Mar 23, 2008

As for any advantages, according to my friend, she was given a hard time during her med school interview. She thought it had to do with them being biased about nurses, however, she was able to tell them that she wasn't new to healthcare, had observed and worked with lots of doctors and so knew what she was getting into.

As far as her medical classes, it is science and theory based and more in-depth than what was covered in nursing school.

amzyRN · Apr 17, 2008

I'm having thoughts of going to medical school after working as an RN for a couple years. I've got a degree in molecular and cell biology, and have done all pre med requirements, and have got good grades also. I'm in an accelerated bachelors degree program that's 12 months long, so I thought it would be a good idea to get clinical experience before jumping into any other advanced program. Actually seeing what nurses and MDs do, I think I may want to be an MD. I would never want to be a staff RN for very long, and I love the science part of medicine and am very good at science also. I'm just concerned about being an older medical student and the additional 7 years of study.

dhigbee · Apr 17, 2008

I know of a DO that was originally an RN. She's a political activist these days, and is involved in trying to actually reduce the practice scope and independence of NPs in our state. Her rationale: When I was an RN, "I didn't know what I didn't know".